14 Oct
Uncategorized

With Plans to Withdraw Troops From Syria, Is Trump Still Israel’s ‘True Friend’?

No less surprising than Trump’s decision to withdraw forces from Northern Syria, following a single phone call with Turkey’s Erdogan, was the new defiant energy this move injected in the Republican Party. After sticking with Trump as he struggled to explain the Ukrainian affair, members of his party suddenly found their voice.

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26 Sep
International, Israel, Latest

Q&A: Middle East Scholar Aaron David Miller on Syria and Israel

The United States, Russia, China, France and Britain reached a UN Security Council resolution this week to compel Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons stock after government forces reportedly used sarin gas on civilians in an August 21 strike. Still, international tensions remain high as uncertainty lingers over how the U.S. and Russia, the central brokers of the agreement, will enforce the resolution. Aaron David Miller, vice president for new initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has been writing and thinking about the Middle East since the late 1970s. The author of four books, Miller has served as an advisor to six Secretaries of State in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. He joined the Washington, D.C.-based Wilson Center in 2006 and talked to Moment editor Nadine Epstein recently about what the diplomatic struggle between...

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06 Dec
Arts & Culture, Culture, History, Latest

An Ancient Synagogue in Damascus

By Samantha Sisskind If you go to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Damascus, Syria, you’ll find hardly any obvious traces of Jewish life.  There remains a school that is unidentifiable as a Jewish institution, a few doors with the Star of David engraved in the granite lintel of the doorways, a small unobtrusive synagogue, abandoned houses and storefronts and some dusty narrow streets.  If you didn’t know it was there, it would be virtually unrecognizable as a relic of a once-vibrant Jewish community with a heritage and history centuries long. However, the major monument to Jewish life in the country lies in the National Museum of Syria, just a few minutes outside of the Old City. At the very end of the classical period wing, past the Greek, Roman and Palmyrene exhibits, you’ll...

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09 Dec
Latest

Jimmy Carter Alert!! Everybody Look Out!

By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler Former president Jimmy Carter just arrived in Lebanon, where he will do some electoral analysis and give a speech that will probably upset legions of Jews across the globe. Carter will speak Dec. 12 at the American University in Beirut on "30 years after Camp David: A memo to the Arab World, Israel and the Quartet." He will also go to Syria. Says JTA: From Beirut, Carter will continue to Syria and a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad "to discuss the prospects for peace in the Middle East," according to a statement from the Atlanta-based Carter Center, the human rights group he established and still leads. Israel and Syria have been negotiating peace indirectly under Turkish auspices but without the encouragement of the Bush administration, which regards Syria as a terrorist-backing rogue nation. A number of dovish...

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15 Sep
Culture, Latest

Inappropriate Politics at Beijing Games Continues

This weekend, the Iranian men's wheelchair basketball team competing at the Paralympic Games in Beijing quit the tournament. The reason given was "dissatisfaction" with their "schedule," although there is speculation that they quit because of the possibility they would play the Israeli team in the next round. According to theTehran Times: The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and the International Paralympics Committee announced that Iran has pulled out of competition "due to their dissatisfaction with the draw proposed for the cross-over round and subsequent schedule". The draw placed Iran and Israel on the same side of the bracket, so that if they both won their quarterfinal matches (against the USA and Canada, respectively) they would play each other in the semifinals. We wrote about two similar incidents during the Olympic Games in August, when Iranian and Syrian swimmers pulled...

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15 Aug
Latest

More Politics in the Olympic Pool

The Jerusalem Post reports that a Syrian swimmer, Bayan Jumah, withdrew from the eighth 50m freestyle preliminary heat today. Jumah's lane was directly alongside Israeli swimmer Anya Gostomelsky's. JPost did not include an explanation from Jumah or the Syrian Olympic Committee. This is the second such incident of the Beijing Games. Earlier this week we wrote about Iranian swimmer Mohammad Alirezaei suddenly withdrawing from a 100m breaststroke preliminary heat in which an Israeli was to swim, ostensibly because of stomach pains. Despite the obvious political implications (Iran prohibits contact with Israelis) the IOC accepted Alirezaei's explanation, and the issue has not been pursued further. Gostomelsky, who failed to qualify for semifinals despite setting a new Israeli record, said, "I didn't notice that the lane beside me was empty. It's her problem." —Benjamin Schuman-Stoler

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