South Africa's Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils whispered to me as I sat down following a most enthusiastic speech I gave at a recent conference in Cape Town: "if you want the world to heed to your call for boycotting Israel, the call has to originate from the Palestinian leadership itself."

The Winograd committee of inquiry is not a part of the solution. It is a part of the problem. Now, after the first excitement caused by the publication of the partial report has died down, it is possible to evaluate it. The conclusion is that it has done much more harm than good.

The Prime Minster, the Defense Minister and the former Chief of Staff are still desperately trying to get out from under an avalanche of censure and condemnation that came down on them when the blue ribbon Winograd commission of inquiry gave the government and its leaders a failing grade for their performance during last summer’s war in Lebanon.

The Winograd Commission appointed by the government to examine shortcomings during the prosecution of the recent war in Lebanon, issued a report this week thoroughly condemning the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister and the former Chief of Staff for “serious failure” and “rash decision making.”

In Trafalgar Square in London, dozens of journalists representing every major news organization descended on a designated corner in the tourist infested area in support of Alan Johnston.

The latest back and forth between Israel and the Palestinian unity government (and its regional interlocutors) will not bring peace to fruition.

Conflicts in the Middle East are often orchestrated from afar, using proxies -- the least risky method to fight and win a war. Despite its geopolitical fragmentation, the Middle East is loosely united insofar as any major event in any given locale can subsequently be felt throughout the region.

The Israeli 40-year old military occupation and the more than a year old economic siege are eroding the national existence of Palestinians and squeezing the Palestinian leadership into an almost impossible mission of securing law and order.

Seen from this side of the Mediterranean, the Western (and especially European) view on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict exhibits a strange trait.

Our aim is to enhance our struggle towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East especially as we approach the anniversary of 40 years of the Israeli occupation to the Palestinian territories, the longest occupation in modern history.

When Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) muses aloud about how the U.S. Constitution could take care of a would-be dictator president, who is dismissive of both the American people and the U.S. Congress, you know that things are getting pretty bad for George W. Bush.

The Stockholm air was too cold, even for the most animated speaker to excite a crowd. But I had little choice: thousands of anti-war protesters had descended on the capital’s main square to show their support of the Iraqi people on the four-year anniversary of the US invasion.

Flanked by international and regional non-Arab dignitaries representing the UN, EU, OIC, NAM and the leaders of Turkey, Malaysia and Pakistan as well as the foreign minister of Iran, the leaders of the 22-member League of Arab States on Wednesday re-launched in Riyadh their five-year old Arab Peace Initiative.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the terror events of 11 September 2001, the world has, as a result of US opportunism, witnessed the creation or intensification of three major trends in international politics.

The establishment of a united Palestinian government is an important step forward in the battle for Palestinian rights and for a just peace coming as it does when Israel is on the defensive and US policies in the region are in deep trouble.

Fulfilling a 60-year old Israeli dream and an American unwavering strategy, the 22-member League of Arab states are now in consensus on a potentially groundbreaking Arab Peace Initiative.

Growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, it was a very familiar encounter: Israeli soldiers storming our house accompanied by shouts of terror and a barrage of insults. Such recollections make me shudder to this day.

Over the course of the last year and a half there has been a dramatic rise in activism and analysis around boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Two-pronged U.S. tactics of confrontation and engagement unfolded last week and described by some media as “turnabouts” in the strategy of containment of what Washington perceives as adverse regional roles in the Middle East, but in the Iraqi context and in historical perspective these tactics are revealed only as old diplomatic manoeuvres in the drawers of the State Department.

There may have been a period when all roads led to Rome, but for the Palestinian people, all roads lead to checkpoints. The latest checkpoint Palestinians find themselves at is not manned by Israel but rather the ostensible mediator of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Quartet (which is comprised of the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations).