On Monday, January 19, 2009, Professor Michael Oren, Visiting Professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, briefed over 55 SPME subscribers, via conference call, on the situation in Gaza. Professor Oren had just returned from serving in the IDF during the...

SPME has issued a petition for academics to protest the proposal by the The petition which sought to raise at least 5000 signatures has gained over6500 signatures in just 10 days. Click to read and sign this petition and please circulate it to your colleagues and friends. Among many distinguished...

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 16, 2009) - The recent proposal by CUPE Ontario to boycott and ban Israeli academics from university campuses has elicited an outrage throughout the globe: nearly 5,000 individuals have signed a petition by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME)...

The military conflict that's likely to spark campus protests in the coming weeks doesn't involve U.S. forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. Rather, Israeli attacks on Hamas forces in Gaza have stirred sleeping campuses, and rallies and petition drives may gain momentum as more colleges...

The reason for the latest fighting in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, so we're told, easy enough to understand: Palestinians in the Gaza strip have been firing rockets across the border into Israel, and Israel has gone in to stop them. But what really is this about? Israel evacuated...

The Rev. India E. Garnett of the United Church of Christ and a board member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, spoke to several hundred gathered in the East Capitol Rotunda in the State Capitol Building in Harrisburg PA. She was one of three speakers at a rally for Israel and Peace sponsored...

Israel's decision to impose a unilateral case fire-quickly followed by a Hamas cease fire coupled with threats-will save lives in the short run, but it may end up costing even more lives if it is not accompanied by an unequivocal rejection of the Hamas tactic that provoked this war. ...

This talk was presented at the 2009 Telos Conference. When my wife and I arrived in Israel a few days before the Gaza war began, we were taken aback by the focus on the increase in rocket attacks from Gaza after Hamas had decided to end the "truce." Friends from across the political...

Jews are known for being sticklers in establishing and documenting facts. Indeed almost 25% of all Nobel Prize laureates are Jews, attesting to their success in such and related matters. It might therefore be surprising that with the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel, the media is flooded with...

Human Rights Watch is one of the most powerful organizations claiming to promote international morality and law, but along with Amnesty International and the United Nations, shares responsibility for the transformation of these principles into weapons aimed at Israel. In the most recent example,...

The Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees says it will propose "a ban on Israeli academics doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities" if they do not explicitly condemn Israeli action in Gaza. This proposed boycott is the latest in a series of...

Alan Dershowitz What if Israel defended its citizens the way the British, the French, the Americans and the Russians did? When German rockets hit British cities during the World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill retaliated by bombing German cities, killing thousands of German civilians,...

Louis René Beres Professor of International Law Department of Political Science Purdue University West Lafayette IN 47907 USA E MAIL Lord God.... How can Jacob stand, He is so small? Amos 7:2 In patently ritualized chants from Iran, threats to annihilate Israel are...

? With a unanimity that has become all too familiar, politicians, the media, NGOs, and church leaders across the globe took their cue to denounce Israel's legitimate act of self-defense against one of the world's most extreme terror organizations. This chorus of disapproval is in stark contrast...

Outside Gaza, Southern Israel -- Open the pages of any daily newspaper or watch your favorite nightly news show and you are sure to see vivid and disturbing images of Israel's war against Hamas. What is not being said, and certainly not being shown in the coverage of this confrontation, is that...

The current round in the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict began in mid-December when Hamas, who control Gaza, ended a six-month ceasefire. Missile attacks resumed against cities in the southern third of Israel, killing and wounding many civilians. After diplomatic efforts to halt the...

SPME-Germany was actively participating in the Pro-Israel rallies which have taken place in most of the larger German cities. Whereas the pro-Palestinian rallies attracted more participants, and were very offensive and aggressive in tone, including slogans like "Kill all the Jews" and...

YIISA: The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism Antisemitism in Comparative Perspective Seminar Series presents Kenneth L. Marcus Lillie & Nathan Ackerman Visiting Professor of Equality & Justice in American, Baruch College School of Public Affairs, CUNY ...

LONDON (JTA) -- A group of Britain-based academics are claiming that "Israel must lose" the war with Hamas in Gaza. In a letter to the Guardian newspaper the group of more than 300 academics and writers stated that the "massacres in Gaza [are] the latest phase of a war Israel...

The Editors of the SPME Faculty Forum print this as a public service with the understanding that the contents of this article do not reflect the positions of SPME or its Board of Directors or Chapters. An impressive, unprecedented list of hundreds of academians, mostly US based, calling for...

A group of British-based academics have called for Israel to lose the battle with Hamas in Gaza, stating that the "massacres in Gaza [are] the latest phase of a war Israel has waged against the people of Palestine for more than 60 years." In a letter in Friday's Guardian newspaper,...

PHILADELPHIA - The Middle East Forum is pleased to announce that Denis MacEoin-an Irish specialist of Islam and Iran, and widely published novelist-will take over as editor of the Middle East Quarterly, its flagship publication, starting with the Fall 2009 issue. The Times of London has...

Earlier this week,19 students and two senior staff members from BIU's Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work set out to assist welfare services in Sderot, which are in danger of collapsing under the burden. The social workers knocked on the doors of dozens of apartments throughout the...

Canadian Academic Friends of Israel: Statement in Response to Proposed CUPE Boycott of Israeli Universities and Academics The Canadian Academic Friends of Israel strongly condemns CUPE Ontario's proposed boycott of Israeli universities and academics. In addition to being antithetical to the...

CUPE National would like to state its position on the January 2, 2009 media release by CUPE Ontario announcing a plan to introduce a resolution to ban Israeli academics from Ontario universities unless they condemn the "assault on Gaza". As the national president of Canada's...

. JERUSALEM - A framed portrait of Albert Einstein enjoys pride of place above the president's desk at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Einstein was among the founders of Hebrew, serving on its first board of governors and delivering the university's inaugural science lecture. ...

On Sunday morning, Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and halted military operations - at least temporarily. After the ceasefire began at 2 a.m. local time, Hamas fired several more rockets into Israel, then declared a ceasefire of its own. The Israelis have said they will...

The big word in Middle East politics this week is "disproportionate." Political leaders around the world love it, and no wonder. Applied to the Israel-Hamas struggle, it quietly weakens Israel's position and displays sympathy for the Palestinians while making those who use it...

Neither Hamas nor Gaza or the Qassams are the target of the Gaza war or the criteria for its success. The war in Gaza is over the fate of regional radicalism and the myth of the Muqawma ("resistance".) This is well understood in Tehran, Beirut, and Damascus, and also in Cairo and...

Immediately upon the end of the fighting in Gaza, the international community will enlist on behalf of an extensive rehabilitation project to enable the Palestinian population to return to their homes and get on with their civil and economic lives. It is of prime importance to prevent Iran...

BARACK OBAMA is not yet president, but he is already having a gravitational effect on the conflict in Gaza. Egypt, the Bush administration and, above all, Israel appear eager to bring the fighting to a conclusion before Tuesday. Yesterday Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni flew to Washington...

The fighting tactics and ideology of Hamas are a "case study par excellence" of a systematic violation of international humanitarian law, according to a leading expert in international law who visited the Gaza periphery region on Tuesday. There is "almost no comparable...

OP-ED: During this difficult war in the Gaza Strip, we stand with Israel. Why? Because we have been to Israel. We have seen Sderot. In August 2005 and again in 2007, we visited the region of southern Israel that includes this embattled Israeli border town. Taken together, the trips helped us...

The notion that truth is the first casualty of war finds expression in the fog of the current Gaza conflict - a truth masked by oft-repeated cliches such as "cycle of violence" or unconscionable allegations of "genocide." If we want to prevent further tragedies in this conflict...

Give Giancarlo Desiderati credit for his unintellectual honesty. While most left-wing detractors of Israel claim their animosity toward the Jewish state has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, the head of a small Italian union, Flaica-Uniti-Cub, wasted no time with such sophism. Having long...

Of all the errors in the West's understanding of Hamas, none is more fundamental than the routine characterization of the group as a Palestinian movement. It is nothing of the sort. This isn't to say that the Islamic Resistance Movement -- to use Hamas's proper name -- isn't led by...

Proportionality in war is often judged subjectively as each side weighs the consequences of hostilities, especially when civilian casualties are involved. While it is extremely difficult to justify a military operation solely on the basis of proportionality at any stage during war, a just...

The Ace in Obama's Pocket By Daoud Kuttab Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist and former professor of journalism at Princeton University, joins our panel of analysts to discuss Israel's war against Hamas, which . The United States is the most important country that can...

These words are written a short distance away from the most northern hit, so far, of the Hamas missiles, which are methodically aimed only at civilian population in Israel. You may refer to this message as "A View from the Target Zone". For eight years,...

IT'S been one of the longest-running conflicts in the world, a case study in how difficult it is for modern states to fight counter-insurgency wars against determined terrorist groups. But in the days just after Christmas a massive offensive appears to have changed the terms of trade....

Most Israelis regard UN Security Council Resolution 1860 on the Gaza Conflict as a troubling development. It fails to mention the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit who has been in Hamas captivity since 2006. The word "rocket" does not even appear, only general references to condemning...

OBAMA: My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this...

Hamas militiamen have rounded up hundreds of Fatah activists on suspicion of "collaboration" with Israel during Operation Cast Lead, Fatah members in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. They said the Hamas crackdown on Fatah intensified after the cease-fire went into...

President-elect Barack Obama will plunge into foreign policy on his first full day in office tomorrow, finally freed from the constraints of tradition that has forced him and his staff to remain muzzled about world affairs during the 78-day transition. As one of his first actions, Obama plans...

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Egypt's president accused Hamas on Monday of inviting Israel's three-week offensive against Gaza by not extending their ceasefire when it expired last month. "You all know that efforts Egypt had undertaken to extend the ceasefire and our warnings that a refusal by...

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Monday held a telephone conversation with Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal. Ahmadinejad congratulated Meshaal on the "victory of the Palestinian resistance" in the war against the Zionist regime. Israel and Hamas both...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - On Thursday, nearly three weeks into Israel's war on , reporters gathered here to ask whether the Lebanese president would be attending a proposed Arab summit meeting to address the issue. The answer, delivered by the Lebanese information minister, Tarek Mitri, was that...

One day after Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, six key European leaders on Sunday pledged to work to prevent Hamas from rearming. The commitments were offered both at the in Egypt and at a meeting in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The six leaders...

GAZA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Hamas vowed on Monday to rearm in defiance of any Israeli and international efforts to prevent the Islamist militant group from replenishing its arsenal of rockets and other weapons after the Gaza war. "Do whatever you want. Manufacturing the holy weapons is...

RAMALLAH - It's quiet in Ramallah. At the northern entrance to the city, not far from the mall, a new fountain spouts water. Next to it lies a sign in English: "Gaza under fire." But it seems the Gaza Strip has never been so far away. Tel Aviv, meanwhile, feels closer than ever. Almost...

(CBS) In just six days, Barack Obama will be sworn-in as President of the United States. Today, Osama bin Laden marked the occasion with a new threat. But in an exclusive interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, the president-elect sent a message of his own for bin Laden and his terror...

AP - This is an undated file photo of al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan. CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel and condemned Arab governments as allies of the Jewish state in a new message aimed at harnessing anger in the...

After 19 days of fighting and more than 1,000 Palestinian fatalities, the first significant signs that Hamas is breaking could be seen Wednesday night. Hamas representatives to talks with Egypt announced an agreement in principle on Wednesday to the Egyptian cease-fire proposal. They also...

More than 20 prominent British Muslim leaders have signed a letter denouncing the rise in anti-Semitic attacks resulting from Operation Cast Lead and calling on Muslims to help prevent attacks on Jews in the UK. The Community Security Trust (CST) has reported a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents...

A child in Gaza describes how he and other children are being used in combat support roles for Hamas fighters. According to the Palestinian child, children are being used as scouts to follow Israeli movements, and as couriers to supply ammunition and deliver information to the Hamas fighters. ...

Clinton: No negotiations with Hamas Until they Recognize Israel's Right to Exist As Sen. Hillary Clinton begins confirmation hearings today (Jan. 13) to become the United States' next secretary of state, one issue on which she has been both vocal and clear is her outrage over the use...

A plan to create a new foothold in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority and to bring in international monitors was being drawn up by diplomats yesterday as a UN ceasefire call was dismissed by both sides. The plan would allow a return of the authority, led by the secular Fatah faction, to the...