Online ads weaponised to deliver ‘zero-click’ spyware, researchers say: [Israel-based] Discover-Tech’s Controlium software lets clients mass-profile internet users then covertly hack targets, say researchers at University of Toronto

Millions of users worldwide have been served ads by Discover-Tech since 2024, say researchers. Photograph: Sergio Azenha/Alamy

Hacking

Aisha Down

Thu 15 Oct 202

An Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow “zero-click” spyware to be used against targets, researchers at a Canadian university have said.

Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency.

According to Citizen Lab, Discover-Tech operates a software platform called Controlium that allows its clients to “mass-profile and deanonymise” internet users then covertly hack targets with third-party spyware. Unlike infections that rely on people interacting with links or files, the spyware requires no interaction from the victim to be installed, making it a new delivery technique, Citizen Lab says.

The infections happen without a user’s knowledge, and in a matter of seconds, according to Citizen Lab.

“[The online advertising] ecosystem is being weaponised at a massive scale to profile millions of users, then silently infect targets with zero-click mercenary spyware,” the report says.

According to the report, Controlium is able to harvest a user’s identity and IP address when the user is shown a seemingly benign custom-created ad – for example, for a digital game or a telecoms service. If the user has been selected as a target for hacking, a mercenary spyware firm can then send a malicious code containing spyware to their device, the researchers say.

They say that millions of users worldwide have been served ads by Discover-Tech since 2024, including in Yemen, Brazil, Mexico and Czechia.

Related work by the research group Confiant also suggests that Discover-Tech’s ads have been shown to users of the networks of government entities in Europe and the US, as well as the UN, Nato, the international criminal court and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“It’s disastrous that major ad vendors and organisations apparently were neither able to detect nor prevent the company’s malicious advertising operations for years,” said Wolfie Christl, a researcher at Citizen Lab. “The way the online advertising ecosystem works today is a security threat for states, the private sector, civil society and everyone else alike.”

According to Citizen Lab, Controlium acts as a “facilitator” for third-party spyware firms that have targeted “government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics and embassy workers”. Citizen Lab claims it can deliver spyware that can access everything on the device of a target, extracting messages, photos and emails, recording calls and secretly activating microphones.

The full extent of the targeting allegedly enabled by Discover-Tech is unknown. Citizen Lab’s findings join mounting evidence that the opaque arrangements underpinning the world of online advertising can be leveraged for surveillance.

“There has been a lot of buzz that... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/15/israeli-firm-digital-ads-enabling-installation-of-zero-click-spyware-researchers-say

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"Lethal Israeli attacks on an engineer and drivers transporting water have intensified the water crisis that is fuelling the spread of infectious diseases; Médecins Sans Frontières has called the weaponisation of water supplies a campaign of collective punishment. Never mind the estimated $70bn cost of reconstruction; homes are still being flattened. Families in tents face a rat infestation. Essential medicines are unavailable. Hospitals and schools lie in ruins." The Guardian view on ceasefires that aren’t: Israel never stopped killing in Gaza

‘Never mind the estimated $70bn cost of reconstruction; homes are still being flattened. Families in tents face a rat infestation. Essential medicines are unavailable.’ Photograph: AFP/Getty

"The meaning of the term “ceasefire” should be self‑evident. Yet Israel’s strikes have killed scores of people in Lebanon since it agreed a truce with Hezbollah under pressure from the US, with the two sides trading fire. There was a strike on Beirut on Wednesday. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would be delighted to resume war with Iran. But it is wary of Donald Trump’s wrath as he seeks an exit from the conflict.

In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed more than 800 people since the truce there was declared in October, striking almost every day. This, too, is not a true ceasefire but a de-escalation, however necessary. Lethal Israeli attacks on an engineer and drivers transporting water have intensified the water crisis that is fuelling the spread of infectious diseases; Médecins Sans Frontières has called the weaponisation of water supplies a campaign of collective punishment. Never mind the estimated $70bn cost of reconstruction; homes are still being flattened. Families in tents face a rat infestation. Essential medicines are unavailable. Hospitals and schools lie in ruins. An analysis of the war’s impact on education described children feeling “like the living dead”.

Israel agreed to end attacks, massively increase the aid allowed into the territory and withdraw its forces to within a “yellow line” – still accounting for 53% of the territory. Yet strikes have continued, aid flows yo-yo and essential items are blocked on the claim that they are “dual use”. The military has expanded its zone of control substantially – and the..." READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/07/the-guardian-view-on-ceasefires-that-arent-israel-never-stopped-killing-in-gaza-allies-must-reject-any-escalation

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Israel spending millions on online ad campaigns to deny Gaza famine: Report Israel spent $50M on deal with Google, X, other ad platforms to deny famine in Gaza, says new report: "Israel's strategy highlights the vulnerability of the international public to emotionally persuasive narratives and the challenges faced by fact-checkers and traditional journalists in countering them..."

A girl is crying while holding an empty pot in her hand as Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 05, 2025.

İlayda Çakırtekin  | 16.09.2025 

ISTANBUL

Israel has spent 167 million shekels ($50 million) on a deal with platforms such as Google and US social media platform X, plus French and Israeli ad platforms, to deny the famine in Gaza, Spanish broadcaster RTVE said Tuesday based on a Eurovision News Spotlight report.

According to a joint investigation by Eurovision, Israel’s Exemption Committee in June approved an application by state-run ad agency Lapam to run public information campaigns worth $50 million with Google, X, and French and Israeli platforms Outbrain and Teads.

The contracts, running from June 17 till Dec. 31, allocate 150 million shekels ($45 million) to YouTube and Google's ad campaign management platform Display & Video 360.

X also got 10 million shekels ($3.03 million) while French and Israeli ad platforms Outbrain and Teads got 7 million shekels ($2.12 million).

The report, titled "The new front of war: Inside Israel's digital 'hasbara' offensive," shows how Israel’s state-sponsored campaigns use social media, paid influencers, and military tours to shape the global narrative on Gaza.

Documents from 2018 to July 2025, revealed by the investigation, show that Lapam uses Google and Meta ad platforms to promote Israeli government narratives and counter critics of Tel Aviv’s policies and military operations through paid campaigns.

Last year, Lapam sponsored 2,000 ads, with 900 directed at domestic audiences and 1,100 aimed at international viewers in selected countries, the report said, citing the Google Ads Transparency Center.

The ad agency ran over 4,000 ads between Jan. 1 and Sept. 5, 2025, with half targeting international audiences.

Israel especially uses these campaigns to try to deny the famine in Gaza, "portraying a semblance of normalcy within the besieged enclave."   

Targeting critics

Lapam published dozens of ads on Google, YouTube, Teads/Outbrain, and X showing bustling Gaza markets to contradict the declaration of famine by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The investigation also found that another ad campaign backed by Lapam urged readers to spot "flaws and inconsistencies" in the IPC famine report.

Appearing above Google search results across several European countries – including Belgium, UK, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany – it steered users toward an Israeli government website.

The same day the IPC released its initial assessment, Lapam launched a multilingual video ad campaign on the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s YouTube channel showing busy markets and open restaurants in Gaza.

The investigation also found that between August and early September 2025, videos showing Gaza’s markets and restaurants garnered over 30 million views, driven not organically but through paid promotion via Google Ads across multiple countries.

Israel’s ad campaign also targets critics, including top search results for “UNRWA,” directing users to a government website that labels the UN agency for Palestinian refugees a “front for Hamas.”

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has also faced months of paid ads across Europe accusing her of being “anti-Semitic” for criticizing Israeli policies.

Eurovision said they sought comment from Google twice on its ad policies and Israeli government spending, but got no response.

"Israel's strategy highlights the vulnerability of the international public to emotionally persuasive narratives and the challenges faced by fact-checkers and traditional journalists in countering them," the report underlined.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/israel-spending-millions-on-online-ad-campaigns-to-deny-gaza-famine-report/3689634 

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Could Other Countries Prosecute Soldiers in Gaza? A growing legal movement has turned to the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to take on war-crimes cases, regardless of where those crimes were committed or the nationality of the perpetrator.

By Annie Hylton

 January 11, 2025  in The New Yorker

Last spring, a video spread across social media. Filmed at night, it shows several soldiers in olive-green army fatigues transporting a group of prisoners. The captured men wear white jumpsuits and blindfolds, and they have their hands tied behind their backs. The person holding the camera begins to narrate, in French, “Did you see those motherfuckers?” Referring to a prisoner whose jumpsuit has fallen to his waist, he says, “Look, he’s pissed himself. . . . I will show you his back. You’ll laugh. They tortured him to make him talk.” In a separate clip, he points the camera at the men, including one with marks on his back, and says, “You were happy on October 7th, you sons of bitches?”

A group of European and Palestinian human-rights organizations allege that the video was filmed by a French-Israeli soldier stationed with the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza. Politicians in France demanded an inquiry, arguing that if this soldier was of French nationality and a potential perpetrator of torture, or had aided and abetted it, he should be tried in French courts for possible war crimes... READ MORE  https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/could-other-countries-prosecute-soldiers-in-gaza?mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=tny&utm_social-type=owned

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CSM Where kindness meets crisis: This police unit put away its riot gear. Now it walks and talks with protesters.

Dialogue unit officers talk with people gathered at a rally in support of the Palestinian cause, in Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 24, 2024. Alfredo Sosa/Staff

"At a pro-Palestinian street protest in Columbus, Ohio, last fall, demonstrators march to the rhythm of liberation chants, punctuated by occasional horns from passing cars. “Free, free Palestine,” they cry, waving flags and banners.

But mingling among the demonstrators are four uniformed police officers wearing powder-blue police vests emblazoned with “Columbus Police Dialogue.” One of them is Sgt. Steve Dyer, the team leader of a special unit that talks with protesters rather than confronting them with riot gear.

“Their goal is to have their voices heard,” Sergeant Dyer says. “We will walk and work with those who are there to peacefully protest.” By walking with and talking to protesters, police hope to build legitimacy – a bridge of communication that could deescalate potential conflicts.... "  READ MORE   https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2025/20250113?cmpid=ema:bundle:20250113:1191533:toc&sfmc_sub=272001716#1191533

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Are restrictions on pro-Palestine speech ‘the new McCarthyism?’

VIDEO INTERVIEW 24 MINUTES LONG- CLICK HERE https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-bottom-line/2024/9/8/are-restrictions-on-pro-palestine-speech-the-new-mccarthyism

Is there an attempt to chill debate on Palestine and Israel on both sides of the Atlantic?

The United States, and the West in general, are in a “dire period” of repression of speech on Palestinian freedom or criticism of Israel, argues Dima Khalidi, founder of Palestine Legal.

Khalidi tells host Steve Clemons that despite strong constitutional protections for free expression, “there seems to be this exception when it comes to Palestine”, as witnessed by the wave of censorship, intimidation, firings and restrictions on activism in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The situation is similar across Europe, says British journalist Richard Medhurst, who’s been covering Gaza closely and was arrested for “speech crimes” upon arrival in London recently.

In these challenging times, it is heartening to witness the remarkable solidarity and support from university students across the #USA many #European countries & others around the world standing with #Gaza. #StandWithGaza #StudentsForPeace #HumanRights #StopGenocideInGaza

Nidal Bitar | نضال البيطار

@NidalBitar

In these challenging times, it is heartening to witness the remarkable solidarity and support from university students across the #USA many #European countries & others around the world standing with #Gaza. #StandWithGaza #StudentsForPeace #HumanRights #StopGenocideInGaza  

 

Israel (& America & the UK & Europe)'s cruel War on Gaza & the Children of Palestine 2023

This was Gaza city. It's rubble now, almost all of it. Destroyed with your tax dollars and Joe Biden's unwavering support.

 

Gaza 2023

This is what American Democracy looks like. 🇺🇸

Reflections By An ARAB JEW by Ella Habiba Shohat

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http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/arab_jew.html

Ella Habiba Shohat is Professor of Cultural Studies and Women's Studies at CUNY. A writer, orator and activist, she is the author of Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation (Univ. of Texas Press, 1989) and the co-author (with Robert Stam) of Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (Routledge 1994). Shohat co-edited Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation and Postcolonial Reflections (University of Minnesota Press, 1997) and is the editor of Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age, (MIT Press/The New Museum, 2000). She writes often for such journals as Social Text and the Journal for Palestine Studies.

Reflections By An

ARAB JEW

by Ella Habiba Shohat

Irvi Nasawi: Sephardic & Middle Eastern Cultures

  When issues of racial and colonial discourse are discussed in the U.S., people of Middle Eastern and North African origin are often excluded. This piece is written with the intent of opening up the multicultural debate, going beyond the U.S. census's simplistic categorization of Middle Eastern peoples as "whites."

It's also written with the intent of multiculturalizing American notions of Jewishness. My personal narrative questions the Eurocentric opposition of Arab and Jew, particularly the denial of Arab Jewish (Sephardic) voices both in the Middle Eastern and American contexts.

      I am an Arab Jew. Or, more specifically, an Iraqi Israeli woman living, writing and teaching in the U.S. Most members of my family were born and raised in Baghdad, and now live in Iraq, Israel, the U.S., England, and Holland. When my grandmother first encountered Israeli society in the '50s, she was convinced that the people who looked, spoke and ate so differently--the European Jews--were actually European Christians. Jewishness for her generation was inextricably associated with Middle Easterness. My grandmother, who still lives in Israel and still communicates largely in Arabic, had to be taught to speak of "us" as Jews and "them" as Arabs. For Middle Easterners, the operating distinction had always been "Muslim," "Jew," and "Christian," not Arab versus Jew. The assumption was that "Arabness" referred to a common shared culture and language, albeit with religious differences.

Americans are often amazed to discover the existentially nauseating or charmingly exotic possibilities of such a syncretic identity. I recall a well-established colleague who despite my elaborate lessons on the history of Arab Jews, still had trouble understanding that I was not a tragic anomaly--for instance, the daughter of an Arab (Palestinian) and an Israeli (European Jew). Living in North America makes it even more difficult to communicate that we are Jews and yet entitled to our Middle Eastern difference. And that we are Arabs and yet entitled to our religious difference, like Arab Christians and Arab Muslims.

It was precisely the policing of cultural borders in Israel that led some of us to escape into the metropolises of syncretic identities. Yet, in an American context, we face again a hegemony that allows us to narrate a single Jewish memory, i.e., a European one. For those of us who don't hide our Middle Easterness under one Jewish "we," it becomes tougher and tougher to exist in an American context hostile to the very notion of Easterness.

As an Arab Jew, I am often obliged to explain the "mysteries" of this oxymoronic entity. That we have spoken Arabic, not Yiddish; that for millennia our cultural creativity, secular and religious, had been largely articulated in Arabic (Maimonides being one of the few intellectuals to "make it" into the consciousness of the West); and that even the most religious of our communities in the Middle East and North Africa never expressed themselves in Yiddish-accented Hebrew prayers, nor did they practice liturgical-gestural norms and sartorial codes favoring the dark colors of centuries-ago Poland. Middle Eastern women similarly never wore wigs; their hair covers, if worn, consisted of different variations on regional clothing (and in the wake of British and French imperialism, many wore Western-style clothes). If you go to our synagogues, even in New York, Montreal, Paris or London, you'll be amazed to hear the winding quarter tones of our music which the uninitiated might imagine to be coming from a mosque.

Now that the three cultural topographies that compose my ruptured and dislocated history--Iraq, Israel and the U.S.--have been involved in a war, it is crucial to say that we exist. Some of us refuse to dissolve so as to facilitate "neat" national and ethnic divisions. My anxiety and pain during the Scud attacks on Israel, where some of my family lives, did not cancel out my fear and anguish for the victims of the bombardment of Iraq, where I also have relatives.

War, however, is the friend of binarisms, leaving little place for complex identities. The Gulf War, for example, intensified a pressure already familiar to the Arab Jewish diaspora in the wake of the Israeli-Arab conflict: a pressure to choose between being a Jew and being an Arab. For our families, who have lived in Mesopotamia since at least the Babylonian exile, who have been Arabized for millennia, and who were abruptly dislodged to Israel 45 years ago, to be suddenly forced to assume a homogenous European Jewish identity based on experiences in Russia, Poland and Germany, was an exercise in self devastation. To be a European or American Jew has hardly been perceived as a contradiction, but to be an Arab Jew has been seen as a kind of logical paradox, even an ontological subversion. This binarism has led many Oriental Jews (our name in Israel referring to our common Asian and African countries of origin is Mizrahi or Mizrachi) to a profound and visceral schizophrenia, since for the first time in our history Arabness and Jewishness have been imposed as antonyms.

Intellectual discourse in the West highlights a Judeo-Christian tradition, yet rarely acknowledges the Judeo-Muslim culture of the Middle East, of North Africa, or of pre-Expulsion Spain (1492) and of the European parts of the Ottoman Empire. The Jewish experience in the Muslim world has often been portrayed as an unending nightmare of oppression and humiliation.

Although I in no way want to idealize that experience--there were occasional tensions, discriminations, even violence--on the whole, we lived quite comfortably within Muslim societies.

Our history simply cannot be discussed in European Jewish terminology. As Iraqi Jews, while retaining a communal identity, we were generally well integrated and indigenous to the country, forming an inseparable part of its social and cultural life. Thoroughly Arabized, we used Arabic even in hymns and religious ceremonies. The liberal and secular trends of the 20th century engendered an even stronger association of Iraqi Jews and Arab culture, which brought Jews into an extremely active arena in public and cultural life. Prominent Jewish writers, poets and scholars played a vital role in Arab culture, distinguishing themselves in Arabic speaking theater, in music, as singers, composers, and players of traditional instruments.

In Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Tunisia, Jews became members of legislatures, of municipal councils, of the judiciary, and even occupied high economic positions. (The finance minister of Iraq in the '40s was Ishak Sasson, and in Egypt, Jamas Sanua--higher positions, ironically, than those our community had generally achieved within the Jewish state until the 1990s!)

The same historical process that dispossessed Palestinians of their property, lands and national-political rights, was linked to the dispossession of Middle Eastern and North African Jews of their property, lands, and rootedness in Muslim countries. As refugees, or mass immigrants (depending on one's political perspective), we were forced to leave everything behind and give up our Iraqi passports. The same process also affected our uprootedness or ambiguous positioning within Israel itself, where we have been systematically discriminated against by institutions that deployed their energies and material to the consistent advantage of European Jews and to the consistent disadvantage of Oriental Jews. Even our physiognomies betray us, leading to internalized colonialism or physical misperception. Sephardic Oriental women often dye their dark hair blond, while the men have more than once been arrested or beaten when mistaken for Palestinians. What for Ashkenazi immigrants from Russian and Poland was a social aliya (literally "ascent") was for Oriental Sephardic Jews a yerida ("descent").

Stripped of our history, we have been forced by our no-exit situation to repress our collective nostalgia, at least within the public sphere. The pervasive notion of "one people" reunited in their ancient homeland actively disauthorizes any affectionate memory of life before Israel. We have never been allowed to mourn a trauma that the images of Iraq's destruction only intensified and crystallized for some of us. Our cultural creativity in Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic is hardly studied in Israeli schools, and it is becoming difficult to convince our children that we actually did exist there, and that some of us are still there in Iraq, Morocco, Yemen and Iran. 

Western media much prefer the spectacle of the triumphant progress of Western technology to the survival of the peoples and cultures of the Middle East. The case of Arab Jews is just one of many elisions. From the outside, there is little sense of our community, and even less sense of the diversity of our political perspectives. Oriental-Sephardic peace movements, from the Black Panthers of the '70s to the new Keshet (a "Rainbow" coalition of Mizrahi groups in Israel) not only call for a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians, but also for the cultural, political, and economic integration of Israel/Palestine into the Middle East. And thus an end to the binarisms of war, an end to a simplistic charting of Middle Eastern identities.

"The direct threat to Israeli and Palestinian existence — and, in fact, to the existence of all peoples in the region — is the absence of peace in Palestine." Ahmad Y. Majdoubeh in The Jordan Times

IN CONTEXT: Nov 14, 2013 Palestinians look on at damages inside a house that was attacked overnight by suspected Jewish extremists in Sinjil, a village in the West Bank, northeast of Ramallah (AFP photo)...

Five Palestinian children suffered from smoke inhalation when suspected Jewish extremists set fire to their West Bank home on Thursday in an apparent revenge attack, the family said.

The attackers torched the front of the Dar Khalil home in Sinjil, a village northeast of Ramallah, and spray-painted the words “Regards from Eden, Revenge!” in Hebrew in blue on a wall outside the house.

“Eden” is an apparent reference to Eden Atias, a soldier who was killed on Wednesday by a 16-year-old Palestinian while sleeping on a bus in northern Israel. He was buried on Wednesday night.

The Dar Khalil family had no apparent connection to the Palestinian attacker.

“I woke up at 2:00am (0000 GMT), and four or five people came out of a white car and started breaking windows, then poured gasoline, then threw fire into the house,” mother-of-five Ruweida Dar Khalil told AFP.

“My kids were sleeping. I was scared to death. My kids almost died. I couldn’t even touch the doorknob it was so hot...”

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http://jordantimes.com/why-should-palestinians-negotiate

Why should Palestinians negotiate?

by Ahmad Y. Majdoubeh | Nov 14, 2013 | 21:42

The withdrawal of the Palestinian negotiating team from the US-sponsored peace talks with Israelis is more than justified. Israel has made it impossible for them to continue.

The current Israeli government is not serious about peace; actually it is doing all it can to subvert the fragile peace talks and impose its expansionist, Judaisation agenda in Palestine.

If the Israeli government had been genuinely interested in making peace, it would have done several things. For example, it would have stopped all settlement activity at once to give the peace negotiators a chance and would have made focus on peace a priority.

It, however, is doing the exact opposite. Since the start of the latest round of peace talks, the Israeli government sped up settlement activity. The latest move by the Israeli prime minister to halt — not to cancel — a plan for a huge settlement project is another of his endless gimmicks.

The reason he gave for halting this project, which would affect the peace talks and the future relations and existence of Israelis and Palestinians, was that it could anger the international community and thus affect Israel’s proposals regarding Iran!!

What a misguided, disrespectful thing to say when the Palestinians have joined peace talks even though they made clear that settlements should be halted until they come to an agreement with Israel about the future borders of a Palestinian state.

In other words, the Israeli premier would halt settlement activity to give a chance to his weird, paranoid proposals regarding Iran, but he would not do it for the sake of talks which are crucial to both Israelis and Palestinians.

Iran, of course, is another gimmick used in a delaying tactic.

The direct threat to Israeli and Palestinian existence — and, in fact, to the existence of all peoples in the region — is the absence of peace in Palestine. It is not the Iranian nuclear project.

And yet, the Israeli government is creating much fuss about the Iranian project to focus attention away from peace making in Palestine and sideline, and thus subvert, the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The timing here is crucial. Had Iran been threatening Israel with a nuclear bomb, or had Iran come even close to producing one, the Israeli government may have had an excuse for devoting so much energy and attention to Iran. At this moment in time, however, the Israeli obsession with the Iranian issue is utterly unjustified.

For one thing, the new Iranian leadership is negotiating in earnest with the international community about inspection of its nuclear facilities; for another, American diplomacy regarding the Iranian issue appears to be bearing fruit.

In fact, the US secretary of state announced a couple of days ago that an agreement with Iran is imminent.

Furthermore, the current Iranian government is no longer provocative or hostile to Israel, as some were in the past.

So, why should the Israeli government choose to create a huge fuss about Iran now?

The only answer is that it wants to distract the focus from the peace talks.

The fact of the matter is that the Israeli government does not want peace. It only wants all the Palestinian land.

So, why should the Palestinians continue to sit uselessly and fruitlessly at the negotiating table with the Israelis when the Israeli government continues to sabotage peace?

The reason they sit and negotiate — and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will try to form another negotiating team — is that they have an inalienable right to an independent Palestinian state in their homeland Palestine.

And because the international community — including Europe and the US — insists that there should be justice in Palestine and that the Palestinians are entitled to their state on land that Israel has occupied and continues to swallow.

The European and American positions on Palestinian statehood and on Israel’s illegal settlement are highly appreciated. However, one expects them to close the loop by pressuring the Israeli government to stay focused on peace in Palestine and take concrete measures to show that it is serious about peace, including, first and foremost, immediately halting all settlement plans and activities.

Without such a firm position, it would be useless for the Palestinians to continue sitting at the negotiating table, while the Israeli premier is playing his games and sanctioning further settlement and occupation measures.

"If the Israelis, Americans and Europeans prefer to deal with Hamas rather than Mahmoud Abbas and Fayyad, they need only continue their current policies. And if they then find themselves unhappy with a new Islamist-dominated Palestinian national movement, they can rest assured they sat by and watched it happen in real time, and did absolutely nothing to stop it." Hussein Ibish

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani arrive to a ceremony in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. (Mohammed Salem-Pool / Getty Images)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/24/hamas-rising.html

Hamas Rising?

by Hussein Ibish Oct 24, 2012 10:45 AM EDT 

Is everyone conspiring to undermine the Palestinian Authority and promote Hamas? This morning, in the context of yesterday's visit of the Emir of Qatar to Gaza, with his pledges of massive financial and diplomatic support, it sure looks that way.

 

The biggest threat to the PA is a fiscal crisis originating in its quixotic U.N. membership bid of September 2012, which produced a confrontation with its main donors, particularly the United States.

The PA requires approximately $1 billion in external funding annually. The biggest individual donor has been the United States, and the biggest collective one the European Union. As a result of the inevitable failure at the U.N. last year, aid to the PA from both has dropped to approximately half of its previous level. And half of the remaining American aid, $200 million, remains on congressional hold. Meanwhile, numerous Arab states have failed to meet their own pledges.

The result is that the institution-building program led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is paralyzed. Public employee salaries are being paid piecemeal, services cut and taxes increased. The cost of living has shot through the roof. All of this has killed the promise that responsible governance could provide a measure of hope at a time of diplomatic impasse. Palestinians can no longer reasonably expect improvements in their quality of life even if they have to wait for progress towards independence.

The inevitable consequence has been the destabilization and discrediting of the PA, and real questions about its stability and future...READ MORE