Author Archives: Ali Gharib

Today, Commentary has been more or less liveblogging events, with 7 posts up about ‘Nakba day’ (as they too call it). Of course, there’s little mention of the actual Nakba, but it’s very clear from their flailing that they’re very … Continue reading →

More reaction to last Thursday night’s debate between Brooklyn congressman Anthony Weiner and former Washington State congressman Brian Baird at the New School, moderated by Roger Cohen. I just transcribed this piece of one of Weiner’s responses. It’s begging to … Continue reading →

From a post at Lobelog: Lee Smith, the Weekly Standard writer and Hudson fellow, had some difficult truths to tell the hardline Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). In a phone briefing, …Smith discussed how support for Israel and its peace treaty with Egypt led … Continue reading →

British writer Ian McEwan took a lot of heat for accepting the Jerusalem Book Prize. The literary award is given out every two years at the Jerusalem International Book Fair, an event that appears to be put on by the Jerusalem municipal government. In response … Continue reading →

The earth reportedly shook as two Iranian naval boats approached the Suez Canal on Monday morning. For the U.S., though, the building tension over the (delayed, for now) passage could result in diplomatic, not literal, earthquakes. When the news was first announced last week … Continue reading →

This is a crosspost from Lobelog. Everyone’s watching Egypt. Everyone. But Daniel Pipes sees right through it, to where Iran is lurking in the background. It’s right there in the opinion section of the Washington Times, where even Frank Gaffney … Continue reading →

Ali Gharib posted the following notes from Cairo/June 28 at Lobelog. The following is a set of edited notes from a conversation between myself and IPS’s correspondent in Egypt, Emad Mekay, who was filing dispatches for LobeLog until the Internet … Continue reading →

After the break-up the latest plot by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack the U.S. by FedExing bombs set to blow up in mid-air, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic set out to use the attempted attack as a way to disprove ‘linkage’ – ie, the notion … Continue reading →

Many of the liberal pro-Israel lobby J Street’s detractors from the American Jewish right complain that the group is outside the ‘mainstream of American Jewish opinion’ because it makes mild criticisms of Israeli policy and takes a dovish approach to … Continue reading →

On a press call hosted by a pro-Israel organization, Rep. Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, told reporters that he intends seek the prosecution of any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla. “The Antiterrorism and Effective … Continue reading →

The view from the West Bank: "Looking out from my window," Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian professor and activist, said on a press call hosted by the Institute for Middle East Understanding yesterday, "I’m seeing the settlement of Har Homa, the … Continue reading →

Phil mashed up my post on the Mamilla talk at Columbia and an article about the Olmert scandal by Isabel Kershner in the New York Times to ask an important question: "Are there non-Jews in West Jerusalem?" I’m going riff … Continue reading →

I’m glad to see that Mondoweiss is posting relevant pieces of the Goldstone Report chunk-by-chunk — bite-sized morsels from the hundreds of pages of documents in the full report. But we didn’t need Goldstone to confirm that the Israel Defense … Continue reading →

I just got an e-mail from an Israeli PR firm that proclaimed, in bold, caps-lock, underlined type: "Israelis More Tolerant of Islam Than Swiss." The release, datelined Jerusalem, came on behalf of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, a coalition created … Continue reading →