by CARMIA Though Haifa’s “tent city” can’t compare to Tel Aviv’s , it has grown from three tents to about 50. But not only has the number of tents increased – a real culture has sprung up, along with hierarchies and role divisions, and local norms. Read More »

About a week ago, “tent cities” sprung up in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to protest the lack of affordable housing. The tent protests were also planned for other cities in Israel such as Be’er Sheva and even Kiryat Shmona. Haifa wasn’t mentioned in the news, but starting today around 17: 30, young people have set up shop in the Carmel Centre. Read More »

Comparing the photographs from Egypt in 2011 to those from the post-election demonstrations in Iran in 2009 – there are almost no women demonstrating in Egypt. In the Iranian protests, women were front and center, at least on the documentary record. Says quite a bit about the differences between these two societies and the protest movements. Read More »

BY AMOS Unless higher-level officers in the Egyptian army turn against the government, this protest wave will not turn into a revolution. Mubarak has shown that he’s willing to go far – as far as the Iranian regime did – in crushing the protests. Read More »

I’m really not sure, but I think history may have just been made on Galgalatz , a popular IDF-operated radio station. Today at 15: 10, a complete song in Arabic was played on the airwaves. Read More »

This is almost as funny as Prince Andrew’s analysis of anorexia and his paean to British geography teachers Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the leaked documents “suspicious,” but refused to comment on their substance. According to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency, Mr. Read More »

BY AMOS For me, the biggest story of the latest WikiLeaks release so far is the documentation of active Arab lobbying against Iran and repeated calls for aggressive American intervention. In the leaked reports, Saudi and several other Gulf state officials repeatedly urge America to keep the military option on the table. Read More »

I always marvel at MK Ahmed Tibi ‘s willful distortions of the truth. Now, the doctor from Taibeh has seized the stage of the New York Times op-ed page to capitalize on Lieberman and Bibi’s latest loyalty oath mischief. Read More »

Please take a look at this excellent post by Ehsani for Josh Landis’s Syria Comment on the economic reforms in Syria. The process described in this post are much more important than the blips on Zvi Bar’el’s radar . Read More »

The New York Times reported today that Sunnis in Iraq formerly allied with the U.S. appear to be (re)joining the Qaeda-led insurgency. The article cites militia leaders in Salah ad Din, Diyala, and Baghdad governorates. The Awakening Councils played a critical role in defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq, initially in Anbar province. Read More »

NOAHKSo I am going to take leave of Kishkushim. It has been a largely enjoyable and rewarding experience. I reckon I leave something in the neighborhood of 75-100 posts, most of which took some time to compose, unlike a lot of what you find in the blogosphere. Read More »

“German bread (γερμανικό ψώμι )” on my balcony in Thessaloniki. NOAHK Benjamin Netanyahu ’s visit to Greece was the first ever by an Israeli premier. It followed Greek PM George Papandreou ’s visit to Israel just last month , signaling a deepening of ties between the two countries. Read More »

Footage released by Israel Army Radio seems to contradict claims by Balad MK Hanin Zuabi that she saw “no people carrying clubs” aboard the ship. It also shows her arguing with Israeli soldiers attempting to evacuated wounded activists. She can be heard insisting to an army soldier several times that the activists “want to stay here [on the ship]. Read More »

Nearly six hours after UNIFIL acknowledged that IDF troops were removing trees on the Israeli side of the border, the Guardian still has a video on its web site in which the newspaper’s caption claims that the fighting broke out after Israeli soldiers tried to uproot a tree on the Lebanese side of the border. Read More »

BY CARMIA In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, a taboo was broken in Germany. For the first time since the Second World War, Germans were out in droves, waving their national flag . Read More »

Though there have been some gay protests or events in Lebanon as of late, Israel remains the only country in the Middle East to hold annual Pride Parades. Admittedly, the Haifa parade doesn’t draw quite the crowd that Tel Aviv does, but turnout last Thursday was pretty impressive – over 500 according to one estimate, possibly even more. Read More »

I used to listen to Rex Murphy on CBC Radio when I was in high school. I believe his show was called “Cross-Country Check-Up” and it was always right on. Read More »

Reading over Richard Allen’s op-ed in the New York Times today, I asked myself whether the author isn’t suffering from the same mental infliction suffered by his beloved President Ronald Reagan. Allen, U.S. Read More »

An article published today in Hurriyet , one of Turkey’s biggest newspapers, strengthens some of the accounts provided by IDF soldiers of what happened after they landed on board the ship. The article has a link to a collection of photos restored from memory cards that belonged to activists on board the ship. Read More »

The Jerusalem Post has an exclusive interview with S. who took part in the operation, who is described as “the 15th and last Shayetet 13 commando to rappel onto the ship.” His description paints a totally different picture of the events than we have received in most of the international media until now. Read More »