A study shows that Israel's tarnished image has nothing to do with its Hasbara mechanism. Actually, the reason for the failure is pretty straightforward. Some ad companies can do miracles. They can actually do the impossible: sell a bad product. The easiest examples come from the food industry. Take Coke, or McDonald’s burgers. These are products that are known to be unhealthy. Yet, the Mad Men still somehow get these companies to sell, sell, sell. Israel has its own ad company. It’s an enormous, cross-ministry-organization apparatus known as Hasbara. Yet, despite being one of the most successful propaganda machines ever…

The court unanimously decided to reverse the Central Election Committee's decision forbidding MK Zoabi (Balad) from running.  In response, a Likud spokesperson vowed that the PM's party would work to amend the law in order to ensure such disqualifications before the next elections.  The Israeli Supreme Court decided this morning (Sunday) to reverse the Central Election Committee's decision to prevent MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) from participating in the coming Knesset elections, due to take place on January 22. The decision was unanimous, with all nine judges – including Supreme Court Chief Justice Asher Gronis – ruling to allow Zoabi to run. MK Zoabi, the only…

The appointment of Senator John Kerry as the next U.S. Secretary of State could represent a new opportunity for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. But for efforts to be successful, the U.S. will have to reconsider its message that settlement construction is a matter of negotiation. By Lorenzo Kamel The day after the UN voted to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state, the Israeli government approved construction of approximately 3,000 new residential units in the occupied territories, a decision that was met with strong opposition by various European leaders. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on the contrary, delivered a speech at the…

Netanyahu will continue to serve as prime minister after the upcoming elections, but putting together a governing coalition will have significant long-term implications. The headline result of the upcoming elections in Israel, as Noam Sheizaf has thoroughly documented, is not in doubt. Benjamin Netanyahu will continue as Israel’s Prime Minister for another term, and will strive to maintain his policy of status quo in every area of policy. Nonetheless, there are at least two aspects of uncertainty in these elections. First, the potential for more significant changes in areas not related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (such as economic policy or…

Featured prominently in headlines from the region this year were hunger strikers, refugees, threats of war, actual war, demolitions and elections. +972 bloggers pick the people who, for them, defined 2012. Khader Adnan, Palestinian prisoner and hunger striker Although the hunger strike of Khader Adnan began on December 18, 2011, his act of protest and the subsequent “War of Empty Stomachs” was a defining aspect of 2012. After being arrested in the middle of the night before his family, Adnan was beaten, humiliated and held without charge or trial under administrative detention, a widely used practice by the Israeli occupation…

On December 31, as Americans celebrate New Year’s Eve and Israelis lift a glass to “Sylvester,” a Palestinian family will be evicted from their East Jerusalem home to make way for Jewish settlers. The Jerusalem District Court has ruled that the Shamasneh family must leave the house they have been living in 1964—three years before Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem began—by 2:00 PM on Monday afternoon. Ten people currently live in the home, including six children. The court has granted ownership to the Israeli Custodian for Absentee Property, which was represented by lawyers who also represent settlers’ organizations, including the…

Those who think that E1 is the nail in the coffin of the two-state 'solution' are willfully blind to the fact that a one-state outcome is already on the ground and that the Zionist militias started building it before there ever was an Israel. I know this is a little late. The big brouhaha about E1 was, what, a few weeks ago? I wasn’t paying that much attention because, as someone who spends a lot of time traveling between Jerusalem and the West Bank--and noticing the one unequal state already on the ground--I didn't quite get the fuss about E1.…

'Tis the season for a winter wonderland at weekly demonstrations, shepherds tending their flocks visited by an unheavenly host, 'no room at the inn' for African immigrants, five hunger strikers, and a partridge in a pear tree.