"THE NEWS"

• Chicago Tribune: LETTER FROM NABATIYEH: Hezbollah exhibit touts slain operative's exploits, by Liz Sly (3 September 2008).
  

• Chicago Tribune Turkish soap opera's view of married life charms audience (27 August 2008),
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
  Washington Post:
  Soap opera shakes customs of Arab married life, (27 July 2008)
  both article-versions by Karin Laub and Dalia Nammari, Associated Press - the show is a modernizing influence throughout the Muslim world including in the occupied territories.
• Washington Post: Q& A: Dishing Up Foreign Policy With 'Evil' on the Table, by Bonnie S. Benwick (27 August 2008).
  This article reviews a cookbook that also provides social commentary of the countries where the dishes presented originate. Interesting to note - Israel is excluded because "Israel has pursued nukes beyond the scope of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and, like India and Pakistan, is a hideous violator of human rights" whereas a Palestinian dish is included to comment on how Israelis often present Arab dishes as Israeli dishes.

• Christian Science Monitor: Harry Potter causing trouble in Israel, by Kendra Nordin (11 August 2008).
  This article details conflicts with both Muslim and Jewish orthodoxy.

• Chicago Tribune: Raid sparks debate in Judaism over ethics and kosher food, by Irene Sege (30 July 2008).
  An important study of how ethics usually plays a large part in Judaism - someday maybe this could apply to the conflict with Palestine.

• Chicago Tribune: Jewish ritual bath integrates religion into private life, by Manya A. Brachear (29 July 2008).
  An important modernization of Jewish ritual and ethics, which might be useful for resolving the conflit with Palestine.

• Washington Post
  WITNESS: Return to Gaza, Reuters (27 July 2008). This article is written by a journalist who is returning to Gaza after 8 years away. She describes how life in Gaza has changed under Hamas and under Israeli blockade.
• Chicago Tribune: Paper ripped for printing Obama's Wall note (26 July 2008).
  Covers the eroding role of ethics in Jewish life regarding the snooping of Obama's private note to God placed in the Western wall.
• Washington Post
  Festival spirit defies instability in Lebanon, by Alistair Lyon, Reuters (23 July 2008).
• NOTE - this film by Adam Sandler and its reviewers continue to completely miss the point that Israel is strategically and systematically continuing to commit crimes against the Palestinian people, and thus this film and its reviewers, continue to unintentionally help cover that point up by only focusing on the human aspects of the conflict. It is as if you were told to 'just get along' with and befriend a thief who just stole your jewelry, and then he was still allowed to keep all your jewelry.
• Los Angeles Times: 'Zohan' a case of art imitating life, by Nathaniel Popper (8 June 2008).
  This article portrays the human side of being an oppressor - thus there is no clue about the terrible things that that Israeli military and its government is doing. Thus, the question - how can such nice people be involved in or support such terrible things. The answer is in the complex psychology and sociology of racism. It is a human mystery that demands a solution.

• Boston Globe: With a snip here and a smack there, Adam Sandler amusingly tackles terrorism in 'Zohan', by Wesley Morris (6 June 2008).
  This movie review praises Sandler for his courage in doing the film, and for his message - that "the ... villains aren't the Israelis or the Palestinians. They're the rednecks and white-collar titans desperately colluding to defame and displace outsiders".

• Chicago Tribune: ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan’ - Adam Sandler back to play in another topical sandbox, by Michael Phillips (6 June 2008).
  This review criticizes the film-making, but declares "politically it's sort of interesting", seeing the film as suggesting that the conflict might be solved with "Israeli-Arab solidarity ... unite(d) against the real enemy. Who is the real enemy? American greed" ... in this case, or by extension against other common enemies elsewhere.

• Los Angeles Times: 'You Don't Mess With the Zohan'- Adam Sandler's comedy is both smarter and dumber than you might expect., by Mark Olsen (6 June 2008).
  This review commends the film for "pok(ing) fun at the Israeli characters as readily and zestily as the Arabs", and thus the message is "why can't we all just get along".

• Miami Herald: You Don't Mess With the Zohan - He's still Sandler, only with more style, by Rene Rodriguez (6 June 2008).
  This review sees the film's message as "anti-war, pro-peace and harmony" with "can't-we-all-get-along sermons" having "taught the neighborhood the value of peaceful cohabitation".

• New York Times: Watch Out, He’s Packing a Blow-Dryer, by A.O. Scott (6 June 2008).
  This movie review says that Adam Sandler's film taps into the role of US greed in the conflict while showing Israel as somewhat Americanized.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Don't mess with Adam Sandler, by Angela Dawson (6 June 2008).
  This film seeks "to be equally offensive to both sides", Sandler says about his film, ""We are saying, wouldn't life be so much easier if we were just hanging out and getting along?" he asks.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Zohan's' silly, separate peace, by Carrie Rickey (6 June 2008).
  This film illustrates the point-of-view which "finds that immigrant Arabs and Jews are more alike than not. In the Middle East, Arab and Jew are adversaries. In America, they share a common enemy: racists". Thus it portrays the conflict between the Palestinian people and Israeli government as merely a clash of cultures and personalities.

• Washington Post: How Low Will Adam Sandler Go? Nasty Stereotypes Drive 'Zohan's' Vacuous Plot, by Stephen Hunter (6 June 2008).
  This movie review simplifies Sandler's film to a simple presentation of stereotypes.

• Los Angeles Times: With 'Zohan,' Robert Smigel will mess with you, by Chris Lee (5 June 2008).
  This film only refers to the Middle East conflict as a "war on terror", but made the point to humanize both sides in the conflict, and that "hate is an institutional thing that's learned".

• Miami Herald: MOVIE REVIEW: 'You Don't Mess With the Zohan', by Donald Munro (5 June 2008).
  This review commends the film for not giving into stereotyping, and for humanizing the different antagonists and showing how they can get along.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Zohan': The knee-slapping side of terrorism, by Gary Thompson (5 June 2008).
  This film review sees the conflict as the "the perpetual conflict in the Middle East", but ultimately the film "make(s) a plea for an America that welcomes all, on the condition that they check their hatreds at the door".

• New York Times: Israelis and Arabs Walk Into a Film ... , by Dave Itzkoff (25 May 2008).
  This review reduces the conflict to "the fact that people are so mad at each other" and thus caught in an "intractable cycle of violence in the Middle East", but sees the film as fighting stereotyping.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Worldview: A look at the limits democracy must set: Israeli veterans explore "our moral boundaries", by Trudy Rubin (24 February 2008).
  This article reviews a photo exhibit of photos by Israeli soldier veterans of their experiences policing the occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, showing why they have had second thoughts about its morality.

• New York Times: A Poet's Palestine as a Metaphor, by Adam Shatz (22 December 2001).
  This article describes an in-depth interview with Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

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