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

Israel’s Defense Minister Exposes Israel’s Divide-And-Conquer Regional Strategy

In addition to blowing the cover on Israel’s secret dealings with the Gulf states to target Iran, the defense minister expressed Israel’s hope that Syria might be divided up into ethnic enclaves, each ruled by mini-warlords.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Moshe Yaalon, Defence Minister of Israel, gestures during his speech at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

SEATTLE (ANALYSIS) --- Israel’s defense minister spoke with uncharacteristic bluntness recently as he outlined Israel’s geopolitical strategy regarding two critical fronts in the nation’s relations with its neighbors: the Saudi-Iran proxy war and Syria. Speaking at the annual Munich security conference, Moshe Ya’alon was even so bold as to blow

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Palestinian MKs Suspended For Visiting Families Of Those Killed By Israeli Aggression

Few have recognized the Knesset members’ actions to negotiate for the bodies being held by Israeli forces as being part of their duty to serve their constituency. Instead, they’re accused of showing support for terrorism and building ‘walls of hate.’

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Jamal Zahalka an Israeli-Arab lawmaker from the Joint Arab List, is taken from the plenum in the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem, Monday, Feb. 8, 2016. Israel’s government is promoting legislation to ban three Arab lawmakers who met with families of Palestinians who carried out deadly attacks. The Arab parliamentarians, Hanin Zoabi, Basel Ghattas and Jamal Zahalka, met the families last week to help lobby the release of some of their relatives’ bodies. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Seattle --- (ANALYSIS) The Israeli Knesset ethics committee voted last week to suspend three Palestinian Knesset members from parliamentary activity for periods ranging from two to four months for intervening on behalf of the families of Palestinians from East Jerusalem who died in attacks on Israelis during the current Intifada. The MKs, Haneen

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British Doctors Demand Israel’s Expulsion From World Medical Association

The letter follows another in 2009, which laid out similar concerns about the Israeli medical establishment’s collusion with the country’s security apparatus and other violations of international medical ethics.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
In this Tuesday, August 11, 2015 file photo, Israeli Arab supporters of Mohammed Allan, a Palestinian prisoner on a hunger strike, hold signs during a rally outside Barzilai hospital, in the costal city of Ashkelon, Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov, File)

SEATTLE --- (ANALYSIS) Late last month, Israeli and Jewish media were filled with outrage at a letter signed by 71 British physicians, demanding the Israeli Medical Association’s expulsion from the World Medical Association. There were hearings in the Knesset and indignant articles were penned, castigating the chutzpah of these physicians in

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US Customs: If It’s Made In Gaza, It Can’t Be Labeled ‘Made In Israel’

A member of CodePink says the move sends a message, adding: “I hope, however, that they do more than send a message — I hope they enforce their own regulations about accurate labeling of settlement goods.”

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
MIDEAST ISRAEL PALESTINIANS

This article was originally published in partnership with Tikun Olam on January 30, 2016. SEATTLE --- The Obama administration took a leap in its campaign against illegal Israeli settlements last week, when the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol issued a reminder about a regulation on labelling products produced beyond the Green Line, or the pre-1967

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UPDATE: Gag Order Lifted On Case Of Pro-Palestine Activists Caught In Israeli Right-Wing Sting

In an act of entrapment, members of a right-wing NGO recorded a left-wing activist making inflammatory comments about a made-up sale of Palestinian land to Israeli settlers.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Guy ButGuy Butavia greeting supporters outside Jerusalem courtroom (Photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills)avia greeting supporters outside Jerusalem courtroom (photo credit: Oren Ziv Activestills)

SEATTLE (01/25/2016) --- Earlier this month, MintPress News reported on the sleazy tactics of Israel’s premier news magazine, “Uvdah,” which aired a segment smearing a leading Jewish human rights NGO that protects the rights of Palestinian farmers. Two spies from Ad Kan (“No More”), an astroturf settler group created largely for the purpose of

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Analysis: Israel’s Right-Wing Comes Out, Slurs Flying, Against US Ambassador Shapiro

After the U.S. ambassador to Israel questioned the country’s apartheid legal system, Netanyahu shot back: “Israel applies the law to Israelis and Palestinians.” It’s true that Israel does apply “the law” to Israelis and Palestinians, but it’s not the same law.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confers with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, right, in Tel Aviv, Israel Tuesday April 1, 2014, (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

SEATTLE --- While addressing Israel’s leading national security think tank on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro offered a harsh, relatively unprecedented assessment of the country’s apartheid legal system. Shapiro told an audience of Israeli generals, intelligence chiefs and security analysts gathered at the Institute for National

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State Department’s Silence Deafening After U.S. Citizens Engage In Israeli Settler Violence

The silence of the U.S. government when American citizens are actively engaged in anti-Palestinian terrorism suggests that we condemn Islamist terror while condoning Jewish terror.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
A relative holds up a photo of a one-and-a-half year old boy, Ali Dawabsheh, killed in a house that had been torched in an attack by Jewish extremists in Duma village near the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, July 31, 2015. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Seattle --- In July 2015, two Jewish settlers threw a Molotov cocktail into a Palestinian home and set it alight. Inside was a young family of four: a married couple and their two young sons. The building was fully engulfed by the time the parents awoke. They struggled desperately to get their boys out of the house. The mother swept up a blanket

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