Reason prevailed when Donald Trump, on February 3, pressed the pause button and postponed the imposition of hefty U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports. Temporarily, at least, he thereby averted a nasty trade war that would be damaging to all three countries and the global economy. Trump, however, slapped a 10 percent tariff on […]
The United States recently redesignated the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization,” citing the threat they pose to the security and stability of the Middle East. The designation was originally imposed by President Donald Trump during his first term of office. It is richly deserved. The Houthis, a Shi’a tribal group in northern Yemen aligned […]
The fourth Israeli hostage/Palestinian prisoner exchange since November 2023 took place in the Gaza Strip yesterday as Yarden Bibas, 35, Ofer Calderon, 54, and Keith Siegel, 65, were freed after 484 days in captivity. Before they were released into the custody of the Red Cross, they were forced to stand on a stage under a […]
There were glaring omissions on the list of dignitaries invited to the somber ceremony on January 27 marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Birkenau extermination camp in Poland. Presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens, representing 53 out of 195 countries, were there. Also in attendance were envoys from the Vatican and […]
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and U.S. President Donald Trump’s confidant, has been stirring an awful lot of unease lately. In the past two weeks, he has praised the extreme right-wing Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), raised his hand in a gesture that looked ominously like a stiff-arm Nazi salute, made light of notorious […]
As widely expected, Israel did not withdraw from southern Lebanon on January 26. Under the 60-day ceasefire agreement, Israel was supposed to cede its positions to the Lebanese army before pulling out. But as the deadline for its withdrawal approached, Israel notified representatives of the oversight committee that monitors the ceasefire — the United States, France, […]
Eighty years ago today, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in southern Poland, finding 7,000 emaciated inmates who had been left behind after the Germans evacuated this mass killing center in mid-January. When the battle-hardened Red Army reached the camp, it came upon a landscape of utter devastation. Boris Polevoy, a correspondent for the […]
The sudden, unexpected downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month was a searingly stunning blow to Russia’s status in Syria, its ambition to be a key player in the Middle East, and its international prestige. Syria was not only Russia’s chief client state in the region, but the locale of its only military bases […]
A new and thoughtful documentary about Jewish resistance to Nazi oppression, Resistance: They Fought Back, will be broadcast on the PBS network on Monday, January 27 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). It coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 8oth anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi extermination camp in […]
A wave of elation and relief swept across Israel as a long-awaited ceasefire pausing Israel’s protracted war with Hamas took hold on January 19 and three Hamas hostages, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, were released after enduring 471 horrendous days of captivity in the Gaza Strip. The celebratory mood was marred by an […]