Tom Gross – Mideast Media Analysis

About Tom Gross Middle East Dispatches Fighting fake news Journalists’ feedback Latest Facebook posts Human rights interviews TV interviews Articles Video dispatches Cartoons Be Happy Roma Art John Gross remembered Search

Other latest Mideast Dispatches: here

* Coronavirus: Recent dispatch (1): More than 1000 people join Saadya’s funeral (& corona street art & the future of dining?)

* Coronavirus: Recent dispatch (2): Kissinger: the world will never be the same (& Trapped in an eternal honeymoon)

* Coronavirus: Recent dispatch (3): (1) Turkmenistan bans the word ‘coronavirus’ while covering up deaths (2) Thai king ‘isolates’ in German luxury hotel with 20 women (3) Belarus president says: vodka & saunas will cure coronavirus, continues crowded sport matches (4) Turkish-occupied Syria cuts off water to 400,000 during pandemic (5) Spanish princess becomes first royal to die from coronavirus

* Recent dispatch (4): Video: Some European leaders thank Israel for pushing them to act against coronavirus (while World Health Organization maintains its disdain for Israel)

* Recent dispatch (5): “All it takes is one careless moment”: Two personal warnings about coronavirus

* Recent dispatch (6): The world after coronavirus (& among the sweetest of men)

* Recent dispatch (7): Is coronavirus as deadly as they say? (& Economic crash could cost more lives than virus)

* Recent dispatch (8): Humor in the time of a pandemic

* Recent dispatch (9): Gun drawn in fight for frozen food amid coronavirus panic in Toronto grocery store (& Quarantined Italian tenor sings ‘Nessun Dorma’)

* Recent dispatch (10): (1) Top Iranian Holocaust-denying cleric says Iran can use future Israeli coronavirus vaccine; (2) Coronavirus Dictates New Reality for Israeli Army: One senior officer says implications of coronavirus crisis could be more profound than 9/11 (3) & other items

* Recent dispatch (11): “The most dangerous thing about coronavirus is the hysteria” (& virus could break Iranian regime) (The origins of ‘quarantine’)

* Recent dispatch (12): US to deport Nazi to Germany, Italy to ban kissing, Netanyahu: Use Indian ‘namaste’ greeting instead of handshakes

* Recent dispatch / The Children of Bullenhuser Damm

* Recent dispatch / “We could not separate them”; “For most of it, I have no words” (about the 75th anniversary of liberation of Belsen, and coronavirus

* Recent dispatch / Jack Holzberg, survivor (& Gene Simmons of Kiss opens up about his mother)

* Recent profile (1) / “A leftist in the fight against left-wing lies”: Profile of Tom Gross in the German daily Die Welt

* Recent profile (2) / Tom Gross profiled in the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat

Latest Facebook posts

This message is only visible to admins.

Problem displaying Facebook posts.
Click to show error

Error: An access token is required to request this resource.
Type: OAuthException

A selection of TV interviews

The Media & ‘Fake news’

The Arab world

America & the Mideast

Britain & the Mideast

Britain under attack

Brexit

Israel & BDS

The future

* Are we today close to the reality of the novel “1984”?

A selection of articles

Media criticism

The New York Times

* The New York Times: All the news that’s fit to print?

The BBC

UK media’s global reach

News or Fake news?

Terrorism and radicalism

Palestinian issues

Israeli issues

The Arab world, Iran & Turkey

Syria

The Kurds

* The case for a Kurdish state

Iran

Turkey & The Gulf

Brexit & The Mideast

* Brexit and its Effect on the Middle East

U.S. politics

Human Rights

The Holocaust

Provocative cartoons

Photos essays

Videos: fun and serious

“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

more ...

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”.

Happy in Tel Aviv

Happy in Jerusalem

Happy in Beirut

Happy in Gaza

Happy in Tehran

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”.

Latest Mideast Dispatches: here