The Zionist project, the Israeli mission of occupation, ethnic cleansing, expropriation and colonial resettlement of Arab Palestine is untenable, and cannot succeed even in the short run.  Just as in apartheid South Africa, Israel's native subcontractors cannot keep the natives in order, forcing that apartheid state to endlessly escalate the violence against the nation's indigenous population.  Nobody can predict the future, Abunimah reminds us, but the darkest and bloodiest deeds of racist South Africa occurred when its imminent fall could not be admitted by its leaders.

Based in Chicago, Ali Abunimah is a scholar and Palestinian American activist of long standing.  Among much else, he runs the excellent web site Electronic Intifada, and is the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Arab-Israeli Impasse.

Black Agenda Report takes this opportunity to apologize to its friends who have inquired why we did not cover the New Year's attempts of the Free Gaza March, Viva Palestina to break the siege of Gaza.  We wanted to, but our time and resources are short.  We expect to make up for this in some measure next week.