Category Archives: Egypt

Not exactly a shining moment for U.S. in Gaza

Gaza sealift all about saving face in Washington

There is no need for piers, ships or aircraft to get food into the Gaza Strip. There are lots of roads available.

Besson en route to Gaza
The U.S. Army vessel General Frank S. Besson prepares to depart Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia on Saturday en route to the eastern Mediterranean.

Good news! The U.S. logistical support ship General Frank S. Besson Junior has just sailed from Norfolk, Va., carrying the equipment needed to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza. That will enable the U.S. to deliver food to the starving (yes, literally starving) Palestinian population of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip

Once U.S. President Joe Biden finally decides to do something, it happens fast. Only three days after the White House’s announcement, the General Frank was at sea, and in only 15 more days it will reach the Gaza coast.

Continue reading Not exactly a shining moment for U.S. in Gaza

Dyer on the “Pause”; West Bank Eruption? A Left-Wing Jew & the War

#1 – Israel-Hamas Ceasefire

22 November 2023

Israel-Hamas Ceasefire

By Gwynne Dyer – Author, Historian & Independent Journalist

There are really three parties to the ‘pause’ – nobody is officially using the word ‘Author, Historian & Independent Journalistceasefire’ – that brings at least a temporary end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Two of the three parties, Hamas and the United States, would very much like it to turn into a permanent ceasefire, but Israel emphatically does not.

Continue reading Dyer on the “Pause”; West Bank Eruption? A Left-Wing Jew & the War

Giving Thanks for Those Defying Hell & Sowing Hope — “From the River To The Sea”

A sun low in the sky can be seen among beige apartment buildings with terraces.
Credit…Photographs by Ofir Berman for The New York Times

New York Times
OPINION – THOMAS  L. FRIEDMAN

#1 – The Rescuers

Rahat, Israel, a Bedouin town in the Negev Desert.Credit…CreditPhotographs by Ofir Berman for The New York Times

Opinion Columnist, reporting from Rahat, Israel

I confess that as a longtime observer of the Arab-Israeli conflict, I aggressively avoid both the “From the river to the sea” activists on the pro-Palestinian left and the similarly partisan zealots on the “Greater Israel” Zionist right — not just because I find their exclusivist visions for the future abhorrent but also because the reporter in me finds them so blind to the complexities of the present.

Continue reading Giving Thanks for Those Defying Hell & Sowing Hope — “From the River To The Sea”

Two views: Recalling the Yom Kippur/Ramadan War- Half a Century Later

GWYNNE DYER: A short war 50 years ago in Israel

Gwynne Dyer — October 5, 2023

In 1973, 50 years ago today, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, coincided with Ramadan, the Islamic lunar month of fasting. But nobody raised an alarm in Israel when it was reported, two days before the Arab attack, that the Egyptian army had ordered its soldiers to stop fasting.

After their overwhelming victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel smashed three Arab armies in a “pre-emptive” attack and expanded its territory fourfold, the Israelis were almost unanimous in their contempt for Arab military capabilities – indeed, for Arabs in general. Continue reading Two views: Recalling the Yom Kippur/Ramadan War- Half a Century Later