Middle East

Anti-Semitism Then and Now

News relating to the Holocaust of 1938 to 1945 and to anti-Semitic, anti-Israel dangers of today are the focus of today’s news briefing.

Above, is a recent video interview conducted by Sandy Scheller of the South Bay Historical Society with Holocaust Survivor Rose Schindler of San Diego at the Chula Vista Public Library, which currently is hosting an exhibit on Holocaust survivors who moved to the South Bay region of San Diego County.  The video incorporates clips from previous video interviews with Schindler’s late husband, Max.  The stories of both Schindlers were told in their joint memoir, Two Who Survived. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Stephen D. Bryen, USA

Pompeo first US top diplomat to visit West Bank settlement, Golan Heights

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday became the first top American diplomat to visit a West Bank Jewish settlement and the disputed Golan Heights, cementing Donald Trump’s strongly pro-Israel legacy.On a farewell tour of the Middle East, Pompeo also said exports from the settlements could now be labelled as “Made in Israel” and

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Middle East, USA

Watershed Moment for the Middle East

Israel’s new agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, new agreements for airline overflights of countries with which Israel has no new peace or economic pacts, a new aviation agreement with Jordan and general Saudi and Egyptian approval have brought what many are calling a “watershed moment.” That “watershed” is the potential splitting of the Arab consensus on “Palestine,” as Arab countries weigh continued rejection of the state of Israel against the realities of life in the Middle East. [Shoshana Bryen]

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USA

Bahrain urges Israel-Palestinian peace in historic Jerusalem meet

Bahrain’s foreign minister called for fresh Israeli-Palestinian peace talks during a landmark meeting Wednesday in Israel with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Pompeo – President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, on a farewell visit to close ally Israel – did not address Israel’s dispute with the Palestinians, who have protested his

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Middle East, USA

US imposes new Iran sanctions ahead of Biden presidency

President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a major Iranian foundation and the country’s intelligence minister, further stepping up pressure before Joe Biden is sworn in.The Treasury Department said it was freezing any US interests of the Foundation of the Oppressed, officially a charitable organization for the poor that has sweeping interests across

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Middle East, USA

‘The Occupation Made Me Beat My Wife’

That medieval blood libel, largely abandoned in the contemporary West, does, however, still appear as part of Arab world’s vilification of Jews—now transmogrified into a slander against Israel, the Jew of nations. But in the regular chorus of defamation against Israel by a world infected with Palestinianism, a new, more odious trend has begun to show itself: the blood libel has been revivified; however, to position Israel (and by extension Jews) as demonic agents in the community of nations, the primitive fantasies of the blood libel are now masked with a veneer of academic scholarship and published as politicized scientific study. [Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D]

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

Biden speaks to Trump allies Netanyahu, Modi

US President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday held his first talks since his victory with the prime ministers of Israel and India, allies of Donald Trump, who has not conceded defeat.Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had a notoriously rocky relationship with the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, that he was determined “to ensure

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International, Middle East, USA

Palestinians say restoring cooperation with Israel

The Palestinian Authority of president Mahmoud Abbas will restore coordination with Israel after severing it in May, a PA minister said Tuesday evening.”In the light of Mahmud Abbas’s international contacts… and given the written and verbal commitments we have received from the Israelis, we will resume relations where they were before May 19, 2020″, Hussein

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Middle East, USA

Coronavirus Politics in U.S., Israel

Along with, or perhaps behind the quarrels over the presidential transition, is the global pandemic.It’s the worst case since the flu that accompanied World War I more than a century ago.The US President should take considerable credit for his country’s leading indicators of illness and death. His various claims about cures and vaccines, plus his reluctance to wear a mask have contributed to the widespread disregard, and the increasing incidence of infections. [Ira Sharkansky]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USA

Israeli settlers disrupt EU visit to sensitive East Jerusalem area

Israeli settlers disrupted a visit on Monday by a European Union (EU) delegation to a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem where Israel plans to build more than 1,200 housing units.A video published in Israeli media shows activists shouting “anti-Semites go home,” “anti-Semites go back to Europe” as EU representatives attempted to speak.Two Jerusalem city council members

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International, Middle East