Bashar al-Assad, the ousted president of Syria, is a war criminal. These are not mere words. Last week, a court in Damascus sentenced him, his brother Maher and six former Syrian officials to death for murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity, all committed during the long civil war in Syria. “Bashar al-Assad used […]
A somber anniversary was marked in Afghanistan a few days ago as the Taliban celebrated the fifth anniversary of its return to power. On August 15, 2021, following a costly two-decade war that achieved nothing of lasting value, the United States and its allies unilaterally withdrew their troops from that war-torn country. The ultimate futility […]
Bevan Lee’s Australian television series, A Place To Call Home, definitely strikes a chord. A vibrant family drama consisting of 67 episodes, it is now available on the Amazon Prime platform. I was inexorably drawn into it from the very start. Sarah Adams (Marta Dusseldorp), a nurse and a convert to Judaism whose Jewish husband […]
On August 8, a day after Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan announced the formation of a joint defence pact, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif spoke bluntly. Claiming that Israel is an “illegitimate state” and a “threat to the entire Muslim world,” he called for a “united military front” against the Jewish state. Asif’s inflammatory comments, […]
Antisemitism is now a focal point in the impassioned debate over free speech in the United States as defined by the First Amendment in the constitution, contends James Loeffler in his bold and thought-provoking work, Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America, published by Metropolitan Books. This debate is at […]
Iran lost the war militarily, but may prevail politically. Nearly six months after the United States and Israel launched joint air strikes in Iran, killing a significant proportion of its political and military leadership and massively degrading its armed forces, the Iranian regime has maneuvered U.S. President Donald Trump into a strategic cul-de-sac. Trump initiated […]
Israel’s support in the Democratic Party is gradually slipping away. The latest evidence of this seminal shift is Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary on August 4. El-Sayed, a harsh critic of Israel, may become the first Muslim to serve in the U.S. Senate. A 41-year-old physician, former public-health official and onetime Columbia University […]
John Galliano, the controversial British fashion designer, will be the subject of an exhibition at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art starting next May 9. Due to run until January 9, 2028, it may well burnish his reputation as one of the most influential designers of the 20th century, but it may not necessarily […]
Donald Trump is bound to be disappointed, if not angry, by Israel’s negative reaction to his recent announcement regarding the prospects of peace in the Gaza Strip. On July 29, nine days after Khalil al-Hayya was elected Hamas’ new political chieftain, Trump announced that Hamas had agreed to give up its weapons during future negotiations […]
On the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington last week, Trump received a letter from Matan Vilnai, the chairman of Commanders for Israel’s Security, an organization of retired officials who served in the Israeli armed forces and intelligence agencies. Vilnai’s impassioned letter was not about Israel’s current confrontation […]