Considerations

Politics, business, religion, and culture by Samuel J. Scott and Jeff Guevin

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Entries Tagged as 'War'

Life in Israel

March 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Culture, Israel, Judaism, Liberal Pundits, Personal, Politics, Religion, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/06/life-in-israel/’,size:‘large’} Peo­ple always ask me what it’s like in Israel. Since I don’t usu­ally have hours to respond with a nuanced, lengthy dis­cus­sion, I nor­mally boil it down to one sen­tence: “This coun­try is the per­fect com­bi­na­tion of heaven and hell.”
Bradley Burston, a local colum­nist, puts it another way: “Liv­ing in […]

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Racism and Outsiders

February 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Anti-Semitism, Boston, Civil Liberties, Culture, Education, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Palestine, Personal, Politics, Religion, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/11/racism-and-outsiders/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — Fore­cast Highs, writ­ten by the news edi­tor of the Jerusalem Post, notes the results of a recent poll on racism towards Jews:
In the pre­dom­i­nantly Mus­lim nations sur­veyed, views of Jews were over­whelm­ingly unfa­vor­able. Nearly all in Jor­dan (97 per­cent), the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries (97%) and Egypt […]

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Too Many Men

February 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Business, China, Culture, Dating, Economics, Education, Feminism, Politics, Religion, Sex, The Middle East, War

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/07/too-many-men/’,size:‘large’}
Michael J. Tot­ten watches this YouTube video and makes an impor­tant point:
I don’t know much about demog­ra­phy, but Mar­tin Kramer makes a strong case in just a few short min­utes for the idea that a sur­plus of military-aged males is a big part of the Mid­dle East’s […]

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In the West Bank

February 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Bible, Business, Civil Liberties, Culture, Economics, Israel, Judaism, Law, Palestine, Personal, Politics, Religion, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/03/in-the-west-bank/’,size:‘large’} MA’ALE ADUMIM, the West Bank — So I was dri­ving with a friend from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv a few months ago, and we came to a secu­rity check­point after twenty min­utes. It was then that I real­ized that we were tak­ing a path dif­fer­ent from the one used […]

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Faked Moon-Landing

February 1st, 2010 · No Comments · Civil Liberties, Culture, Entertainment, Marketing, Media, Politics, Russia, Science, War

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/01/faked-moon-landing/’,size:‘large’} Here is the most-bizarre post you’ll read today: Stan­ley Kubrick’s “The Shin­ing” is evi­dence that the moon-landing in 1969 was faked.

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Book Review: 1948 — The First Arab-Israeli War

January 24th, 2010 · No Comments · Anti-Semitism, Book Reviews, Books, Britain, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Egypt, Europe, Iraq, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Personal, Politics, Religion, The Middle East, War

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/01/24/book-review-1948-the-first-arab-israeli-war/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — Benny Mor­ris, a pro­fes­sor of his­tory in the Middle-East Stud­ies Depart­ment at Ben-Gurion Uni­ver­sity, is some­thing of an enigma. Him­self born in Israel in 1948, the year of the re-founding of the coun­try and the result­ing war with neigh­bor­ing Arab states, Mor­ris is the lead­ing fig­ure in […]

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Thought of the Day

January 10th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Civil Liberties, Culture, Economics, Europe, Immigration, Law, Personal, Politics, War

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/01/10/thought-of-the-day/’,size:‘large’} Imag­ine that you lived in the ancient Roman Empire twenty years before it col­lapsed, and you knew that it was com­ing. You pre­dicted bar­bar­ian inva­sions, anar­chy across the con­ti­nent, and ensu­ing vio­lence for the fore­see­able future.
Some­times that’s how I feel when I think about the United States and Europe.

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Keffiyeh Fashion

January 6th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Advertising, Anti-Semitism, Business, Civil Liberties, Conservative Pundits, Culture, Europe, Fashion, Iran, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Marketing, Palestine, Personal, Politics, Religion, The Middle East, War

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/01/06/keffiyeh-fashion/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — In the Mid­dle East, every­thing is polit­i­cal. Even fash­ion. Now, the Jew­ish com­pany Shem­speed is offer­ing a kef­fiyeh that is an Israeli take on a tra­di­tional, Arab piece of cloth­ing:
The Israeli Kef­fiyeh, with its intri­cate Star of David pat­tern in the cen­ter piece, and words AM ISRAEL CHAI (Jewish […]

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Decade-Roundup from Israel

January 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Anti-Semitism, Civil Liberties, Conservative Pundits, Culture, Hizbollah, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Israel, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Lebanon, Liberal Pundits, Media, Palestine, Politics, Religion, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/01/02/decade-roundup-from-israel/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — Ste­fanie Gard­ner looks at how media has changed in the United States and Israel (but leaves out the suc­cess of Fox News and Israel’s first, free daily, “Israel Today”). Liat Collins says Israel went through a “boom-and-bust” decade. Car­o­line Glick calls is a “low-and-dishonest” decade. Bradley Burston […]

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Religious Competition

December 30th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Advertising, Business, Christianity, Culture, Economics, Education, Islam, Judaism, Marketing, Politics, Religion, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2009/12/30/religious-competition/’,size:‘large’} The Pew Forum on Reli­gion and Pub­lic Life dis­cov­ers a trend that is not too sur­pris­ing in the Age of Glob­al­iza­tion:
When it comes to reli­gion, many Amer­i­cans like the mix-and-match, build-your-own approach.
Large num­bers attend ser­vices of tra­di­tions other than their own and blend Chris­tian­ity with East­ern and New Age […]

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Aliyah to Israel

December 30th, 2009 · No Comments · Civil Liberties, Culture, Economics, Education, Humor, Immigration, Israel, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Personal, Religion, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2009/12/30/aliyah-to-israel/’,size:‘large’} Here is a won­der­ful, mov­ing piece writ­ten by the Inter­net edi­tor of the Jerusalem Post on what it’s like to move from Amer­ica to Israel. Not that I’m biased.

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World in 2025

December 27th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Books, Britain, Business, China, Culture, Economics, Education, Energy, Europe, Globalization, Islam, Oil, Politics, Religion, Russia, Technology, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2009/12/27/world-in-2025/’,size:‘large’} So I recently came across a report writ­ten last year by the U.S. National Intel­li­gence Coun­cil on what the world may look like in sev­en­teen years. Here is a summary:

The whole inter­na­tional system—as constructed […]

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How to Fight Terror

December 24th, 2009 · No Comments · Afghanistan, Blogosphere, Culture, Education, Egypt, Europe, Globalization, Hizbollah, Immigration, Iran, Islam, Israel, Journalism, Judaism, Marketing, Media, Palestine, Politics, Religion, Technology, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2009/12/24/fighting-al-qaeda/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — For­eign Pol­icy looks at how Al-Qaeda recruits fol­low­ers:
…al Qaeda suc­ceeds because, for more than two decades, the net­work has waged a suc­cess­ful infor­ma­tion cam­paign that pushes its mes­sage out to the world as effec­tively asym­met­ri­cal as its use of sui­cide bombers on the battlefield.

The most impor­tant point […]

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Human Rights

December 24th, 2009 · 16 Comments · Anti-Semitism, Civil Liberties, Economics, Europe, Health, Israel, Law, Palestine, Politics, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2009/12/24/human-rights-2/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — Peter Tatchell believes that the world should have a human-rights index sim­i­lar to the ones that mea­sure eco­nomic per­for­mance and qual­ity of life. I have one ques­tion: What is to stop so-called human-rights orga­ni­za­tions from instill­ing their biases against Israel — as the founder of Human Rights […]

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Moving to Israel

December 23rd, 2009 · No Comments · Boston, Business, Culture, Dating, Economics, Education, Essays, Europe, Globalization, Health, Immigration, Israel, Journalism, Judaism, Language, Law, Massachusetts, Personal, Politics, Religion, Technology, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2009/12/23/moving-to-israel-2/’,size:‘large’} Eighth in a series of essays
JERUSALEM — In an edi­to­r­ial, the Jerusalem Post cor­rectly points out the rea­son that more Amer­i­can Jews do not move to Israel:
THE OBSTACLE to Amer­i­can aliya [mov­ing to Israel] is not finan­cial. It is cul­tural. Amer­i­can Jews live their Jew­ish lives dif­fer­ently from anyone […]

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