Cement, mortar and stone are being pulled out and slowly erected to separate Israel, except instead of the Jewish state building a structure for alleged security purposes, the European Union is separating itself from the Middle East’s only democracy by propagating a policy while being ignorant of the facts. EU foreign ministers accepted a proposal today that calls for […]
The United States is not taking the support offered by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the Iranian nuclear program lightly (Here is a previous blog I wrote on this topic). This week as the Turkish prime minister met with President Obama in Washington D.C., Iran’s nuclear program was very much a topic of […]
Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran a story that showed just how desperate the Iranian government is getting. If harassing Iranian protesters living in Iran was not enough, the Iranian authorities are now threatening Iranians living abroad. As the article states: In recent months, Iran has been conducting a campaign of harassing and intimidating […]
President Barack Obama’s appointee to lead administration efforts to combat anti-Semitism is still unsure of how her new role with involve responding to anti-Israel comments. Hannah Rosenthal, the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, began federal service today and purports views in-line with J Street, the pro-peace pro-Israel lobby (she sits on the […]
Living in Washington D.C., New York, or Tel Aviv might lead you to sometimes forget that misconceptions about Jews and anti-Semitism still run rampant in the U.S., Europe, and -shockingly- in the Arab world. A new You Tube video is going viral that depicts a clearly anti-Semitic man questioning the loyalty of British Jews. His […]
This week, Lebanon’s new cabinet issued its policy statement regarding Hizballah. With some strong reservations from a handful of Christian leaders, the cabinet came out in support of Hizballah’s continued military presence in Lebanon as a resistance to Israel. There are at least two reasons for this. First, Hizballah is the force most capable of […]
Because the U.S. post war reconstruction plan in Iraq has been grossly mishandled and has proven to be largely ineffectual, Iraqi artists and filmmakers have decided to take cultural reconstruction efforts into their own hands. Recently in Baghdad, Iraqi filmmakers unveiled the city’s first traveling film festival, showcased at sites where explosions have ruined cultural […]
This year, newspapers all around the world have been dominated by one topic: Iranian post-election turmoil. Therefore, it is not surprising that an Iranian reformist leader is on the Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers. Though it is a pleasant surprise that the person is Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi. Here is what […]
If you thought Hamas and the Israelis couldn’t be any more divergent in their views, guess again. The way each society deals with one particular issue is relatively indicative of the mentality of both. That issue is mind altering substances, and yes, the results of the disagreement could be deadly. As the prevalence of alcohol in Israel continues to […]
Media reports indicate a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas is currently underway, with abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit already in Egypt awaiting transfer to Israel. Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners held in Israel were told to gather their belongs in anticipation of a swap. However, it is unclear if Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti will be included […]
Just in case you missed it, Maziar Bahari was on the Daily Show on Monday night. Bahari, a Newsweek reporter, was arrested in the aftermath of the Iranian election and kept captive for 118 days. When John Stewart commented, “You were imprisoned in Iran…” Bahari replied, “Yes. Because of you.” While it sounds ridiculous, it […]
The European Union, with Sweden holding the rotating presidency until the end of the year, will consider a draft resolution put forth by Sweden that would express support for the division of Jerusalem and refers to “Palestine” officially for the first time. Israeli leaders condemned the proposed resolution as heavily biased towards the Palestinian narrative. The […]
In a follow-up to last week’s Washington Post On Faith interviews on J Street, the column’s authors took to the other side of the debate, speaking with Weekly Standard editor Michael Goldfarb who is an outspoken critic of the group. Watch the interview here and read the discussion here. Separately, Americans for Peace Now is sponsoring […]
Foreign Policy released a list of the world’s top 100 Global Thinkers, with only a minimal number of Israel-related public figures appearing. Many of the lists thinkers clearly represent revolutionary views in foreign affairs and economists; other list members, however, are simply not among them. Notably, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former IMF official […]
In the midst of a global recession, drastic unemployment, and a non-existent peace process that could turn into an intifada, Israeli home prices are skyrocketing. Home prices are over 10-percent higher today than they were at this time last year, thus the Israeli housing market recently increased in price more than any other country’s housing […]