Far East Cynic

Jared Kushner is an idiot.

For someone who graduated from Harvard, he needs to relearn his history. I lived and worked in Germany and Israel for a good deal of time from 2011 to 2020. I’m very familiar with the history of Palestine from biblical times through our current era. So, like many others, I

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What if it is only the intermission?

And the second act is still waiting for the curtain to open, on a more hideous chapter of the play? Like many Americans, I was elated when it became clear that Donald Trump had lost the election. I’ve been writing about how dangerous he and his band of totalitarian wannabes

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Shtisel is back!

After an over four-year layoff, the Israeli television series, Shtisel is back on Netflix. I first wrote about the show two years ago. The show originally aired on the Yes Drama network in Israel in 2013. It ran for two seasons from 2013 to 2016, and in 2019, it was

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Who says one man cannot change the world?

But sometimes, that change is for the worse – not for the better. Certainly, that was the case with Sheldon Adelson, who died yesterday at the age of 87. His legacy is NOT a good one. He destroyed politics in not just his own country but in Israel as well.

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L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim

Is the Hebrew phrase for, “Next year in Jerusalem”. ( לשנה הבאה בירושלים). A couple of things have been making me think of that phrase this past week. Today, for example, is Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day. It happens right before the week of Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day.

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Throwback Thursday How Ariel Sharon touched my life.

Another week down and it’s Thursday again. With events in the Middle East heating up and as a nod to my previous post about Israeli TV, I thought I would do a throwback post to how Israel fucked up my plans for some primo liberty back in England in 1982.

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Shtisel

Is an Israeli TV show that is running on Netflix. I started watching it off and on during my trips to Israel late last fall and in the spring when I was there for a few weeks. I didn’t really get into it though, watching bits and pieces of it,

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These things are just not done.

Without a doubt, one of the foremost highlights of my time here in Europe has been the work I have been privileged to do in Israel. To be able to have been there for protracted periods, learn the language and see the society has been a fond memory for me

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Home for a while and wanting to blow up my TV.

It was a long week down in the land of milk and honey,  but got back Friday and have spent the week recuperating. The days were long and I logged a lot of miles around Yisrael. Speaking of roads, I had to get out on Friday instead of staying to

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Food Post

Among the more interesting things I get to do is try new foods in my travels. I travel to Israel about 4 times per year. Every time I go, I try the Israeli egg dish, Shakshuka. Unfortunately, at most breakfast buffets, it has gotten congealed from being left under a

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