Middle East

One of America’s first Syrian immigrants helped conquer the West — with camels

Admitting immigrants and refugees from the Middle East has become a huge flashpoint in US policy with the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict their entry to the US. So it’s interesting to note that back in the 19th century, one of the first Arab Muslim immigrants to the US — potentially the first-ever Syrian immigrant […]

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Middle East, USA

NY Times publisher defends hiring of conservative columnist Bret Stephens

Arthur Sulzberger Jr. sends personal letter to subscribers who canceled over new hire By JTA Bret Stephens at alumni weekend at the University of Chicago, June 7, 2014. (Jason Smith via JTA) The publisher of The New York Times sent a personal letter to subscribers who canceled over the newspaper’s hiring of conservative columnist Bret

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Middle East, USA

US ‘Warned Israel’ Not To Share Intel With Team Trump

U.S. intelligence officials reportedly warned their Israeli counterparts to exert caution in sharing top secret information with Donald Trump’s administration for fear of it being passed to Russia and then to Moscow’s ally and Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran. Discussions between U.S. and Israeli security services prior to Trump’s inauguration on January 20 gave rise to concerns

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International, Middle East, USA

Trump and Erdogan to meet face to face — and it might be awkward

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will sit down face to face with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday — and it’s likely to be awkward. The White House meeting comes a week after Trump signed off on a plan vehemently opposed by Turkey, which authorizes directly arming Syrian Kurds in the fight to

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International, Middle East, USA

US accuses Syria of mass executions and burning bodies in crematorium

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration accused Syria’s government on Monday of hanging hundreds of political opponents and other prisoners and burning their bodies at a military prison near Damascus, part of what the State Department called an egregious pattern of atrocities by Syrian President Bashar Assad. The State Department said the Syrian authorities may be

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Middle East, USA

Report: Jewish GOP donor furious over embassy move delay

American Jewish casino mogul and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson is reportedly furious over the Trump administration”s delays in fulfilling the president”s campaign pledge to relocate the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Adelson, a prominent GOP donor who backed President Trump”s 2016 campaign to the tune of $25 million, was angered by Secretary of State

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Middle East, USA

Researchers discover new butterfly species in Israel

In first in 109 years, new group of fritillary found hovering over slopes at Hermon ski resort By Times of Israel staff The Acentria’s fritillary (Melitaea acentria) is a new butterfly species discovered in Israel on the Hermon ski resort. (Dr. Vladimir Lukhtanov/Pensoft Publishers for Press Release Use Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International) For

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Middle East, The World We Share

UCSB defeats, CSULB adopts BDS resolution

SANTA BARBARA, California (Press Release) — The Associated Students at UC Santa Barbara (ASUCSB) overwhelmingly rejected a hateful resolution to divest from certain companies doing business with Israel on May 11, 2017. After a contentious debate lasting almost 10 hours, divestment was crushingly defeated with a vote of 0 in favor, 16 against, and 7

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Israel, U.S. leaders both subjects of probes

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — בלגנים Balaganim The word means situations of confusion, mess, or chaos, and it applied to several features of the US and Israel as we departed one and headed towards the other. According to professional sources, “balagan” came to Israeli Hebrew from our Persian cousins as well as some other regional

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

‘Moving the embassy will finally shatter the Arab fantasy’

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu weighed in Sunday evening on the issue of the US embassy in Israel, after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said President Trump was still considering whether to move the embassy to Jerusalem, and was “listening to input from all interested parties in the region.” The Prime Minister”s Office released a statement

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Middle East, USA

More than 2,000 rebels, civilians evacuated from Damascus suburb

Cairo (dpa) – More than 2,000 rebels and civilians were evacuated Sunday from a district near the Syrian capital of Damascus, a day after regime forces retook most of the suburb from the opposition, a monitoring group and Syria state media reported. The evacuess, who included around 800 rebel fighters, were transported in buses from

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Middle East

Rivlin: No gap between Israel as a Jewish and democratic state

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday morning addressed in Jerusalem a delegation of 920 members of the Montreal Jewish Federation. The delegation is currently visiting Israel to mark the organization”s centenary, and to celebrate 50 years since the reunification of Jerusalem. Montreal Jewish Federation President Evan Feldman led the delegation, and Canada’s Ambassador to Israel

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International, Middle East