Ever since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi deposed his Islamist predecessor, Mohammed Morsi, in a coup on June 30, 2013, Egypt has been awash in terrorism. Not since the late 1990s, when Egypt was ruled by Hosni Mubarak, has it faced such an upsurge of terrorist violence. Terrorists have killed hundreds of soldiers, members of […]
Roosevelt And Stalin
Susan Butler’s wide-ranging, comprehensive account of a pivotal wartime alliance, Roosevelt And Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership (Alfred A. Knopf), bores into U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s political relationship with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. They were certainly an odd couple, hailing from radically different backgrounds and torn by profound ideological differences, but they respected each […]
The Scourge Of Our Times
It was another stomach-turning day on the terrorist front. Within a matter of hours on June 26, terrorists wreaked death and destruction in three far-flung countries — France, Tunisia and Kuwait. The attacks remind us yet again that Islamic radicalism has morphed into the scourge of our times. Like the toxic fascist movements of the 20th […]
German Muslims And The Holocaust
The southern German state of Bavaria is trying to resolve a vexing issue. Should Muslim high school students in all grades be required to visit former concentration camps, or the new Nazi documentation center in Munich, as part of their studies on the Holocaust? It’s a very German problem for a number of compelling reasons. […]
Infinitely Polar Bear
Maya Forbes’ comedic drama, Infinitely Polar Bear, is biographical. Cameron Stewart (Mark Ruffalo), the main character, is modelled after her father. Compassionate and funny, he’s a manic depressive with a bipolar edge. His African American wife, Maggie (Zoe Saldana), appreciates his finer qualities, but can no longer cope with his debilitating disorder. His two adolescent […]
The Photography of Robert Doisneau
Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) was a remarkable photographer, often mentioned in the same breadth as the illustrious Henri Cartier Bresson. A lithographer and engraver by trade, he slipped into photojournalism gradually. By the 1950s, he was well established, known in particular for his photographs of Paris. Jean Claude Gautrand’s lavishly-illustrated coffee-table book, Robert Doisneau, published by Taschen […]
By now the whole world knows about the murders of nine African Americans holding a Bible study class at the historic Emanuel Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. It is one of the oldest African American congregations in the United States. Dylann Roof, a 21-year old man, has been arrested for […]
Whatever you think of the report released yesterday by the United Nations Human Rights Council on last summer’s Gaza war, take a moment to reflect on its causes. In a nutshell, it was the result of aggression on the part of Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip with an iron hand since the spring […]
Take Down The Confederate Flag
On his obnoxious racist website, American mass murderer Dylann Storm Roof holds the battle flag of the Confederacy as he spits on and burns the American flag. It’s hardly a mystery why he desecrated the Stars and Stripes as he paid respect to the Confederate flag. Roof, who cold bloodedly killed nine African-American parishioners at the historically […]
Jewish Extremism In Israel
Extremism in Israel, whether manifested in deed or through rhetoric, should be a source of grave concern to decent Israelis who care about the future direction of their country. In recent days, vandals have desecrated the Church of the Multiplication, near the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, while a United Torah Judaism parliamentarian […]