In 1991, when the Soviet Union fell apart, the five central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, sometimes called the “five stans,” became sovereign states. They were all part of a largely Turkic Muslim civilization that had flourished in the region for hundreds of years, until conquered by tsarist Russia in the […]
Man-against-nature films are common-place, but in John Curran’s Tracks, scheduled to open in Canada on June 6, a plucky, courageous young lady takes on the elements in an epic 1,700 mile journey across the untamed, barely inhabited wilderness of western Australia. Tracks, an Australian movie based on a best selling book by Robyn Davidson, demolishes […]
Last month, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, broke important historical ground by describing the Holocaust as “the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era.” Shortly afterwards, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif declared that he would not permit Iran’s reputation, such as it is, to be sullied […]
The United States, with Harry Truman as its president, recognized Israel only 11 minutes after its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared statehood on May 14, 1948. And so Truman was immortalized by Zionists as a great supporter of Jewish statehood. But as John Judis points out in Genesis: Truman, American Jews, And The Origins […]
Old Bamburg, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a time capsule — a stunning open-air museum of architectural styles. Bamburg’s collection of beautifully preserved Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque and Renaissance buildings, all located in a conveniently compact area ideal for strolling, transports a visitor back to pre-war Germany. During World War II, Bamberg was largely […]
While much of the world’s eyes were on Ukraine, and pundits were wondering about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions there, populist parties often tinged with racist and antisemitic beliefs made gains in yesterday’s elections to the European Parliament, the legislative body for the 28-member European Union. Parties strongly opposed to the European Union performed well […]
Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, recently wrapped up a five-day visit to Japan which focused on economic, diplomatic and security issues. He and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, agreed, among other things, to upgrade defence cooperation and bolster economic ties. It marked the first visit to Japan by an Israeli prime minister in more than […]
Pope Francis I was in the Middle East — Jordan, the Palestinian autonomous areas of the West Bank and Israel — on a pilgrimage this week. It was be his second trip outside Rome since becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church. To say that the church historically has had a contentious relationship with the Jewish […]
Russia, backed by China, vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on May 22 that would have empowered the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the terrible contagion of war crimes in Syria. This was Russia’s fourth veto of a Security Council resolution dealing with the Syrian civil war, which broke out three […]
Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983, was a man of war and a man of peace, but above all else, he was an ideologue who stuck steadfastly to his beliefs. A Zionist Revisionist in the mould of his hero, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Begin devoted himself, body and soul, to the attainment […]