President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Arab world, next month. Before he leaves Washington, D.C., he should read Karen Elliott House’s substantive book, On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — And Future, published by Alfred A. Knopf. One of the most penetrating works […]
John Kerry should be commended for his herculean efforts to break the Gordian knot of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Not since the days of Henry Kissinger and James Baker has a U.S. secretary of state done so much, so quickly, to try to advance the prospect of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Since the 1967 […]
The Michigan State University geographer Harm de Blij, in the 2012 edition of his book, Why Geography Matters, writes about an “Islamic Front” in sub-Saharan Africa that stretches from Sudan, bordering the Red Sea in the east, to Sierra Leone on the Atlantic Ocean in the west. And the line cuts many countries, including Nigeria, Africa’s […]
Musical notes coursed through his blood, recalls a friend. The late Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012) was an American composer whose melodic songs and iconic scores for Broadway plays and Hollywood movies earned him a slew of prestigious prizes — four Grammys, four Emmys, three Oscars, three Golden Globes, a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Who […]
Jerome David Salinger, the great American novelist, was ubiquitous yet remote and elusive. His iconic debut novel, The Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, has been read by three generations of adolescents in the United States and the rest of the world and has sold an astonishing 60 million copies, a figure that staggers […]
Once in a while, a film of pristine and profound beauty comes along, fixating and enchanting a viewer. Igor and the Cranes’ Journey, directed by Evgeny Ruman, is such a film. The Toronto Jewish Film Festival’s Chai Tea & A Movie series will screen in on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. (Tea is served […]
A dowdy middle-aged woman nurses a drink in a singles club in Santiago, Chile. She looks vulnerable and lonely. She perks up as she dances with an old friend, but when she leaves the noisy, smoke-filled club, she is still utterly alone. Gloria, the woman in question, is a divorcee with two grown children. Plain looking, […]
It was freezing cold in Toronto and I yearned for the heat. Weary of the January weather, my wife and I decided to book an all-inclusive package to Cuba. We chose Cuba because it offers what far more expensive destinations in the Caribbean also offer: great weather, nice sandy beaches and comfortable hotels. We had read […]
You may remember this old joke from the 1990s: What is Communism? Answer: The transition between capitalism and capitalism. To this we can now add: What was the Arab Spring? In Egypt, it has been the transition between military dictatorship and military dictatorship, with a brief interlude of Muslim Brotherhood rule. Remember all the nonsense […]
Pakistan has been called “the most dangerous place in the world” by Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Gul, the executive director of the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies. Throughout its history, this country of 180 million people — the second largest Muslim state in the world — has been subject to periodic military coups, often […]