More in ‘Hezbollah’

• President Abbas clarified that if forthcoming direct talks falter, Israel and its continued settlement-building will be at fault. [Haaretz]
• That soon-to-expire settlement freeze really is the only issue worth trying to solve for now (but you already knew that). [NYT]
• The spiritual leader of Israel’s ultra-religious, co-governing Shas Party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said Abbas ...

• Abraham Foxman calls for civility in public discourse. [HuffPo]
• Hezbollah head advocates a nuclear reactor in Lebanon. Sure, why not? [Now Lebanon]
• Ron Kampeas takes Paul Krugman to task for demagoguing the ADL/Park51 issue. [Capital J]
• Joseph O’Neil has a great essay on novelist Muriel Spark, who—who knew?—had a Jewish father. [The Atlantic]
• Iranian ...

When Daniel Luban published an essay in Tablet Magazine last week finding resonances between what he called Islamophobic opposition to the Park51 Islamic center and past anti-Semitism, one comment on the piece jumped out at us. “This article is in serious denial,” began a brief, angry response from David Horowitz, the conservative intellectual and activist ...

• Foreign Minister Lieberman dismissed the notions that there would be peace in one year and that the West Bank construction freeze would be extended. [JPost]
• Mayor Michael Bloomberg clarified and extended his remarks defending Park51 at a Gracie Mansion Iftar dinner. [Politico]
• The U.N. probe into former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s death wants ...

Saudi Arabia lacks Israel’s official stance of nuclear ambiguity, but its status is even more opaque. Indeed, though it has never acknowledged a nuclear program, the kingdom may already have a bomb.
With Iran’s seemingly inexorable march toward a nuclear weapon, it’s not difficult to see why the Saudis would want one of their own, to ...

In the fourth grade, I stopped saying the pledge of the allegiance. While the other children clapped their hands to their hearts, I stood, my arms limp, lips still. It was not an act of rebellion, nor did I intend to disrespect the United States. I’d simply decided—after several classmates had tried to convert me ...

For ten years, Lebanon’s parliament could not agree on a law to permit offshore oil and gas exploration due to disagreement over which companies could benefit. But yesterday, Lebanon finally passed just such a law under the leadership of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. What broke the impasse? “The amount of debt and Israeli greed are ...

• Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected a Palestinian proposal to begin direct talks under the precondition that the future state will be based around the 1967 borders. [Haaretz]
• George Will briefly profiles Netanyahu, getting at the heart of the recent disconnect between Israel and America. [WP]
• After Hezbollah claimed it had proof that Israel was involved ...

Today, Tablet Magazine Mideast columnist Lee Smith explored the future of U.S. military aid to Lebanon, in light of last week’s border skirmish—provoked by the Lebanese Armed Forces—and now two prominent congresspersons’ blocking of a planned $100 million. Lebanon’s first response to this block was to call it “unwarranted,” but pretty soon—and particularly after Iran ...

What do Americans know of tragedy? Our pattern for tragedy is theatrical, Shakespearean. Would Americans know the difference, for instance, between Hamlet’s story—a prince who cannot decide whether to kill the man who has murdered his father—and a real tragedy: having no choice but to make peace with the man who killed your father, like ...