The Washington Post just ran this thought-provoking piece on the Arab Spring by former Soviet dissident refusenik and Israeli Parliamentarian Natan Sharansky. As I wrote last spring, Recent upheavals across the mideast from Egypt to Tunisia to Syria can be viewed through the prism of Sharansky’s ideas on democracy and …
Recently I interviewed a Syrian-American acquaintance, a restaurateur in his mid-thirties, Ahmad (name has been changed for security reasons) about what it was like to grow up in Syria (he immigrated to the U.S. as a young adult) under the regime of Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez Assad. I also spoke with him about the unfolding …
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Former Iraqi Parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi contacted me last Friday to report that major protests are taking place across Iraq. While there have been some …
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
This week all eyes are on Egypt. It is uncertain who will succeed President Hosni Mubarak and what kind of government will be in power. But we should not miss other important developments. In a world where so few can truly be …
Last week’s street demonstrations and overthrow of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali were fascinating and inspiring to behold.
As a believer in democracy who cheers people everywhere who show the courage to demonstrate - even on fear of death - for their freedom, I can’t help but view this …
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is commemorated today, Monday January 17. Of course, Dr. King is first and foremost a hero because of his great work on behalf of African-Americans, for, and with, whom he won the human rights so long and shamefully denied them in the U.S. By extension, he …
In his speech to the nation last night memorializing the victims of last Sunday’s massacre in Arizona, President Obama did something that may turn out to be epic.
He is a silver-tongued orator. But it was only yesterday evening that I felt he used his gift to genuinely attempt his oft-stated goal of …
During this week of uprising that left 12 pro-democracy protestors dead in Iran, the sister of Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, a human rights attorney and activist, was detained by the Iranian government because of her sister’s human rights work, according to Ebadi.
In a statement, the Nobel Prize winning human rights …
In this week’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Amir Taheri reports that Iran’s pro-democracy movement is “deepening and growing.”
On Monday, thousands of Iranian students risked their lives and safety to protest the rule of the mullahs in Iran. Some protestors allegedly burned photographs of Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a taboo-shattering move …
Let This Be Obama’s JFK Moment
From The Jewish Standard
by HEATHER ROBINSON
As pro-democracy demonstrators, autocratic rulers, and hard-line Islamist forces jockey for position across the Middle East, the region is up for grabs. No one knows how things will look when the dust settles. President Obama has a once-in-a-lifetime leadership …