President Joe Biden’s inaugural ceremony in Washington, D.C. on January 20 came as a great relief. After four turbulent and chaotic years of Donald Trump’s rollercoaster presidency, the United States finally was turning a corner and returning to a semblance of normalcy. Biden was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court […]
Has Big Tech gone too far? This unsettling question emerged after outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump and Parler — a fairly new messaging app favored by conservatives and far-right activists — were removed from the internet by American information and technical companies that enjoy a virtual monopoly in the market. These developments gave rise to […]
A ragged assortment of alt-right fanatics and antisemites were seen at President Donald Trump’s infamous “Save America” rally in Washington, D.C., which erupted into an orgy of anarchy, insurrection and violence after he incited them to vent their rage at the seat of government on Capitol Hill. Among them were white supremacists carrying Confederate flags, neo-Nazis, […]
Mary Miller, a newly-elected Republican congresswoman from the U.S. state of Illinois, got off to a shaky start when she conflated Adolf Hitler with the importance of inculcating decent values to young Americans. She should have known better than to invoke his name to promote an exemplary idea. But being inexperienced, she stumbled into a […]
A seminal moment in Georgia’s history unfolded a few days ago. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were elected as the first Jewish and the first African-American senators to represent that southern state in the U.S. Senate. (It could be argued that John S. Cohen, a journalist born in Augusta, was technically the first Jewish senator […]
Yesterday was a day of infamy in the United States, a moment like no other in American history, when the sitting president, Donald Trump, incited violence and insurrection and promoted sedition, thereby disgracing himself in the eyes of most Americans. Still clinging to the false claim that the presidential election was “stolen,” despite Joe Biden’s […]
As a graduate of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, I was distressed to learn that one of its students dropped out of a postgraduate program due to what he claimed was a “toxic antisemitic environment” on campus. I studied at SOAS, a world-renowned institution, from 1969 to 1970, completing an […]
An eight-minute music video starring an Israeli and a Tunisian has caused a backlash in Tunisia. Peace Between Neighbors was released last week by the Arab Council for Regional Integration, an organization dedicated to promoting a culture of coexistence and a spirit of partnership between Israelis and Arabs in the Middle East. The video, featuring […]
With just a few days remaining in the year, I think it’s safe to say that absolutely no one on this beautiful planet will miss 2020, which forever will be synonymous with the dread, burden and grief of the coronavirus pandemic. This contagion started in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December or January and […]
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born Islamic fundamentalist charged with masterminding the abduction of American newspaper correspondent Daniel Pearl in 2002, was released from prison by a court in Pakistan several days ago. It’s a disappointing, morally repellant verdict that the international community should not accept with indifference or silence. Understandably enough, the judgment stunned and […]