IDF strikes Gaza in response to Kassam attack

BY HAARETZ— The Israel Defense Forces launched a retaliatory airstrike early Thursday against two Gaza city training facilities operated by the armed wing of the Islamist militant movement Hamas, witnesses and officials said No casualties were reported. Israeli F-16 jets flew shortly after midnight over the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, firing a missile at each of…

Details

And the winner is…the Muslim Brotherhood

BY EARL COX, JPOST— All the dissent and uprisings in the Muslim Middle East recently have certainly made startling news and unprecedented history but, at this point, it seems that they have generated great drama and hope but no real change. While it appeared that the people of the streets were demonstrating for democracy and…

Details

Middle Eastern Christians and anti-Semitism

BY AYMENN JAWAD— I was recently told by my aunt in Baghdad that there was a widespread belief among Iraqis that some external force was behind the protests and uprisings across the Middle East. What outside conspiracy, I wondered, could be responsible for the Arab Spring? Not to worry, however; George Saliba – the Syriac…

Details

Israel Bows to Obama’s 1967 Borders Pressure

BY DAVID HORNICK, FRONTPAGEMAG.COM— Media reports quote anonymous Israeli officials saying Israel has decided, after all, to negotiate a two-state arrangement with the Palestinians based on the 1967 borders. The reports have a certain shock value; reading between the lines, the shock dissipates somewhat. AP calls it a “dramatic policy shift” and cites a report…

Details

Water for Kassams?

BY DAVID LEV, ARUTZ 7— In a “gesture” to Gaza Arabs on the occasion of the month of Ramadan, which began this week, Israel will transfer to Gaza an additional 3 million cubic meters of water. The decision on the allocation increase was made Tuesday by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Israel announced a host of…

Details

The epic journeys of the Radanites

BY VICTOR SHARPE, –CANADAFREERPRESS— As a youth, I was fascinated to read about the travels of Marco Polo who, in 1275, had journeyed from his home in Italy to distant China. That was no mean feat in the thirteenth century, even though Alexander the Great had taken his Greek army as far as the Punjab…

Details

Moscow defends Assad, seeks nuclear deal with Iran by freezing sanctions

BY DEBKAFILE— As Moscow prepares to block strong UN Security Council condemnation of Syrian violence against protest, Russian diplomats Monday, Aug. 1, launched a quiet effort to start freezing sanctions imposed on Iran over its military nuclear program in return for Tehran satisfactorily answering of the International nuclear watchdog’s “questions and concerns,” debkafile’s Moscow and…

Details

B'tayavon: Braised brisket

*Braised brisket is synonymous with Jewish holidays. You would be hard-pressed to go to a Passover or Sukkot celebration and not find brisket somewhere on the menu. Most of my Jewish friends are fiercely loyal to their mother or grandmother’s brisket recipe, just as they should be. In case you do not come from a…

Details

Braised Brisket

*Braised brisket is synonymous with Jewish holidays.  You would be hard-pressed to go to a Passover or Sukkot celebration and not find brisket somewhere on the menu.  Most of my Jewish friends are fiercely loyal to their mother or grandmother’s brisket recipe, just as they should be.  In case you do not come from a long…

Details

'Lebanon army says it can defend oil reserves without Hezbollah'

BY HAARETZ—  Christian Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea retorted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah Friday, saying the Lebanese army would defend alone any future oil installations put to risk by Israel, according to a report in the Lebanese Daily Star. “The Lebanese Army, not you, will deal with our oil installations in the event they were…

Details

Charles H. Spurgeon and the restoration of Israel

BY SHELLEY NEESE— Charles Spurgeon, a British Reformed Baptist preacher, is one of history’s most influential orators and theologians. Long before loud speakers, Spurgeon was drawing crowds of 10,000 to hear his plain-spoken, scripture-heavy sermons. Though he died 56 years before the birth of the modern state of Israel, the return of the Jews to…

Details

Charles H. Spurgeon and the restoration of Israel

BY SHELLEY NEESE— Charles Spurgeon, a British Reformed Baptist preacher, is one of history’s most influential orators and theologians. Long before loud speakers, Spurgeon was drawing crowds of 10,000 to hear his plain-spoken, scripture-heavy sermons. Though he died 56 years before the birth of the modern state of Israel, the return of the Jews to…

Details

The ship that changed the Middle East

BY VICTOR SHARPE, RENEW AMERICA— During World War 1, Winston Churchill was widely blamed for the Gallipoli debacle; the attempt by the British to end the war by striking at Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Turkish Empire. But Churchill’s decision to invade the Dardanelles, penetrate Europe’s soft underbelly, and force an early end to the war…

Details