The following piece was written by Brandon Friedman, a research fellow at the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University (TAU). It was first published by TAU’s Iran Pulse website. In the last six to eight months several important Iranian newspapers such as Javan, which is associated with President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Khabar, which […]
Last Sunday, Saad Hariri’s March 14 coalition held a rally in Beirut to commemorate the six-year anniversary of the group’s founding. In front of a crowd of thousands, Hariri questioned the usefulness of heavily armed non-state actors in Lebanon, and said that the Lebanese state should have a monopoly on the use of force. Hariri […]
After three weeks of protests, where enthusiastic demonstrators took to the streets of Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir, Tangier, and Marrakech, demanding a freer and more transparent political process, word came that His Majesty King Mohammed VI would appear on state television to deliver a speech. I was on a bus from Agadir to Rabat when I got the news and I made a mad dash to reach the nearest television, hoping to hear what would be a historic oration.
This morning, Israel intercepted a ship, the “Victoria,” about 200 miles off of its Mediterranean coast. The ship was believed to have departed from Syria, to have stopped over in Turkey and to be headed to the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. The Victoria is German owned and operated by a French shipping company. The […]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Israeli radio that the attack on Israeli settlers leaving five dead is “inhuman” and “immoral.” That condemnation is not nearly strong enough, as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu criticized Abbas for not making his position clear. For example, Abbas could have spoken directly to the Palestinians through their media […]
On the heels of the Egyptian Revolution, Yemen’s uprising is gaining momentum with every passing day. And as the World Medias are turning their attention to this forgotten country of the Arabic Peninsula; one cannot escape the fact that the face of this pro-democracy movement is that of a woman. Given that Yemen is […]
Israel has viewed Turkey as an ally since before it declared statehood. Turkey, along with Ethiopia and Iran (the latter of course being a much different story) made up Ben-Gurion’s Periphery Doctrine. Recognizing that in the short-term, Israel would not be able to work with its Arab neighbors, he looked to reach out to Israel’s […]
The White House issued a stern call for the Palestinian Authority to condemn yesterday’s terrorist attack that left left five Israeli settlers dead, including two children and a baby. However, hours beforehand PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad expressed his outrage against the attack, although those words still leave a lot to be desired. The White […]
On Wednesday, at a memorial service for former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decried the settlers “price tag” policy, a nebulous strategy which seeks to inflict violence and/or damage to neighboring Palestinians and their property. “I am certain Begin would have expressed grief and shock regarding this same small and […]
The United Nations accused Israel of kidnapping a Palestinian engineer while in Ukraine, with his wife contending that the abduction occurred to hinder work at an electrical plant in the Gaza Strip. According to Ynet: Abu Sisi’s Ukrainian wife, Veronika, 32, alleges the Israeli secret service Mossad carried out the abduction in order to sabotage […]
This week, both Denmark and Britain upgraded the status of the delegation of their Palestinian representatives. Both European nations moved their delegations from the third-ranked “general delegation” up to “mission.” While this means very little on the ground, it is a sign of warming relations between parties. And that is not all. Denmark and Britain […]
Yesterday, King Mohammed VI of Morocco gave a groundbreaking speech in which he proposed substantial constitutional reforms. What’s even more interesting is that the proposed reforms were not a knee-jerk reaction to the recent protests in Morocco, but rather the follow-up from several initiatives the King introduced over the last couple of years. Check the […]
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