Saudi TV series speaks volumes about regional dynamics

During the holy month of Ramadan, now underway, when TV viewership among Muslims traditionally skyrockets, Saudi Arabia’s MBC network is airing a series about Jewish families in a fictional Arab country in the late 1940s — a series that speaks volumes about what’s changing, and what isn’t, across the region. In the series “Umm Haroun,” …

Israel has lots at stake with annexation

With Israel’s new “unity” government now set, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a decision in the coming weeks with huge consequences for Israel’s relations with America and the wider world: whether to begin the process of annexing major parts of the West Bank. That’s because an Israeli decision to pursue annexation would strike at the …

Cultural obstacles are the real barriers to Israeli-Palestinian peace

“The attacks on civilians, breaking their arms, and beating them, constitute humiliation, disgrace, and injustice,” Nasser Al-Laham, the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Authority’s Maan News Agency, said about Palestinian rule in the territories. “Prison cells? Torture? Burn marks?” he asked. “What have we adopted from the Arab countries apart from their garbage?… Is this the …

Airbnb unfairly sides with Palestinians in West Bank

WASHINGTON – “We are most certainly not the experts when it comes to the historical disputes in this region,” Airbnb stated in announcing that it would no longer list rentals by Israeli citizens in the West Bank. Airbnb’s modesty is commendable, but its ignorance is insidious. Its policy for the West Bank subjects Israel to …

If Britain Opts for Corbyn, Then the New Prime Minister Will Clash with Trump Over Israel

The signs of breakdown in the liberal international order are mounting, and they’re coming from disparate directions: Washington battles its closest allies on trade, Beijing and Moscow come together more closely militarily in an anti-U.S. alliance, and Beijing seeks to make its territorial expansion a fait accompli in the Pacific. But the liberal order is …

Should the U.S. stop funding the Palestinian Authority? Yes

WASHINGTON — When Palestinian terrorist Rajaei Haddad was released from an Israeli prison on April 10 after serving 20 years for the murder of yeshiva student Gabriel Hirschberg in Jerusalem’s Old City, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was there to greet him while members of Abbas’s Fatah Party hailed him “a leader, a hero, and …

Mahmoud Abbas’ exit from the Palestinian Authority is long overdue

What’s more pathetic: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ latest blast of ugly anti-Semitism, or the hopes that the global community has long invested in him as a true Israeli partner for peace? If, as Albert Einstein reportedly said, insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” than U.S. and …