Categories
Commentary

Puzzling And Upsetting

Why is Donald Trump’s White House providing press credentials to a website that disseminates blatantly antisemitic tropes? It’s a question that should be answered now. It can’t be dismissed or ignored. TruNews, a staunchly conservative website based in Florida that circulates outlandish conspiracy theories, was granted press passes for five of its employees to cover […]

Categories
Middle East

U.S. Resists Iraqi Demand For A Withdrawal

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to withdraw American forces from the “endless wars” in the Middle East, yet he resists calls by Iraqi nationalists demanding a pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq. Trump’s position is not exactly contradictory. Although he has drastically reduced the size of the U.S. force in Syria, he […]

Categories
Middle East

U.S. Peace Plan Weighed Heavily In Israel’s Favor

It was the understatement of the new year. Benjamin Netanyahu described U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-awaited peace proposal, unveiled in Washington, D.C. on January 28, as a “great plan for Israel.” As he sang its praises, he called Trump “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.” Netanyahu, the caretaker Israeli […]

Categories
Television

The Prosecutor, The President And The Spy

Justice is elusive in Argentina. The bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires nearly 26 years ago, the worst antisemitic crime since the Holocaust and the most deadly act of terrorism in Argentina, remains murky to this day. Alberto Nisman, the Jewish Argentinian prosecutor assigned to the case, was found dead in his […]

Categories
Jewish Affairs

A Ground-Breaking Visit

Mohammad bin Abdulkarim al-Issa, the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, an organization subsidized by Saudi Arabia, visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland a few days ago in a ground-breaking interfaith trip that could open the door to improving Muslim-Jewish relations and normalizing the discussion of the Holocaust in the Muslim and Arab […]

Categories
Commentary

Farewell, Rainbow

My daughter’s dearly beloved dog, Rainbow, a Flat-Coated Retriever, died on January 24. She was two months shy of 13. Her death saddened our family immensely. I looked out my bedroom window a day after Rainbow’s passing and saw her paw prints in the snow in the garden, a place she loved. They will melt […]

Categories
Middle East

Iran Sticks To Nuclear Deal Despite U.S. Sanctions

The much-maligned 2015 Iran nuclear agreement may be imperilled, but this does not necessarily mean that the Iranian government intends to withdraw from it any time soon. Last July, about a year after the United States unilaterally pulled out of the deal and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran, Tehran began to scale back its observance […]

Categories
Jewish Affairs

Words Of Remembrance And Atonement

The leaders and representatives of more than 40 countries descended on Israel to attend the fifth World Holocaust Forum, which took place at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on January 23, but only a handful were permitted to address the conference. The speakers represented the four Allied powers of World War II — the United States, […]

Categories
Commentary

Israel Inexcusably Snubs The President Of Poland

The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland will be solemnly marked at a Holocaust conference taking place in Jerusalem on January 23. Regarded as one of the biggest international events ever hosted by Israel, it will be attended by 41 heads of state and delegations from 49 countries. Among the […]

Categories
Commentary

A Poor Choice Of Words

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sacked one of his cabinet ministers, Roberto Alvim, not a moment too soon. Alvim, the minister of culture, was fired shortly after his delivered a six-minute speech on January 17 riddled with phrases from none other than Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s infamous minister of propaganda. It remains to be seen why […]