Middle East Update

Suzanne Fields
In England today anti-Semites read poetry, enjoy fine arts and sip fine wines, sneering at Jews with haughty abandon. Anti-Jewish themes gain acceptability. Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan, documents how rife the Jew-hating disease is in the growing Muslim communities of England. But she shows how it also permeates the elite cultures of the [...]

Roula Khalaf (Financial Times-UK)
While Saudi officials played down the wave of criticism provoked by the first Saudi royal visit to Britain in 20 years, the Saudis were, in the words of one former British diplomat, “under considerable shock” as they faced the most intense wave of disapproval received by the king on a foreign [...]

by Hillel Fendel
Friday, Nov. 2, marks the 90th anniversary of the issuance of Great Britain’s policy paper known as the Balfour Declaration, which set the stage for the establishment of the State of Israel.

James MeikleThe prospect of an academic boycott of Israeli universities receded sharply Friday September 28, as leaders of the lecturers’ union contemplating the move were told it would be illegal.

AP
British soldiers began withdrawing Sunday from their last base inside the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a move likely to prompt a further reduction in troop numbers, lawmakers and officials said. Around 550 soldiers stationed in the Basra Palace base were leaving the downtown site to join 5,000 other personnel at an [...]

Israel and the British natural gas company BG Group Plc will move ahead with controversial plans to drill for natural gas in the Gaza Marine field, despite Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip last month, The Jerusalem Post reported on July 6. Reportedly, the two sides have reached an agreement to transfer funds intended for [...]

Richard Esposito and Jim Sciutto (ABC News)The London bomb plot failed because a medical syringe used as part of the firing mechanism caused a malfunction, despite multiple calls to the cell phones designed to remotely trigger the devices. Had the fuel-air bombs rigged inside the Mercedes parked near the front door [...]

Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)
David Miliband, 41, who is Jewish, was selected as foreign secretary on Thursday June 28, by new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. According to press reports at the time, Miliband was critical in a cabinet meeting last July of Blair’s refusal to denounce Israel for its actions during the Second Lebanon War.

British police searched houses and made arrests Sunday as the country remained on “critical” terror alert after an attack on a Scottish airport and the discovery of two car bombs aimed at killing hundreds of people in London.

Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be named Quartet Special Envoy to the Middle East , a senior United States official said on June 27. Blair’s portfolio will focus mainly on Palestinian economic and political reform.