By JERRY LEWIS
LONDON – A BBC documentary examining the role of Jerusalem’s light railway in redefining the capital’s demography has come in for strong criticism after it depicted a city in which Israelis have used the tram line to strengthen their grip over the Palestinians.
Continue Reading »By Matt Wanderman
A new survey of Arab youth promises to be the clearest insight yet into public attitudes in the Middle East today. The Seventh Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey found that young Arabs are opening up to new ideas and are changing their attitudes towards the West.
The pollsters questioned 3,500 Arabs between the ages of 18 and 24. The respondents came from 16 different countries and were split evenly between men and women. Continue Reading »
By i24news
Only a few dozen meters separate two dance troupes, a Palestinian one from the West Bank town of Beit Jala and the other from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, who have attempted to meet with each other on a number of occasions, but have been unsuccessful as yet.
Members of the Beit Jala swing dancing group – YouTube screenshot
After being in touch via Facebook and a number of failed attempts to meet in person in Tel Aviv, the troupes will finally be able to dance together when they travel to Ireland for a dance festival, according to Israeli daily Ha’aretz. Continue Reading »
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that he might announce an “unconventional solution” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas talks during a news conference in Egypt – Photo: REUTERS
In an interview with the Egyptian TV station Balad during his visit to Cairo, Abbas did not provide details about the proposed solution.
However, he said that he would discuss it with Palestinian leaders in Ramallah this week before presenting it to US Secretary of State John Kerry. Continue Reading »
By Reuters
The hydraulic ramp of a Turkish freighter taps down on the eastern Mediterranean port of Haifa and, under a full moon, 37 trucks roll off onto an otherwise empty pier.
Goods unloading in Port of Haifa – Photo: Reuters
In a convoy that stretches hundreds of meters, the trucks travel east across northern Israel, bringing goods from Europe to customers in Jordan and beyond.
Until three years ago the cargo these trucks carry – fruits, cheese, raw material for the textile industry, spare parts, and second-hand trucks – would have come through Syria. Continue Reading »
By Anti-Defamation League blog
The decision to re-publish a critique of anti-Semitism by Al Quds Al Arabi, the third largest circulated offshore pan-Arab newspaper according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, could signal a move toward greater pluralism and diversity of views in the Arab press, which is often dominated by anti-Jewish and anti-Israel narratives.al-quds-al-arabi-sinem-tezyaparin-jew
Al Quds Al Arabi Publishes “Anti-Jewish Slogans Are Not Islamic” by Turkish journalist Sinem Tezyaparin
Arab journalism has been a major platform for important debate and discussion about the question of religious intolerance in connection with discrimination against Muslims and the defamation of Islam. Continue Reading »
By Mordechai Kedar
The seizure of a shipment of long-range missiles heading from Iran to the Gaza Strip was definitely an amazing success for Israel’s intelligence agencies and Navy. Israeli officials highlighted the increase in Hamas’s military might and its intention to acquire game-changing tie-breaking weapons that would pose a strategic threat to Israel. According to some estimates, Iran is fortifying the Gaza-based group to better prepare for “Judgment Day” – once it attains nuclear weapons and could use a southern front in its war against Israel. Continue Reading »
Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies says Israelis have almost totally lost their faith in the two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Dr Mordechai Keder – Photo: MER Screenshot
Whereas a decade or two ago a majority of Israelis viewed the internationally backed diplomatic effort as a harbinger of peace after 50 years of war, the number of Israelis who still feel that way can “fit in two telephone booths,” Kedar told Israeli radio station Arutz Sheva. Continue Reading »
By Dore Gold
Last year, on the 95th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the former Palestinian minister, Nabil Shaath, wrote an article in the Daily Telegraph attacking Britain for issuing its famous statement of support for the establishment in Eretz Yisrael of a national home for the Jewish people.
One of the very few positive outcomes of the regional crises engulfing the Middle East is that a number of Arab states are beginning to realize that Israel is not the true enemy.
“For the first time in Israel’s existence, there is an understanding in the Arab world, that Israel is not the enemy of the Arabs. On many issues, we are united,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session earlier this week. Continue Reading »
Separating Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem as part of a two-state solution could offer the best way to reduce violence in the disputed city, according to a computer simulation developed in Switzerland and Israel.
The Old City of Jerusalem. – Photo: Michal Fattal
Social scientists mapped population groups in Jerusalem and analyzed their relationships in order to develop a computer model, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich said Thursday. Continue Reading »
By Yossi Aloni
Despite the political stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians, research conducted by an American professor reveals that there is still hope for reconciliation and coexistence between the two peoples…via soccer.
Kids playing football – Israel Today
Prior to the study, which had the children from both sides play a number of soccer games against one another, 52 percent of the Palestinian participants said they hated all Israelis. Continue Reading »
By Daniel Pipes
One key shift in U.S. policy was overlooked in the barrage of news about U.S. President Barack Obama’s eventful fifty-hour visit to Israel last week. That would be the demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, called by Hamas leader Salah Bardawil “the most dangerous statement by an American president regarding the Palestinian issue.”
By Ryan Jones
US President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel was widely seen as a success, given that the primary goal was to win over the hearts of an Israeli public that had been, at best, suspicious of the American leader.
Obama speaking in Jerusalem – Photo by AFP
But behind all the praise and admiration Obama heaped upon Israel, there was a gentle chiding that showed he still views the lack of peace in the region as primarily the fault of the Jewish state. Continue Reading »
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