A New England-style Boarding School Opens in Jordan
By Andrew Lee Butters/Madaba
In the popular imagination, New England boarding schools are a cloistered world where the blond-haired children of America’s blue bloods pick up the arch manners and the strange affinity for boat shoes that will mark them forever as a class apart. But not if you […]
Lebanon’s underground music scene sees its own demise in the fading promise of the ‘Cedar Revolution’
By Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut
Despite a jihadist uprising in the north, a political crisis in the capital, and rumors of war swirling all around, it’s business as usual in Beirut’s packed nightclubs. The good-looking people in this good-time town have long […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut
Ever wonder what it’s like inside a Hizballah bunker but not so eager to get kidnapped just to find out? Well, for a short time and a short time only, anyone in Lebanon can experience the next best thing by visiting the new Hizballah museum in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Gaza City
On Patrol in Shijaiyah, the toughest neighborhood in Gaza City, Lieut. Naim Ashraf Mushtaha, 31, an officer of the Hamas Executive Force, spots a man in civilian clothes carrying an M-16 assault rifle and walking through the street suqs in broad daylight. His officers quickly encircle the suspect and demand that […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem
Has the Arab League finally broken its taboo on ties with Israel by sending a delegation to Jerusalem? Depends who you ask. The Israeli government has declared Wednesday’s visit by the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan a historic landmark on the road toward acceptance of Israel by the Arab world. “In […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem
Like so much else in the Middle East, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s first trip as a peace envoy to Israel and the Palestinian territories involves a squabble over real estate — or, in this case, office space.
Mr. Blair arrived Monday on 48-hour tour aimed, in part, at finding digs in […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem
It sounded very inspiring. In a major speech last night out of the White House, U.S. President George W. Bush called for a revival of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and proposed that Israel and some Arab states hold a regional peace conference this fall. “The international community must rise to […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem
Today is Jerusalem Day, the holiday commemorating the “re-unification” of the city by Israeli forces in the 1967 war with Jordan, which at the time controlled East Jerusalem. Since this year is the 40th anniversary of the war, the city is awash with festivities, including a public concert last night and a […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Tel Aviv
Looking out at the 120,000 demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Thursday night to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israeli democracy appears to be alive and kicking. The protest was sparked by Monday’s report by the official Winograd Commission that was scathing in its critique of […]
By Andrew Lee Butters/Ein el-Tina
The southwestern Syrian province of Golan is normally off limits to most civilians because parts of it — the famous Golan Heights — have been occupied by Israel since the war of June 1967. But every year on Independence Day, when Syria commemorates the end of French rule in 1946, the […]