On October 18, 2011, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was finally delivered into the waiting arms of his relieved and long-suffering family after years of terrifying imprisonment. Shalit was captured over five years earlier on June 25, 2006 by notorious Gaza-based…
Off Campus
Multinational Initiative Seeks Peace Through Environmental Cooperation
Friends of the Earth Middle East, (FoEME) founded in 1994 originally under the name EcoPeace, is an organization without national identity because it is run by, and serves, three distinct peoples in the Middle East. Israeli co-director Gidon Bromberg was…
Tenure Shields Professor From the Consequences of Hate Speech
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY — On Monday evening, KSU students were treated to a presentation by Ishmael Khaldi, a rising star in the Israeli diplomatic corps. Khaldi has served as Israel’s deputy consul general to the Pacific Northwest, and he currently serves…
גלעד שליט חוזר הביתה – Gilad Shalit Comes Home
Gilad Shalit, the Israel soldier held captive for five years by Hamas, has been freed today in Gaza in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. [slideshow] Gilad’s first statements (in an apparently coerced interview by Egyptian media):…
Surfing for Peace: How One Man Has Made a Difference
“Surfboard diplomacy” is not a term we often find amidst the sound bytes and jargon used to deliver the Middle East news. For Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, however, it’s a term that guides his vision of the Middle East. The self-proclaimed, “first…
Modern media sinks claws into healthy Israel-US relationship
In this age of mounting international tension along cultural, religious, political, and ideological lines, it is more important than ever to pursue objectivity and to avoid subliminal implications in our journalistic endeavors. Unfortunately, many news sources are increasingly providing fanciful…
Israel’s Latest Nobel Prize Intimates Need for Practical Politics
With the political climate in Israel darkening, this past week has offered us a breath of fresh Swedish air. On Wednesday, Dr. Daniel Shechtman of Israel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of quasicrystaline structures – solid…
The Fountainheads Advise Us to Dip Our Apples
The Fountainheads are a group of young Israeli dancers, singers, actors and artists, all graduates and students of the Ein Prat Academy for Leadership. This year, they commemorate Rosh Hashanah with yet another Judaicized rendition of a radio favorite – this…
Olive Tree Initiative meets Dennis Ross
When I first embarked on this journey to DC and the Middle East, I intended to thoroughly document my experiences and impressions daily. But I didn’t bring a laptop, nor do I own a smart phone, so for now, I’ll…
Anti-Semitism Studies returns to Yale despite PLO criticism
This past June, Yale University announced that its Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), which had been operating since 2006, was meant to be discontinued. The official reason given by Professor Donald Green, director of Yale’s Institu te…