Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein is a MintPress analyst who has written the Tikun Olam blog since 2003, specializing in Israeli politics and US foreign affairs. Silverstein works to expose the excesses of the Israeli national security state. He breaks major news stories that are often under judicial gag or military censorship, and which may not be reported in Israel. He has been published in Haaretz, Al Jazeera English, the Forward, Christian Science Monitor, Middle East Eye, and the Seattle Times. He speaks Hebrew fluently and incorporates the Hebrew-language press into his blog and other publications. He earned a BA from Columbia University, a BHL from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and MA in Comparative Literature from UCLA. He did two years of undergraduate and graduate study at the Hebrew University. He lives in Seattle. Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richards1052

Twitter Bows To Israeli Government Pressure To Censor Tweets

Not content to control traditional forms of domestic media, Israel is now reaching into cyberspace — and outside of its jurisdiction — to censor content.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
In Israel, A Slow Death Sigh For Free Speech And Press Freedom Under The Far-Right Netanyahu Government.

SEATTLE --- Though Israel’s reputation as a true democracy has certainly come under fire, its advocates proudly point to its freewheeling press as an exemplar of the values of liberal Zionism. But even this last holdout of Israeli democracy is rapidly receding, particularly in traditional domestic print and broadcast media and, more recently, among

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The Enemy Of My Friend Is My Friend: Israel Accepts Billions From The US, But Maintains Ties With Al-Nusra

Any other ally which depended so profoundly on Washington for its security and existence wouldn’t dare risk endangering that relationship to forge an alliance with an enemy of the U.S. But not Israel.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Nusra Front leader Mohammed al-Jolani undated photo released online on Thursday, July 28, 2016 to announce a video message that the militant group is changing name, and claims it will have no more ties with al-Qaida.

Late last month, Jabhat al-Nusra (the Nusra Front), al-Qaida’s Syrian arm, announced that it was severing ties with al-Qaida and renaming itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Front for the Conquest of Syria). In a video, the group’s leader, Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, explained that the group’s association with al-Qaida permitted the outside powers

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Israeli Security Agent’s Memoir Explores PTSD, But Not The Political Context Underlying His Murderous Career

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an analysis that relies solely on the human element but does not consider political factors will fail. Individuals are not the ultimate problem here; it’s the systems under which they live.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Israeli youths wave national flags as they enter Jerusalem's Old City through the Damascus Gate during a march celebrating Jerusalem Day, Sunday, June 5, 2016. Thousands of Israelis marched through Jerusalem's Old City amid high tensions on Sunday to commemorate the capture of the city's eastern sector in the 1967 Mideast war. The annual event sees flag-waving Israelis march through the city's ancient core, including Muslim areas. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

SEATTLE --- Yizhar David devoted more than 20 years of his life to Israel’s domestic spy agency, known as the Shabak or Shin Bet. The agent, one of the organization’s best, directed a field unit, and he had an important job: running Palestinian informants throughout the West Bank. Through these informants, David foiled hundreds of terror attacks

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Israeli Commandos Penetrate Syria, Lebanon To Plant Spy Devices And Murder Civilians

A new novel by a former member of one of Israel’s elite commando units provides an unprecedented look at what happens to the unfortunate civilians who stumble upon elite Israeli soldiers intruding upon other countries’ sovereignty.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Natan Odenheimer, former IDF special forces officer and novelist.

SEATTLE --- (ANALYSIS) For years, Lebanese media and the country’s army have reported lurid details about Israeli spy rings inside the country which assist in reconnaissance and espionage targeting Israel’s arch-enemy, Hezbollah. The Israeli Defense Forces intelligence apparatus uses sophisticated listening devices planted in southern Lebanon --

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Jewish Agency Exploits Martin Luther King III To Whitewash Plight Of Ethiopian-Israelis

The son of the American civil rights icon celebrated the birthday of an Israeli who hates ‘Arabs,’ then honored ‘Arabs’ in a speech to an NGO which promotes equality for Israel’s Arab minority.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein

SEATTLE --- The Jewish Agency for Israel’s chairman, Natan Sharansky, tapped Martin Luther King III to present the Unsung Hero award to three culture and media activists known for their support for Ethiopian-Israelis earlier this month. The awardees were journalist Anat Saragusti, former Knesset member Pnina Tamano-Shata, and popular world music

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Israeli Defense Forces General Likens Israel To 1930s Germany On Holocaust Remembrance Day

‘[I]f there is anything that frightens me in remembrance of the Holocaust, it is noticing horrific processes which developed … in Germany – 70, 80, and 90 years ago, and finding evidence of them here among us in the year 2016,’ Maj. Gen. Yair Golan told an audience earlier this month.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
rig. Gen. Yair Golan, IDF deputy chief of staff, who delivered searing Holocaust Memorial speech

SEATTLE --- Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, was commemorated in Israel and throughout the Jewish world earlier this month with solemn ceremonies of remembrance. But one speech rocked Israel with its moral criticism of Israeli society. Speaking to an audience gathered at Tel Yitzhak, a kibbutz in central Israel, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan,

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Native Americans, Black Americans & Palestinians Have More In Common Than You Might Think

The American attitude toward Native Americans was that they were “in the way;” that they interfered with God’s plan to settle and civilize the New Land. Therefore, they had to be swept aside. Zionists similarly justified the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through the Nakba.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein

SEATTLE --- (Analysis) In his 2007 book, “Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East,” which celebrates the proto-Zionism of the early American colonists and the bonds between 18th century Puritanism and the ancient “Children of Israel,” Michael Oren leaves out some important information. What did the historian and former Israeli

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