May 10, 2012 | 4:19 am

May 10, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attending Friday prayers at Tehran University, February 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

The Arab Spring facilitates an Arab-Israeli settlement

The rise of Turkish-style democracy in the Arab world will put an end to cries for the ‎Israel’s destruction, writes Sadegh Zibakalam in the Daily Star.‎

The Islam that has come out of the Arab Spring is more inclined toward a ‎Turkish than an Iranian model. It is true that Islamists in Tunisia, Morocco ‎and Egypt have emerged as the biggest winners in free and fair elections. ‎But it is also true that the Islam they broadly represent is a moderate Islam. It ‎is neither anti-Western nor anti-American. It is not even explicitly anti-Israel. ‎The Islamists are of course critical of Israel’s conduct toward Palestinians, in ‎much the same way that many non-Zionists and secular and non-orthodox ‎Israelis are critical of their government, but they have not raised the banner of ‎the destruction of the Jewish state.

Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse

Sharon Otterman and Ray Rivera of the New York Times look at a long-standing culture of silence over child abuse in ‎Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox community, a tradition which may be coming to an end. ‎

Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools ‎and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for ‎harassment intended to destroy their businesses. Some victims’ families ‎have been offered money, ostensibly to help pay for therapy for the victims, ‎but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims’ advocates said.‎

Overrated: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Con Coughlin of Standpoint Magazine offers his own hypothesis on what motivates ‎the Iranian Supreme Leader. ‎

‎[F]or most of his 22 or so years as Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s main ‎preoccupation has been to overcome the nagging doubts that, as a minor ‎cleric, he does not enjoy the legitimacy to occupy such an exalted position. ‎One way of answering his critics has been to adopt an increasingly ‎combative approach towards the West, particularly with regard to the vexed ‎issue of Iran’s nuclear programme. ‎

Egyptians’ Views of the United States and Israel ‎
The Pew Global Attitudes Project finds that a majority of Egyptians take a dim view of the ‎United States, and wish to end the peace treaty with Israel. ‎

The tremendous political changes that have taken place in Egypt since the end of ‎the Mubarak era have not led to a major shift in perceptions of the U.S. Roughly ‎eight-in-ten Egyptians (79%) express unfavorable attitudes toward the U.S… ‎Most Egyptians favor overturning the 1979 peace treaty in which Egypt became ‎the first Arab country to formally recognize Israel. Roughly six-in-ten (61%) want ‎to annul the treaty, up slightly from last year (54%). Just under a third (32%) ‎want to maintain it.‎

A Jewish Soldier of the Hair Salons
  ‎
Vidal Sassoon owed his success to the determination he acquired on the battlefield ‎as an Israeli soldier, writes Benjamin Ivry of the Forward in his eulogy to the world’s ‎most famous hairdresser.‎

Sassoon’s feisty descriptions in his autobiography of Israeli battlefield experiences ‎make the book read in parts like the memoirs of a retired foot soldier, not anyone ‎involved in the arts world. Although Sassoon returned to England to help support ‎his mother, his experiences in the Holy Land remained an indelible part of his ‎existence, inspiring his creative life. 

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