2006

Issue 100, November/December 2006
The Conflict Cannot Wait

In January 1990, at the height of the first Intifada, a group of left-wing activists saw that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might at last be possible. They decided to publish a magazine directed at the international community, urging it to help bring about a resolution. That was sixteen years and ninety-nine Challenges ago. As we publish our hundredth issue, despite America's self-entrapment in Iraq and the consequent regional paralysis, our editorial asserts that the Conflict Cannot Wait.

Issue 99, September/October 2006
The First Post-Zionist War

We devote most of this issue to The First Post-Zionist War, as our editorial names it. A lecture by Yacov Ben Efrat, 15 days into the fighting, calls it The War No One Wanted. On its 27th day, August 7, while rockets were falling in Galilee and Israeli bombs were destroying chunks of Lebanon, we interviewed political thinker Meron Benvenisti, who questions the tendency of Israeli leaders to turn every occasion into a war for existence. "If this must go on forever," he says, "then the whole enterprise was a mistake." Benvenisti prefers normality: "The Less Heroic, the Better."

Issue 98, July/August 2006
Democracy Can't Be Hijacked

If forty years of occupation amount to an anomaly in the modern world, then we should not be surprised to see a government under arrest. But those who elected Hamas remain. Democracy Cannot Be Hijacked, says our editorial. After decades of making hell on earth, Israel has only itself to blame if the Palestinians vote for pie in the sky.

Issue 97, May/June 2006
Hamas: The Curse of Victory

Iraqis, Palestinians and Israelis all went to the polls in the past four months. Each group in its own way, claims our editorial, suffered Election Backlash. In Palestine, the all too victorious Hamas now Encounters a Reality that puts it before two choices: either step down or stop being Hamas. As for Israel, a "Big Bang" was supposed to establish an unbeatable centrist bloc. That turned out to be a Big Fizzle. Thus another chapter passes in the endless Israeli exercise of refusing to face the Palestinian problem. How, in all this, did the Workers' Party fare? We assess the ODA campaign and publish the memoir of its No. 1 candidate, the only woman heading a party list. Another campaigner adds her thoughts, telling us that from now on Arab female workers are Not in Anyone's Pocket.

Issue 96, March/April 2006
Reality Now!

The pace of events in our region often outruns imagination. In the recent Palestinian election campaign, for instance, no one – least of all Hamas – expected a Hamas landslide. It may turn out to be A Victory Too Many. We interview Number 2 on the winning list, Muhammad Abu Tir, who reminds us that “Mere talk doesn’t get concessions from Israel.” While Fatah behaves as though still in power, Hamas speaks as though still in opposition. Our editorial calls for Reality Now!

Issue 95, January/February 2006
United in Delusion

The year 2006 is bringing change. In Israeli and Palestinian societies, we see the fruition of processes resulting from the second Intifada.