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Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti was a candidate in the election for Palestinian Authority president, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Yasser Arafat. In the announcement, Barghouti declared, "I will demand total and complete reform, fight any form of corruption, mismanagement, and consolidate the rule of law." He was arrested by Israeli forces during the election campaign and subsequently expelled from East Jerusalem when he was going to hold an election speech there. He was also prevented from entering Nablus and Gaza. Barghouti came second in the elections, receiving 19.8% of the vote.
In December 2005, the Independent Palestine list, a coalition of independents and NGO members in the legislative elections scheduled for January 2006, announced Mustafa Barghouti as its top candidate. The list promised to fight corruption and nepotism, demand the dismantlement of what it termed the "apartheid wall", and to provide
a truly democratic and independent "third way" for the large majority of silent and unrepresented Palestinian voters, who favour neither the autocracy and corruption of the governing Fatah party, nor the fundamentalism of Hamas.
Barghouti was detained on Tuesday 3 January 2006 while campaigning in the Arab quarter of East Jerusalem and was taken for questioning to a local police station. A statement on his behalf read: "Dr Barghuthi was meeting with ordinary Jerusalemites near Damascus Gate, discussing their needs and the situation of Palestinians in east Jerusalem, when he was approached by six undercover Israeli security agents, arrested, and taken to the Russian Compound jail where he remains under detention."
Barghouti was newly elected to a seat on the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006, along with one other member of the Independent Palestine list, after Independent Palestine won about 2.7% of the vote in the Council elections. He was Minister of Information in the short-lived Palestinian unity government of March-June 2007.

Still haven't seen the show yet, but I just want to point out that the generalities and identification of such factions by religion may inflame more than convince.

Edit: oh, this is tomorrow's episode.

I would like to make a suggestion to Mr. Jon Stewart regarding tonight guests Dr. Mustafa Barghuoti and Anna Baltzer. My suggestion is that he should ask Dr. Barghuoti if Jews have the right for life and liberty.

Been an Israeli, and a Zionist, I naturally do not have an objective view of Dr. Barghuoti and his colleague, but I would state that I, Boaz Tibon (Dvar Dea is my pen name of a sort) acknowledge that Palestinians have the right for life and liberty, that been the freedom to live, worship, accumulate property and national freedom and self determination.

people tend to confuse this situation with one of religion.  for palestinians, this is not the issue.  you can say that muslims and jews have ancient animosities towards each other, but that's simply not true.  look at the last 14 centuries of history and it's been the exact opposite, especially in cities like baghdad and cordoba, when people of all religions were coming together and learning from one another.  jews, muslims, and christians have been living in palestine without conflict for hundreds of years.

the issue is about one peoples being ethnically cleansed from their homeland many of which have been there for centuries, lack of basic rights like water, constant harrassment and violence being inflicted on them for more than sixty years, an illegal wall 3x the size of the berlin wall separating people and families of other communities and even their own farm lands, over 600 checkpoints in the west bank, restriction of movement, inability to use jewish only roads---in their own territory. They are a people trying to establish a "state" in 22% of the land that was once theirs, and they can't even have that.  An occupied people who, until very recently, have been uniformly and collectively depicted as terrorists while the occupiers are seen as the victim.  Over 2000 palestinians have been murdered in the last two years alone. Over 300 children died in the gaza massacre, more than two hundred people in the first few hours.

People should understand the basic facts of this situation before resorting to generalities about religion that are beside the point.  Look at international law, resolution 242, the UN vote that has for decades been declaring the same thing, ie: the peaceful settlement to the palestine question.  This is what's going to change the situation, especially here in the US, because we're the only country that has allowed all of this to happen for forty years.

A cursory search on the Internet has shown me that both guests are controversial and clearly biased against Israel and in favor of the Palestinians. Yes, unfortunately there is an ever-increasing number of American Jews who are strongly against Israel and don't stop short of comparing Israelis to Nazis, while declaring solidarity with nations that voluntarily elect terrorists as their political representatives.

My only questions is: Will Jon Stewart ever invite guests who are pro-Israel and let them talk about their point of view, or will he continue mentioning that he is Jewish in nearly every episode while only giving a forum to anti-Israel polemics?

I know, he keeps saying that this is a comedy show and not be taken seriously, but if you invite politicians and opinion leaders, you might as well invite someone from the other side of the discussion once in a while.