Jeff Gore is a freelance journalist based in Athens, GA, where he is a frequent contributor to the weekly Flagpole Magazine. His blog of his summer spent in Israel/Palestine, Dispatches From the Holy Land, can be read at holylanddispatches.blogspot.com. 
jeffgore@thecommentfactory.com
Subscribe To My ArticlesIn 1979, Kathleen and Bill Christison retired from the CIA, where they worked as analysts. Ever since then, they’ve had an unorthodox retirement, to say the least. With only a couple relatively brief interludes, they’ve dedicated what could have been years of relaxation to fighting perhaps the most uphill battle imaginable: trying to bring the plight of the Palestinians to the public eye. The newest addition to the Christison canon is Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation, published in August by Pluto Press. During this decade the Christisons have made a habit of visiting Palestine at least once per year; they returned from their most recent trip earlier this month. Since the couple warned against the potentially endless nature of a conversation over the phone, I elected to send them a few questions via email, which they were gracious enough to answer
Jonathan Cook is a British journalist based in Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel. His latest book, Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair, was published by Zed Books in October of last year. Jonathan was kind enough to take the time to answer the below questions, many of which surfaced after recently spending some time in Palestine myself
A few days ago some friends and I took a tour of the hills south of the city of Hebron in the West Bank. The tour was given by Breaking the Silence, a group of former Israeli soldiers who speak about the conscienceless things that they did to Palestinians in the name of “security” during their time in the military. I suspect that many of them view this project as some sort of repentance for their sins, and I also suspect that to some of them, it will never be enough
I left the farm inspired by the Nassars’ non-violent, non-confrontational approach to even the most naked oppression. Their kind of resistance makes sense at this stage in the conflict — after all, the Israelis have the most expensive, destructive toys that the military can buy, and judging by the ruinous state of the Gaza Strip, it’s obvious that they’re not afraid to use them. (When they heard the shelling of Gaza in the distance earlier this year, Daoud and his brother “put their frustrations to work” and built a new cistern.)
Jeff Gore talks to the man Sarah Palin accused of being a “terrorist” and friend of Barack Obama’s in the election campaign 2008
The key to selling us the financial and political system is creating illusions that keep us from seeing what is in front of our noses. We should stop using the semantics of the powerful and reclaim words that have been emptied of their meaning
On the ten-year anniversary of the slaying of rapper Big L on the streets of Harlem in New York City, Jeff Gore explains why this lyrical genius is still mourned, despite his darker side.
Somalia could be the new Afghanistan, or Pakistan could be the new Somalia. Welcome to the ‘war on terror’.
With the pressing financial and terrorism crisis’ on President-elect Obama’s plate, it looks like the fight against global warming will have to wait.
The approach to Iran is misguided and deluded. If you are listening, Barack Obama, here are the three things you should do to improve the situation.
