The Norwegian street artist Toddel has created a mural of Anne Frank in the southwestern city of Bergen that is nothing short of revolting. “Death of an Innocent,” as it is blandly called, provocatively portrays the late Dutch Jewish diarist clad in a Palestinian keffiyeh. Toddel has said that his mural is a critique of […]
Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister of Jordan, never fails to be hostile to Israel. Since the October 7 rampage by Hamas in southern Israel, he has lashed out at Israel repeatedly, falsely claiming that it has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip. Presumably, his opinion is shared by King Abdullah II, who has been cool […]
Several years after the release of Ben-Hur, William Wyler’s epic, I finally got to see it. I was not disappointed, being generally impressed by its grandeur and pageantry. In particular, I loved its signature chariot race pitting a Jewish prince against a Roman tribune, a scintillating scene now considered a classic in cinema. I watched […]
Israel has eliminated two of its most formidable enemies in virtually one fell swoop. On July 30, Israel announced that Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, had been killed in Beirut in retaliation for a drone strike he ordered that caused the deaths of 12 Druse children and young adults in the Golan Heights […]
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a discredit to Turkey and a destabilizing force in the Middle East. Unable to restrain himself, he regularly descends into rants unworthy of his office. And being an Islamist and an ardent champion of the Palestinian cause, he reserves his most outrageous vitriol for his nemesis, Israel. Erdogan has been […]
It looks like Benjamin Netanyahu has repaired his frayed relationship with Donald Trump. Trump, the former U.S. president and now the Republican Party candidate in the forthcoming presidential election, warmly welcomed Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, to his palatial Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on July 26. They arrived in Florida at the end of […]
Judging by her 40-minute meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on July 25 and her previous comments about the Israel-Hamas war, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, seems to have adopted a more balanced and critical view of Israel than Joe Biden, the outgoing president. A few hours after […]
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, set a record when he spoke to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on July 24. In delivering his fourth speech to Congress in 28 years, he surpassed Sir Winston Churchill, who delivered three speeches on Capitol Hill. Netanyahu, who has been in office even […]
Iran, Israel’s regional rival and arch enemy, is moving closer to joining the nuclear club, a prospect that would unsettle and destabilize the Middle East. Two months ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran has enriched enough weapons-grade uranium to make at least several nuclear bombs in just a matter of days and […]
The timing was not accidental. On July 18, a day before the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued a sharp but non-binding advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was illegal and should be terminated as soon as possible, the Knesset passed a motion, supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]