Mark your calendars. October 1st is the date when Iran and the five UN Security Council members plus Germany will hold talks about the Iranian nuclear program. The State Department spokesman Ian Kelly announced yesterday that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns – who was also at the Geneva talks – would […]
It appears that Israeli women just might be among the most incredible females out there. Earlier this year, Sports Illustrated featured Israeli model Bar Rafaeli on the cover of the Swimsuit Issue. Now, another Israeli woman won a major international contest when she triumphed as the winner of Fox’s hit dating show “More to Love” […]
Bitterlemons has another great series, this time about the renewal of a U.S.-brokered peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Two of the scholars in the series seem to differ on the need for an immediate renewal of negotiations. George Giacaman expressed urgency, calling the current proposals a “last chance,” in attempting to solve the […]
When we think of religious conversions in U.S. prisons, we conjure up images of Islamic fundamentalism infused with the roots of anti-Americanism. The issue resulted in high-level officials issuing worried statements about the phenomenon, with Congress even holding hearings with expert testimony on the radicalization of prisoners. However, just last week, prisoners began embracing a […]
My Master’s thesis dealt with the effect of an independent Iraqi Kurdistan on the Kurdish movement in which I specifically examined what effect increasing the level of autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan have had on Kurdish secessionist groups in Syria, Iran, and Turkey. Considering I spent last whole year engrossed in researching the operations of Kurdish […]
Israeli directors seem to have a knack for making great films about Israel’s wars with Lebanon. The latest film, “Lebanon,” won the top prize at this year’s Venice film festival and received wide acclaim as an “astonishing piece of cinema.” Director Samuel Maoz personally experienced the first Lebanon war from inside a tank, a claustrophobic atmosphere […]
The Arab Human Development Report, a publication from the UNDP that consistently draws commentary from anyone and everyone interested in Middle East politics, typically inspires a lot of positive response from the development community. For one, members of the Arab intelligentsia collaborate to write it, so it derives some credibility from that. Second, it doesn’t […]
… to teach people how to behave on the train. The sheer number of people who want to use the Metro, combined with the newness of the project, has meant chaos for the system.
Two katyusha rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon today, and minutes later Israel returned fire with a barrage of 14 artillery shells of its own. The rockets that were fired into Israel landed outside residential areas, and no injuries were reported as a result. The return fire from Israel also landed in an unpopulated […]
Today’s newspapers are all buzzing with one news: Russia has stated that sanctions against Iran are unlikely. Newspapers, like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov on Thursday as saying Moscow wouldn’t back any new rounds of tough sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security […]
A Palestinian Authority-funded radio station launched a new televised satire that pokes fun at the government, religion, and sex. Actors on the “Homeland on a Thread” show imitate government officials, including PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Chief Negotiator Saeb Erakat. Even though the television station requested permission from the PA to run the most controversial […]
Dubai’s metro rail opened (grandly – how else) today. Construction on the system will continue, but as of today residents and tourists can take the train along Sheikh Zayed road. Yale graduate student Tabitha Decker points out, rightly, that the metro’s significance as evidence of investment in public goods represents a slightly different Dubai than […]
Visit http://www.brookings.edu/lang/arabic.aspx to read Brookings’ content in translation. Very exciting.
Former Israeli Diplomat Alon Pinkas supported the idea of Palestinian state-building from the “ground up” but rejected as unfeasible a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood, he said in an interview with Middle East Progress. Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad recently expressed the need for Palestinians to develop preliminary institutions needed for a future independent state, including […]
A new INSS report outlines recent changes in the motives of Israeli Arabs who assist terrorist organizations. In the past, many of these Israeli-Arab spies were motivated by promises of money and/or drugs. However, the recent arrest of Rawi Sultani indicates a shift from monetary to nationalistic motives. While attending a camp run in Morocco […]