The six major powers are working day and night to draft the outline of an acceptable nuclear agreement with Iran before the March 24 deadline. In President Barack Obama’s estimation, the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany have offered Iran an “extraordinarily reasonable deal,” contrary to claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]
Islamic State, the jihadist organization bent on conquering Iraq and Syria and establishing a caliphate in the Middle East, has sunk to a new despicable low following disclosures that its fighters vandalized priceless archeological treasures in the Iraqi city of Mosul and bulldozed the ancient Assyrian cities of Nimrud and Hatra. These barbarian desecrations, which […]
The communist approach to the Holocaust was, in a word, bloodless. While the Soviet Union and the mostly compliant satellite states in Eastern Europe never entirely banned discussion and memorialization of the Holocaust, they often muffled the full story of the extermination of six million Jews and dissolved it into the general narrative of the […]
The third season of House of Cards, now available on Netflix, is almost as sizzling and compelling as the first two seasons. Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and his wife, Claire (Robin Wright), are the ultimate power couple. He’s the president of the United States and she’s the first lady. Spacey and Wright, as usual, deliver […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embarked on an awesome task: to undo some nine decades of history and reverse the secularization of his country begun by Kemal Ataturk, the revered first leader of the modern Turkish republic. Erdogan’s project involves bringing Islam back into Turkish politics, and emphasizing, rather than negating, the glories of the Ottoman […]
Global warming is a hoax. Cigarettes have no impact on your health. The Arctic icecaps are not melting. Arrant nonsense such as this is disseminated by an army of paid lobbyists whose aim is to befuddle the public and protect their clients’ financial interests. For some 50 years, these glib publicists worked hand-in-glove with the […]
Talk about being caught in a time warp. Antigua, a United Nations World Heritage site, is one of the oldest and best preserved towns in Guatemala and indeed in Latin America. As you walk on its cobble-stone streets, passing pastel-colored Spanish-style buildings with red tile roofs, you feel as if you’ve been transported back to […]
Persecuted Jews have found a safe haven in the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, Turkey, for centuries now. This is easily overlooked, or even forgotten, as political tensions continue to flare between Turkey and Israel. Victoria Barrett’s documentary, Desperate Hours, makes this point crystal clear. Although it was made more than a decade ago, […]
Ayman, Odeh, the leader of the newly-formed Arab List, seems confident his political bloc will fare reasonably well in Israel’s March 17 general election. “By forming a single list, we hope to win more seats and weigh in more heavily on decisions taken in this country, ” he said shortly after four Israeli Arab political parties […]
Addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on March 3, an appearance arranged without the prior knowledge of the Obama administration, Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted the emerging nuclear agreement between the major powers and Iran. Calling it a “very bad deal” that would pave the way for an Iranian nuclear arsenal, he urged […]