As part of its proclamation recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Trump administration made a big deal of claiming that the statement didn't define what the future borders of Israel or Palestine would or should be. This offered the charade that the U.S. wasn't refusing to recognize East Jerusalem as Palestine's capital at some vague, undetermined … [Read more...]
Israeli Nuclear Scientists Develop Micro-Copter to Detect Radioactivity at Nuclear Sites
In the old days, movie ads in theaters and newspapers had the headline: "coming soon to a theater near you." The sub-headline of this post should be: "coming soon to a sky over Natanz." Haaretz published a story (Hebrew) based on an Israeli scientific paper which described a newly developed micro-copter (the size of a human hand) which can carry 300 … [Read more...]
Iranophobia and Anti-Semitism: a Double Scourge
Today, on Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, as usual, took advantage of Jewish historic suffering to score a few cheap political points (the video of his Hebrew remarks is above). In this case, instead of speaking directly about the meaning of the Holocaust or plumbing the depths of this traumatic event in Jewish history, he exploited it … [Read more...]
Iran Nuclear Agreement Poses Existential Threat to Bibi
During the Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne, Trita Parsi tweeted that Bibi sees "peace as an existential threat." It's unclear whether he sees it as an existential threat to his political career, to Israel, or both. His statements since the framework agreement came a few days ago have been increasingly shrill, unpersuasive, and desperate. He went on every … [Read more...]