International

U.S. Rejoining U.N. Human Rights Council is Insanity

t has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. This is especially true concerning the wishful thinking in the moral divide of international affairs. One month into his administration, President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team is about to embark on a measure of what is pure political insanity by rejoining the United Nations Human Rights Council—a decision that contradicts everything that the United States is supposed to stand for. [Nitsana Darshan-Leibner]

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International, Middle East, USA

Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis: Stigma on the World’s Conscience

Tragically, the entire international community has failed miserably to muster the moral courage to end the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in Syria’s civil war. Is it any wonder that such atrocities are happening time and again? The ten-year old civil war in Syria has gone far beyond tragic mass devastation. The body and soul of two Syrian generations have been crushed. Their hopes and dreams have been shattered. Their dignity and pride were robbed. Millions of refugees and internally displaced persons were left in utter despair, hoping to wake up each morning from a nightmare only to realize that a nightmarish life is their lot. [Alon Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Alon Ben-Meir, International, Middle East

U.S. unable to protect Ain al-Asad airbase from rockets

At least 10 Katyusha-type rockets slammed into the Ain al-Asad airbase located in Anbar province in Western Iraq on the morning of March 3. Since the earlier attack in January 2020 by heavier Qiam-2 advanced tactical ballistic missiles launched from Iran, the airbase has been reinforced with air defenses that proved unable to stop the rocket attack. Can the US protect its personnel in Iraq or elsewhere from rocket attacks? [Stephen D. Bryen]

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Middle East, Stephen D. Bryen, USA

J-Street and Palestinian Antisemitism

Dylan Williams of J Street, in a recent op-ed, called on the Biden administration to “rebuild the U.S. relationship with moderate Palestinian leaders.” Since presumably J Street would not claim that the leaders of the genocidal Hamas gang are “moderate,” then the “moderate Palestinian leaders” Williams and J Street have in mind must be Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and those around him. [Moshe Phillips]

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Middle East, USA

Jerusalem 1000 Years Ago a Treasure Trove of Artifacts

Jerusalem 1000 – 1400; Every People Under Heaven is a beautifully-produced combination of a coffee-table book and exhibition catalogue produced in conjunction with the exhibition of that title held in New York in 2016. For the exhibition hundreds of precious, beautiful and fascinating artifacts produced in and concerning Jerusalem in the Middle Ages were amassed from a wide range of sources all over the world. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

The Street of the Prophets

To celebrate coming out of our third lockdown we recently went to Jerusalem for an urban exploration. We drove to our friends’ apartment, only the third time in a year we’ve been to Israel’s capital. Before our tour, we had lunch with Sarah Lynn (formerly of Ventnor, NJ) and her husband Ami, a Persian-born Israeli who once taught at Margate’s Hebrew Academy and later was the rabbi of Binghamton NY’s Orthodox synagogue. Among other things, Ami is a registered guide. He wanted to take us to Hanevi’im Street. We were his “guinea pigs” for leading a tour there. (Steve Kramer)

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Middle East, Steve Kramer, Travel and Food

Election math doesn’t favor Bibi, or anyone else

Israeli politics has too many parties. A coalition government is always necessary. Now, however, the polls are indicating a tie, more or less. Bibi doesn’t have it. He may not get to 61 Seats in the Knesset, even if Bennett joins with him.On the other side, there is a problem of plurality, egos, and a false spectrum of right and left wing parties.[Ira Sharkansky, PhD]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

The Progressives’ Toolbox for Demonizing Israel

By Richard L. Cravatts BOCA RATON, Florida — In August, Florida State University was one of several universities to have adopted the now widely accepted IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, signaling that university leaders and others outside of academia have begun to see the wisdom of having guidelines by which to identify and, hopefully, eliminate hate

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Middle East, Richard L. Cravatts, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Pompeo Lauded by Combat Anti-Semitism Movement

NEW YORK (Press Release0 –Former US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo on Monday  was granted the inaugural Global Leadership Award by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM) at its first-ever Annual Summit. The virtual event, which was attended by thousands of people from tens of countries, marked two years since the establishment of CAM. Grassroots

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International, Middle East, USA

The Codes Used by Right-Wing Extremists

HAIFA, Israel (Press Release) – A new study authored by Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communication at University of Haifa and web intelligence analyst Ari Ben-Am has revealed the existence of a new coded language on social media being used by anti-Semitic groups to fly under the radar of artificial intelligence-designed algorithms. This sophisticated

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

American remembers a life in Israel

There are figs in Israel, of course.  But alligators?  Perhaps in a zoo.  The title is explained in Chapter 3 of this memoir.  In Hebrew, figs are te’enim and alligators are taninim. It’s easy for an American just learning Hebrew to get the two confused.  Imagine going into a market and asking the vendor for a kilogram of alligators. {Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, Middle East, USA

Gains against Antisemitism at UCSD, Tufts

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — Hillel student leader Bianca Kermani succeeded in campaigning to achieve a UC San Diego resolution that condemns antisemitism and adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Both UC San Diego’s Associated Students and Graduate Students Association unanimously passed the resolutions this week. Kermani started the campaign

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Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA