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Middle East

Security Challenges Facing Israel

The Iran nuclear agreement and the disintegration of Arab state structures pose significant security challenges for Israel, says one of Israel’s most prominent political analysts. Speaking at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs on October 19, Efraim Inbar said the accord curbing rather rolling back Iran’s nuclear program will have dire repercussions […]

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Arts

Body And Soul

Israel is a foreign body in the Middle East and the Jewish people have no historic connection or right to the land, Israel’s enemies claim. It’s a false and persistent allegation, used to delegitimize the Jewish state, and should be vigorously challenged. Gloria Greenfield’s one-hour documentary, Body and Soul: The State of the Jewish Nation, […]

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Arts

Once In A Lifetime

Leon Blum High School, named after the first Jewish prime minister of France, sits in a depressed suburb of Paris populated mainly by Muslims. The majority of the students in Anne Gueguen’s history and geography class are bored and unruly. It’s a wonder she’s able to teach them anything. This is the setting of Once […]

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Arts

More Than Just Games

Sports and politics collided in 1936, when the winter and summer Olympic Games were held in Germany. Opponents of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime called for a boycott, believing that participation would be a validation of Germany’s openly antisemitic policies and practices. Critics blasted this approach, claiming the Olympics fostered national pride and unity as well […]

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Guest Voices

Turkey and Kurds Are At War Again

  In parliamentary elections held in Turkey last June 7, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) received nearly 13 percent of the popular vote, giving it 80 seats in the 550-member National Assembly.   It marked the first time that a primarily Kurdish party had cleared the 10 percent electoral threshold to enter parliament.   […]

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Travel

Autumn Colors In Canada

There is a nip in the air as autumn arrives incrementally in Toronto. The days are shorter and cooler and the nights are chilly. The sun shines less strongly, but you can feel its pleasant warmth on your skin. This is the time of the year when the green leaves on deciduous trees gradually turn […]

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Middle East

The Roots Of The Violence

The timing of the latest outburst of Palestinian unrest in the West Bank and Israel is hardly surprising. With the peace process having shuddered to a screeching halt and the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank continuing apace, the probability of a Palestinian reaction was inevitable. I’m frankly surprised it didn’t happen much […]

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Middle East

What The Arab Spring Has Wrought

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was won by the National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of human rights activists, labor unions, lawyers and businesses which played a significant role in guiding Tunisia to the promised land of democracy after its political upheaval in 2010 and 2011. The uprising in Tunisia spread to the rest of the […]

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Middle East

Iran Is Still A Rapacious Tiger

The nuclear agreement signed by Iran and the six major powers in July has emboldened the Iranian leadership to carry on as usual with its aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East. Under the terms of the accord, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program for 10 to 15 years in exchange for sanctions relief to […]

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Arts

Beeba Boys

Beyond the blindingly white Sikh temples and sleek highrises of Vancouver, voracious gangsters sporting hip clothes, spiffy shoes and menacing revolvers strut their stuff in broad daylight and in the darkness of night. In Deepa Mehta’s bouncy and buoyant new feature film, Beeba Boys, which opens in Canada on October 16, this violent nether world […]