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Middle East

Israel, The Palestinians And The Coronavirus Vaccine

Israel has amassed an exemplary record in vaccinating its population against the Covid-19 virus. Since December, three out of nine million Israeli citizens have been immunized with the Pfizer vaccine. Nonetheless, the pandemic has killed nearly 5,000 Israelis, and Israel has gone through three lockdowns to contain its deadly effects. Israel, a hub of the […]

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Film

Dear Comrades!

Russia’s Academy Award submission this year in the category of best foreign film, Dear Comrades!, is a taut political drama that delves into the overlapping themes of faith, corruption and disillusionment. Opening in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on February 5, Andrei Konchalovsky’s gritty black-and-white movie unfolds in Novocherkaask, a small provincial town in […]

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Middle East

The Iran Nuclear Agreement Hangs In The Balance

Israel has launched an orchestrated campaign to induce the United States to either stay out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement or completely revamp it to its satisfaction. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a vehement opponent of the accord, fired the first shot across the bow even before Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump as U.S. president […]

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Film

Two Of Us

Nina and Madeleine live in separate apartments across the hall from each other, but they’re more than merely neighbors. They’re lovers who’ve managed to keep their lesbian relationship secret all these years. Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Martine Chevallier) are the central fugues in Filippo Meneghetti’s poignant romantic French-language drama, which will be available on […]

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Film

The Story Of Wilfrid Israel

Wilfrid Israel, a wealthy businessman, saved thousands of Jews in Nazi Germany and was instrumental in the founding of Kibbutz Hazorea. But for many years, he was an unsung hero, and to the consternation of Israeli filmmaker Yonatan Nir, not a single street in Israel has been named after this heroic figure. Nir, who was […]

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Books

Ghost Citizens

Tens of thousands of Polish Holocaust survivors returned or reappeared in Poland after World War II, hoping to resume their lives and reclaim their properties. Some had gone into hiding, others had endured Nazi extermination camps, and still others had fled into the Soviet Union after Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The […]

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Middle East

Russia’s Unsolicited Advice To Israel

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered Israel some unsolicited advice recently. Criticizing Israel for having bombed Iranian military sites in Syria, which pose a threat to Israel’s security, he proposed that Russia should take care of this vexing problem. As he put it at a press conference in Moscow, “If Israel is really forced to […]

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Commentary

Twitter’s Policy Is Maddeningly Inconsistent

Twitter, the social networking service, owes all its users a plausible and definitive explanation regarding the posts it allows on its platform. At the present time, Twitter’s policy is maddeningly inconsistent and seemingly contradictory. Twitter has left us all in a twilight zone of confusion. In his final days in office, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Twitter […]

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Books

Theodor Herzl — Visionary And Statesman

Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement, was proof of the theory that one man can make a difference. Against the greatest of odds, he laid the foundation for the birth of Israel, an event he presciently predicted at the turn of the 19th century. A visionary, prophet and leader, Herzl was an […]

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Commentary

Healing A Wounded Nation

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 […]