Byliners

San Diego Opera unveils 46th International Season

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO — There is nothing quite as exciting as an opera. It has all the elements you would want to see and hear in theatre. Beautiful music, dance, drama (oft times melodrama) comedy, tragedy, stunning costumes and scenery and of course acting are all combined to make this wonderful medium unique. […]

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Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Lame Duck Congress ratifies START, repeals ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and soon will slink out of Washington

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–The thoroughly repudiated, lame duck Congress, holding but a 13% approval rating in the polls, took up two big pieces of legislation that were better left to the incoming class – not because the results would necessarily have been different, but because they are important pieces of national business.

Lame Duck Congress ratifies START, repeals ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and soon will slink out of Washington Read More »

Shoshana Bryen, USA

Rocket attack near kindergarten increases pressure for retalliation

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–There has been some unpleasantness close to the border with Gaza. Rocket and mortar attacks have increased, as have Israeli retaliations. Or maybe Israeli retaliations have brought an increase in rocket and mortar attacks. Israeli officials claim the former; Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza claim the latter, perhaps in an

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

A Palestinian lunch to launch a new Israeli peace party?

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The headline is upbeat: “Palestinian Leader Has 60 Israelis to Lunch.” The picture features Mahmoud Abbas alongside Amram Mitzna, a former head of the Labor Party. Both seem pleased. The article mentions individuals concerned with the Geneva Initiative, “a group of Israeli and Palestinian figures who negotiated an unofficial blueprint

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sounds good, fraught with problems

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–In one of those form-over-substance moments that produce endless opportunity for mischief, President Obama announced that the United States would affix its signature to the United Nation’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “The aspiration it affirms, including respect for the institutions and rich cultures of native peoples,

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Shoshana Bryen

U.S. either supporting or looking other way as Palestinians torture their people

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –Normally, JINSA concerns itself primarily with security for Israel, and we have spent some time worrying about the future of the Palestinian National Security Force (NSF) armed and trained by a series of American generals. Today, however, we are concerned with the right of Palestinians to be secure from Palestinians-

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Shoshana Bryen

Wex and Telushkin tell us about menshen and others

How to Be a Mentsh (& Not a Shmuck) by Michael Wex, HarperCollins, New York;  ISBN 978-0-06-177112-5 ©2009, $13.99, p. 178 plus notes and bibliography.  Hillel: If Not Now, When? by Joseph Telushkin, Nextbook, New York, ISBN 978-0-553-8052-4281-2, ©2010, $24.00, p. 217 plus notes and bibliography. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –Yiddish speakers are

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Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Latin American recognition of Palestine result of White House mistakes

By Ira Sharkansky   JERUSALEM — I admit to predispositions. The news about Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay recognizing Palestine reached a brain that spent half its life in the United States, and learned that anything south of the Rio Grande is less than upstanding or reliable. The latest Mexican civil war reinforces the image, even

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Ira Sharkansky

‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ and so it is at Cygnet

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO — For the past five years Cygnet Theatre has mounted the radio version of the Frank Capra movie It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play adapted by Joe Landry and directed by Sean Murray with musical direction by Billy Thompson. The holiday patterns of many of our local theatre’s

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

As U.S. role fades, Palestinians invest their anti-Israel hopes in U.N.

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –The Palestinian Authority (PA) is moving away from the principle of a negotiated settlement with Israel under the auspices of the United States because it seems to have concluded that the United States is unable to force or bribe Israel into abandoning its fundamental principles, that: a) The State of

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen

Blaming Israeli rightwingers for frozen peace efforts is for the intellectually simple

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It is easy to blame Binyamin Netanyahu’s right of center coalition for the failure of the American peace initiative. Examined in isolation, it seems clear that five parties with 61 seats in the 120 member Knesset are standing in the way of that 90 day extension of the building freeze,

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East