Middle East

Conference of Presidents, ADL denounce UNESCO resolution on Rachel’s Tomb

NEW YORK (Press Release) — Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations strongly criticized the resolution passed recently by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, in which it labeled the historic and sacred Jewish burial site of Rachel’s Tomb a mosque. “The UNESCO resolution is an affront to […]

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Middle East

U.S. apparently has no idea what to do about Syria

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — If you think I’m exaggerating about the current administration’s cluelessness toward the Middle East just read the State Department daily press conference transcripts. Even journalists covering these events are often shocked by what they hear. Today’s topic is Syria, but it’s just an example and many others could be found. State Department

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Middle East, USA

Photos show links between Gaza flotilla ‘peace activists’ and IHH terrorists

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel–The New York Times–you know, it’s sort of like National Public Radio but with printed letters on murdered trees–keeps saying it can’t find any connections between IHH, the Turkish Islamist group that organized the Gaza flotilla, and terrorism. From time to time, I’ve published helpful hints to assist them in making these

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International, Middle East, USA

Retired Mossad chief Danny Yatom again calls for joint military action against Iran

          By Donald H. Harrison   LA JOLLA, California – Before a Friends of the Israel Defense Forces audience that included four members of the U.S. Congress, Israel’s former Mossad chief, retired Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, renewed his call Saturday evening, October 30,  for joint military action by the U.S., Israel

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Middle East

Sharansky: Final mass Ethiopian aliyah in the works; will Marranos be next?

-second in a series– By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – – Even as a program is pending to complete massive immigration to Israel from Ethiopia, Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, is pondering how Israel will react if other communities around the world that were forced to convert from Judaism to

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East

How has U.S. policy toward Hamas and the Gaza Strip turned around 360 degrees?

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — A reader asks what I meant when I wrote: “Should I mention the total reversal of U.S. policy on Hamas from trying to undermine that radical Islamist group’s rule in the Gaza Strip to believing Hamas will fall if Gaza becomes prosperous?” Here’s my answer: From the time Hamas

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Middle East, USA

U.S. to participate in conference on diamonds in Tel Aviv

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–The Department of State issued the following announcement on Friday, Oct. 29: Assistant Secretary for Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs Jose Fernandez will travel to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from October 31 to November 6, 2010. The Assistant Secretary will participate in the Plenary Meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP). The KP

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Middle East

Muslim cleric’s interview tells of radical’s frustration with other Muslims

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — An Egyptian Islamist cleric named Ibrahim al-Khouli is interviewed on television, with translation by MEMRI. What can we learn from his words? A lot. “What is the nature of our relations with [the West]? They are relations of Crusader aggression against the land of Islam–in Afghanistan, in Iraq, which

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Middle East

U.S. media’s Middle East reporting is naive. Ya think?

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel –If you’ve lost faith in the current administration’s ability and mass media’s ability to respond to Middle East developments, here’s more evidence. There’s a relatively new American idiomatic expression, “Ya [you] think?” Said sarcastically, it means: Wow, duh, the answer to that question is really obvious! So consider how hidden,

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Middle East, USA

One Palestinian cartoon shows why there isn’t peace

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — After fifteen years of following the Palestinian Authority (PA) media on a daily basis, I’ve never seen anything that sums up the problem of why there’s no peace better than this cartoon in al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official PA newspaper. If only the Western mass media ran this cartoon the situation

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Lighter side: Austria, Cuba and other ‘Middle Eastern’ players

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — What could be more routine than those little notes countries send other countries to say Happy Birthday? Yet even here there’s a sort of strangeness about the current U.S. government’s approach to the Middle East . On October 25, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent national day greetings to

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International, Middle East, USA