First of all let me wish everyone out there in Blog Land a very Merry Christmas. Yours truly has finished all his shopping and wanted to leave a little stocking stuffer for his readers. The big story of the day is another roll up of a mossad asset in the Levant. It appears an Egyptian […]
Because I’m feeling quote happy these days I’ll bludgeon you over the head again with a relatable quip– “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” The movie buffs amongst you will recognize those as the words of Andy Dufresne, the hopeful, wrongfully imprisoned banker in The Shawshank Redemption. It’s fair to say that Syria has […]
There is really only one fitting word to describe Israel in 2010 – “stam.” When Israelis have buyer’s remorse and know they shouldn’t have invested in that useless gadget, they say “stam.” When Israelis see a soccer player kick the ball out of bounds instead of toward the net, they say “stam.” When Israelis see […]
In tandem with the last post assessing recent American relations with Syria from the US perspective, this post will evaluate the same relationship from the opposing viewpoint. Again, an important quote came to mind that, I feel, sheds light on the issue at hand. Recently, pop musician Ke$ha has enjoyed a tremendous amount of worldwide […]
They say that anywhere you dig in Israel, you find history. It appears that rings true once more. A crumbling sea-side cliff outside the city of Ashkelon revealed an ancient Roman statute. The land area known today as Israel has been home to some of the world’s greatest civilizations, including the ancient Jews, the Romans, […]
Travelers to our nation’s capital from Israel might feel a little more at home in the coming days, as Metro (the subway system) administrators are preparing to implement a new program that includes random bag checks when passengers enter a station. In Israel, security guards outside malls, office buildings, stores and restaurants search bags of […]
The U.S. Department of State regularly updates its country notes and send out the changes via email. Those country notes are worth perusing, as they provide a quick snapshot into countries’ cultures, economies, and political systems. The State Department just updated their Israel notes and they can be found here. The bulk of the notes […]
The Israeli clandestine service, the Mossad, has been criticized of late for some perceived setbacks. For example, the hit on a Hamas-affiliated terrorist in the Gulf was widely attributed to Israel because some of the assassins were videotaped and their passports were identified. In the Mossad’s past strikes, the clandestine agency left no traces, therefore […]
Both the Israelis and the Palestinians have an oft-evolving view of democracy and how their societies will, if at all, embody values that promote open discourse and equal rights. Israel is often characterized as the Middle East’sd only democracy, a title it rightfully claims because, for the most part, non-Jewish Israeli citizens enjoy equal rights. […]
This piece was written by Liora Hendelman-Baavur (Ph.D), a research fellow of the Center for Iranian Studies (CIS), who also teaches at the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University. On November 18, 2010 the Iranian news website Tabnak exposed a Persian pro-Nazi internet forum, operating under the virtual domain assigned to the […]
Aside from his many accomplishments as a football coach, Bill Parcells is famous for using the phrase “You are who you are”. Five words that summed up a career’s worth of championship football wisdom that can be directly applied to everything from personal psychology, to team dynamics, to international relations. Who says jocks are dumb? […]
Last Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri flew to Tehran to meet with President Ahmedinejad and other Iranian politicians. The purpose of the visit was to secure support for his country at a particularly tense time in Lebanese history, or at least in Hariri’s tenure as Prime Minister. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which […]
President Barack Obama issued a presidential determination today to suspend a 1995 law that requires the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In a letter from Obama to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama says the 6 month extended suspension of the law “is necessary, in order to protect the national […]
Israel was just struck by one of the largest disasters in the country’s short history — a fire is sweeping through northern Israel and has already killed dozens. Out of this tragedy, several high points, low points and questions have emerged. The good: Israel’s neighbors are here to help, even the ones that have issued […]
When former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon created the Kadima party, he sought to form a middle ground between the left-leaning Labor movement and the right wing Likud of which he had previously been a part. Sharon — who has been described as a murderer due to his role commanding Israeli troops during the early 1980s […]