Pajamas Media
Barry Rubin
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition, Viking-Penguin), the paperback edition of The Truth about Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan), and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley).
Accuse First, Ask Questions Never: Mainstreaming Anti-Semitism
Three European newspapers publish the latest incarnations of the vicious blood libel.
The Gaza War: Is It Really So Hard to Understand?
It's no different than Pearl Harbor or September 11. When you are attacked, you fight back. (Also, Phyllis Chesler on Israel's Morality vs. Hamas's Morality)
Denmark: Al-Qaeda’s New ‘Itsy Bitsy Satan’
I saw no panic or calls for surrender in Copenhagen after the deadly attack on the Danish embassy in Pakistan: Denmark is standing impressively steadfast in the face of its new 'status" as the third enemy of Islamists after the US and Israel.
The West’s Long Tradition of Exalting Non-Western Cultures
"Sometimes to understand one's own era you have to immerse yourself in another," writes Barry Rubin. A 1924 book on Burma proves that the West's appreciation of other cultures is not a modern phenomenon -- and neither is its overly harsh criticism of itself.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Political Correctness
It was the young wizard's biggest challenge yet: understanding why those who should be defending their civilization were pretending that nothing was happening or even becoming apologists for the other side. Barry Rubin tells the tale that began with a headline in the Daily Prophet newspaper: "Minister Fudge Urges Engagement; Accuses Harry Potter of Voldemortphobia"
After This Election, Will Turkey “Islamify?”
With most of the vote counted, the direction of the Turkish election is already clear - the ruling Islamist AKP party has scored an important victory. Barry Rubin, reporting for PJM from Istanbul, discusses the consequences of election results that would cause Ataturk - the father of the modern secular Turkish state - to spin in his grave.
A Turning Point For Turkey
Turkish citizens go to the polls on Sunday for an important election. Will the vote reverse the course of Islamization or move it further down the road of becoming a more Islamic, socially conservative society and a foreign policy more attuned to Iran and Syria than to the United States? Barry Rubin, who is covering the elections for PJM, isn't optimistic.
A Tale of Three Op-Eds:
All dressed up and starring on the opinion pages of The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, Hamas has proudly entered the era of PR and spin. Barry Rubin explains why he believes their news isn't fit to print.
The London Caper
New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's willful blindness in instructing his government never to use the word "Muslim" when discussing terrorism has inspired Barry Rubin's entertaining yarn entitled The Adventures of Tony Rodef, Middle East Detective.
Syria’s Secret Surrogate
"How do we know that the Fatah al-Islam uprising in the Palestinian camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon, which killed well over 100 people and led the Lebanese army to shell the camp, was a Syrian operation?"
By Barry Rubin
