The Israeli government recently sponsored a public relations campaign to woo Israeli ex-pats in the US to return home, and discourage those thinking about leaving the Jewish state from doing so. Lots of countries do this, so the fact that Israel has begun to is not overly controversial. What is surprising is the campaign’s indirect […]
Summary of Turkish foreign policy in 2011 2011 was in many ways a milestone in modern Turkish history. First, the Arab Spring not only shook the Western influence in the region, it also ended the post-colonial period in the Middle East, marked by authoritarian-suppressive regimes, which in their way mirrored and reflected their perception of […]
Roger Cohen, a reliable critic of Israel’s policies, particularly under the Netanyahu administration, argues against attacking Iran in a New York Times op-ed today. This issue has regained momentum in light of the recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which concluded that in six months Iran will have enriched uranium to the level […]
Almost immediately following the release of Gilad Shalit rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza resumed. Over the last couple of weeks, it has begun to feel like a major scuffle between Israel, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad is on the horizon. Sunday night at the Jewish General Assembly in Denver, Colorado, I had the opportunity […]
After many long and tense months (years? decades?) the “situation” from the UN is starting to “resolve” itself. The US threatened a veto should they not be able to find the votes to keep the Palestinians from passing their resolution in the Security Council aimed at fully recognized statehood in the UN. The Palestinians went […]
I recently had the opportunity to catch up with producer Matthew Tollin about his new documentary, Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace. Back Door Channels is the true story of the men who brought an unlikely lasting Peace to the Middle East. For the first time ever, the filmmakers take the audience behind the […]
This week, Gilad Shalit, after five years of captivity deep in the recesses of the Gaza Strip without visitation from anyone, including the Red Cross, returned home to much fanfare. His family was there, his Prime Minister was there. The world was watching. Gilad of course was not the only one to return home this […]
Last week, President Obama gave a speech to the UN. In it, he spoke about keeping nuclear weapons from Iran and working with the Israelis and the Palestinians to reach peace through negotiations, not through half-measures and paperwork filed at the UN. He came out hard against Palestinian recognition of statehood in the UN General […]
My last article theorized about the timing and reasoning behind Turkey’s complete reversal of policy towards Israel. In it, I stated that severing its relationship with Israel was stage one of its race towards regional dominance. I predicted that stage two would likely be the strengthening of ties with other Muslim nations in the […]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced Friday that he will be submitting his bid for Palestinian statehood to the United Nations Security Council at its upcoming meeting. In the last few days, the media has widely quoted Arab League President Nabil El-Araby’s statement that Abbas intended to bypass the Security Council and submit the statehood […]
Democrats are apparently panicking, well, at least according to several news outlets who are using this week’s congressional race as a barometer of President Obama’s popularity among Jews and the pro-Israel community. In a special election held this week to replace ousted Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) in a heavily Jewish neighborhood, Democrats lost the seat for the […]
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey would be downgrading its diplomatic relations with Israel and cutting all military ties with the state. A few days after the announcement, he stated that there would also be an increase in Turkish ships patrolling the Eastern Mediterranean to ensure the safety of maritime navigation, implying […]
The Middle East is known for its wars. Often, Israel is at the center of the conflict, whether through being attacked by its neighbors, launching a preemptive strike to ward off an impending assault or merely subject to the verbal tirades of its opponents. Some critics of the state also argue that Israel has launched […]
It has been said that the best compromise is one that leaves all parties unhappy. If that is true, then the UN’s Palmer Report was a massive success. So why is everybody so angry? The Palmer Report says that Israel “used unreasonable force in the raid of the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, but added that […]
The Palestinian’s unilateral declaration of statehood at the United Nation’s in September is right around the corner, but what was initially considered by some as a shrewd maneuver to force their terms as part of the peace process is now facing a much larger uphill battle. Given that the peace process — propelled by […]