* Latest dispatch / “If it quacks like a duck…” (& Holocaust survivor brutally murdered in Paris)
* Latest dispatch / The Queen embraced Assad, but now Israel finally gets an official royal visit
A selection of TV interviews
The Media & 'Fake news'?
America & the Mideast
Britain & the Mideast
Britain under attack
Brexit
Israel & BDS
The future
A selection of articles
Media criticism
The New York Times
The BBC
UK media’s global reach
News or Fake news?
Terrorism and radicalism
- * The Forgotten Rachels: Eight girls named Rachel
- * The remarkable story of the Kinneret Chaya
- * “A shitty little country”: Prejudice & Abuse in Paris & London
- * Living with terror in London and Israel. A study in contrasts
- * “Barbarians of Europe”: The murder of Ilan Halimi
- * The Mohammed Cartoons: To be or not to be
- * India: Terrorists or doctors?
- * Denmark: Nothing random here
- * Londonistan: “I’d rather take ricin than publish this”
- * The coming Eurabia? The threat Europe might face from within
Palestinian issues
- * The good news about Gaza you will hear on Al Jazeera but not in western media
- * Move the 2022 World Cup from Qatar to Gaza?
- * Moderate students at a Palestinian university?
- * Quietly building Palestine
- * Obama: Too much Middle East peace processing?
- * Gaza’s luxury new malls
- * Gaza’s fine dining and Olympic-size swim pools
- * Mahmoud Abbas: Has anything really changed?
- * Yasser Arafat, “the stuff of legends”
Israeli issues
The Arab world, Iran & Turkey
Syria
The Kurds
Iran
Turkey & The Gulf
U.S. politics
Human Rights
The Holocaust
- * Reporting Auschwitz, then & now. The lamentable record of The NY Times
- * Golden Rose saved
- * The Lady In Number 6
- * Still so much to learn
- * How one film revolutionized Holocaust commemoration
- * The “Iranian Schindler” (& how FDR deliberately let Jews die)
- * “A shy little bird hidden in my rib cage”
- * Real Horrors, Phony Claims. Duping the Holocaust experts
Provocative cartoons
Photos essays
Videos: fun and serious
- * Bernie Sanders slams BDS on Al Jazeera (& Are you afraid of flying?) (& Yiddish in Mongolia)
- * “To life” (& Global supermarket intifada)
- * No Woman, No Drive: First stirrings of Saudi democracy?
- * Opera among the shoppers of Tel Aviv
- * Walking again, thanks to Israeli innovation
- * “In search of the man who broke my neck”
- * How The Simpsons were behind the Arab Spring
- * Iran: Zuckerberg created Facebook for the Mossad
- * A Jewish tune with a universal appeal
- * Putin sings “Blueberry Hill” (& “We are family”)
- * Teaching schoolgirls, Egyptian-style
- * The beginnings of Bibi
- * Revolutionary Israeli technology changes the way we drive
“Tom Gross is probably Europe’s leading observer of the Middle East” -- Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin
“Tom Gross’s dynamic dispatches bring to light stories that matter. He’s a one-man news agency of the most impressive kind” -- Former Arab Affairs editor for the BBC Magdi Abdelhadi, Cairo
“I read dozens of websites about the Middle East but I find new and important information at Tom Gross’s. You can’t skip his dispatches” -- Former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams
“Tom Gross does an important job in bringing to our attention some of the most interesting articles published in various media outlets. His comments and analysis are very informative” -- Khaled Abu Toameh, Palestinian affairs correspondent, Jerusalem Post
Iranian women post photos free of hijab – but only for a few seconds
Hundreds of Iranian women defied strict rules requiring them to cover their heads in public, by sending photos of themselves without headscarves to a special Facebook page. They face arrest if identified. They quickly put their hijabs back on after taking the photos.
Interviews with human rights heroes
The wife of Saudi Arabia’s best known political prisoner, liberal blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, speaks out.
A schoolgirl who escaped Boko Haram in Nigeria describes her ordeal. Michelle Obama is among those campaigning to #BringBackOurGirls. Most remain in captivity.
An interview with a former French Islamic State hostage in Syria, who was held with the U.S. and British hostages who were beheaded, including Jim Foley and Steve Sotloff.
This is the impassioned plea which the first female Yazidi MP in Iraq’s parliament, Vian Dakhi, made to draw the world’s attention to the plight of Yazidi girls forced into sex slavery.
Egyptian liberal dissident and former political prisoner Maikel Nabil is one of the moderate centrists that Egypt needs.
North Korean defector and freedom campaigner Hyeonseo Lee has risked her life by criticizing one of the world’s most oppressive regimes.
At the grave of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. Arafat was no human rights hero, rejecting a Palestinian state, setting back peace efforts, and keeping some unpleasant company.
Meanwhile on campus…
Incitement to kill Jews made by masked Palestinian students at a “moderate” American-partnered university: A series of photos exclusive to this website from Al-Quds campus.
And on a happier note…
News from the Middle East can be depressing. Here is something more upbeat: people across the region record themselves singing along to the Pharrell Williams’ hit “Happy”.
The Iranians who created this “Happy” video were arrested and subjected to harsh detention. Police chief Hossein Sajedinia told the official ISNA news agency that the “vulgar clip” had “harmed public chastity”. Iran’s state TV broadcast a program showing the men and women in the video (which had become a hit on Iranian social media) confessing to their “crime” on camera. In response, Pharrell Williams wrote on his Facebook page that “It is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness”.
Remembering John Gross
The Times: “An exemplary
literary journalist”
* Latest dispatch / “If it quacks like a duck…” (& Holocaust survivor brutally murdered in Paris)
* Latest dispatch: / The Queen embraced Assad, but now Israel finally gets an official royal visit
A selection of TV interviews
The Media & 'Fake news'?
America & the Mideast
Britain & the Mideast
Britain under attack
Brexit
Israel & BDS
The future
A selection of articles
Media criticism
The New York Times
The BBC
UK media’s global reach
News or Fake news?
Terrorism and radicalism
- * The Forgotten Rachels: Eight girls named Rachel
- * The remarkable story of the Kinneret Chaya
- * “A shitty little country”: Prejudice & Abuse in Paris & London
- * Living with terror in London and Israel. A study in contrasts
- * “Barbarians of Europe”: The murder of Ilan Halimi
- * The Mohammed Cartoons: To be or not to be
- * India: Terrorists or doctors?
- * Denmark: Nothing random here
- * Londonistan: “I’d rather take ricin than publish this”
- * The coming Eurabia? The threat Europe might face from within
Palestinian issues
- * The good news about Gaza you will hear on Al Jazeera but not in western media
- * Move the 2022 World Cup from Qatar to Gaza?
- * Moderate students at a Palestinian university?
- * Quietly building Palestine
- * Obama: Too much Middle East peace processing?
- * Gaza’s luxury new malls
- * Gaza’s fine dining and Olympic-size swim pools
- * Mahmoud Abbas: Has anything really changed?
- * Yasser Arafat, “the stuff of legends”
Israeli issues
The Arab world, Iran & Turkey
Syria
The Kurds
Iran
Turkey & The Gulf
U.S. politics
Human Rights
The Holocaust
- * Reporting Auschwitz, then & now. The lamentable record of The NY Times
- * Golden Rose saved
- * The Lady In Number 6
- * Still so much to learn
- * How one film revolutionized Holocaust commemoration
- * The “Iranian Schindler” (& how FDR deliberately let Jews die)
- * “A shy little bird hidden in my rib cage”
- * Real Horrors, Phony Claims. Duping the Holocaust experts
Provocative cartoons
Photos essays
Videos: fun and serious
- * Bernie Sanders slams BDS on Al Jazeera (& Are you afraid of flying?) (& Yiddish in Mongolia)
- * “To life” (& Global supermarket intifada)
- * No Woman, No Drive: First stirrings of Saudi democracy?
- * Opera among the shoppers of Tel Aviv
- * Walking again, thanks to Israeli innovation
- * “In search of the man who broke my neck”
- * How The Simpsons were behind the Arab Spring
- * Iran: Zuckerberg created Facebook for the Mossad
- * A Jewish tune with a universal appeal
- * Putin sings “Blueberry Hill” (& “We are family”)
- * Teaching schoolgirls, Egyptian-style
- * The beginnings of Bibi
- * Revolutionary Israeli technology changes the way we drive
“Tom Gross is probably Europe’s leading observer of the Middle East” -- Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin
“Tom Gross’s dynamic dispatches bring to light stories that matter. He’s a one-man news agency of the most impressive kind” -- Former Arab Affairs editor for the BBC Magdi Abdelhadi, Cairo
“I read dozens of websites about the Middle East but I find new and important information at Tom Gross’s. You can’t skip his dispatches” -- Former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams
“Tom Gross does an important job in bringing to our attention some of the most interesting articles published in various media outlets. His comments and analysis are very informative” -- Khaled Abu Toameh, Palestinian affairs correspondent, Jerusalem Post
Iranian women post photos free of hijab – but only for a few seconds
Hundreds of Iranian women defied strict rules requiring them to cover their heads in public, by sending photos of themselves without headscarves to a special Facebook page. They face arrest if identified. They quickly put their hijabs back on after taking the photos.
Interviews with human rights heroes
The wife of Saudi Arabia’s best known political prisoner, liberal blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, speaks out.
A schoolgirl who escaped Boko Haram in Nigeria describes her ordeal. Michelle Obama is among those campaigning to #BringBackOurGirls. Most remain in captivity.
An interview with a former French Islamic State hostage in Syria, who was held with the U.S. and British hostages who were beheaded, including Jim Foley and Steve Sotloff.
This is the impassioned plea which the first female Yazidi MP in Iraq’s parliament, Vian Dakhi, made to draw the world’s attention to the plight of Yazidi girls forced into sex slavery.
Egyptian liberal dissident and former political prisoner Maikel Nabil is one of the moderate centrists that Egypt needs.
North Korean defector and freedom campaigner Hyeonseo Lee has risked her life by criticizing one of the world’s most oppressive regimes.
At the grave of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. Arafat was no human rights hero, rejecting a Palestinian state, setting back peace efforts, and keeping some unpleasant company.
Meanwhile on campus…
Incitement to kill Jews made by masked Palestinian students at a “moderate” American-partnered university: A series of photos exclusive to this website from Al-Quds campus.
And on a happier note…
News from the Middle East can be depressing. Here is something more upbeat: people across the region record themselves singing along to the Pharrell Williams’ hit “Happy”.
The Iranians who created this “Happy” video were arrested and subjected to harsh detention. Police chief Hossein Sajedinia told the official ISNA news agency that the “vulgar clip” had “harmed public chastity”. Iran’s state TV broadcast a program showing the men and women in the video (which had become a hit on Iranian social media) confessing to their “crime” on camera. In response, Pharrell Williams wrote on his Facebook page that “It is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness”.
Remembering John Gross
The Times: “An exemplary
literary journalist”
Remembering John Gross
Remembering John Gross
All notes and summaries on this website copyright © Tom Gross. All rights reserved.
All notes and summaries on this website copyright © Tom Gross. All rights reserved.