Martin Himel’s latest documentary, Follow the Money, provides an unsettling glimpse into the unholy alliance between Islamic militias and organized crime. It will be broadcast in Canada on Vision TV on Monday, October 8 at 9 p.m. A Canadian journalist based in Israel, Himel uses his investigative skills to unearth disturbing information. He delves into the […]
Much to the detriment of Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, the United States has frozen a most valuable program designed to promote mutual tolerance, trust and understanding, build relationships across ethnic, religious and political boundaries, and address common problems. These are crucially important concepts in a turbulent region like the Middle East, where intolerance and fanaticism […]
Israel’s honeymoon with Russia has definitely cooled since a deadly incident in the skies over Syria on September 17. On that day, Israeli jets bombed a weapons facility in the coastal city Latakia, prompting Syrian air defence units to accidentally shoot down a Russian Ilyushin reconnaissance plane with 15 servicemen abroad. The Russian government immediately blamed […]
When I was much younger, stamp collecting was a popular hobby among teenagers. Most of my friends collected them, and we eventually specialized by limiting ourselves to certain countries. I saved and still have my stamps of Switzerland. So it was a given that I’d visit the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum when I was […]
Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have been trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but without success so far. In line with its efforts to pacify the usually tense Gaza Strip border region, Egypt has also been striving to persuade the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to reconcile after years of mutual acrimony. […]
In the Muslim-majority states of the Middle East, four types of regimes are on offer: Theocracies such as Iran, which is governed by Shi’a clerics; rule by a strongman — the Assads in Syria are an example; kings with a modicum of legitimacy, such as Abdullah II in Jordan; and finally, fragile and — if […]
A vast and incredibly beautiful preserve of mountains, forests, meadows, lakes and rivers northwest of New York City, the Catskills were the first great vacationland in the United States. Discovered in its pristine form by the British explorer Henry Hudson in 1609 and by tourists in its holiday mode about two centuries later, it was a […]
Canadian scholar Anna Shternshis focuses on the lives of Jews in the Soviet Union before, during and after World War II in her thoroughly-researched and wide-ranging book, When Sonia Met Boris: An Oral History of Jewish Life Under Stalin (Oxford University Press). A Soviet immigrant herself and the director of the Anne Tanenbaum Center for […]
An American university professor who declined to write a letter of recommendation for a Jewish student intending to study in Israel for a semester acted in a discriminatory manner at odds with the hallowed principles of academic freedom. John Cheney-Lippold, who teaches American culture and digital studies at the University of Michigan, told Abigail Ingber that […]