Matthew Gutman
By Matthew Gutman
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News Arabic-Speaking Nebbish Hits Prime-Time Television in Israel
Jerusalem – Amjad Alayan is Israeli television’s first Arab sitcom hero — a term applied loosely here, since the bespectacled Amjad is, well, a nebbish. Think George Costanza of “Seinfeld” fame with an Arabic twist. Amjad appears on Israel’s Channel 2 every Saturday night in “Arab Labor,” which is the first prime-time program featuring Arab…
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News In Lawless Nablus, the Law Changes at Sundown
Nablus, West Bank — Tawfiq Kalboni fidgets with some wayward bills. A moneylender in this central West Bank city, Kalboni, 42, owed another moneylender about $150,000. When he failed to pay, he said, the creditor collected on the debt, Nablus style. Five weeks ago, masked gunmen kidnapped his 14-year-old son from the doorstep of his…
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News Jerusalem Offers Aid After Holocaust Survivors March On Israel’s Streets
Jerusalem – After an acrimonious summer-long debate about Israel’s treatment of its Holocaust survivors, the Israeli government inked a controversial deal Sunday that will provide millions of dollars in financial aid to some survivors. The plight of Israel’s Holocaust survivors, of whom there are estimated to be 260,000, has been on public display since the…
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News Along Green Line, Both Sides Try To Work It Out
Jenin, West Bank – Just outside this northern West Bank city, the groundwork is being laid for the first Israeli-Palestinian free-trade zone along the route of the security barrier separating Israel from the West Bank. The Israeli and Palestinian officials behind the project say that with enough foreign aid, the industrial zone could generate 10,000…
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News Islamic Jihad Blazes a Bloody Trail in Bid for Dominance
HEBRON — Fresh off a string of bloody attacks, the local cell of Islamic Jihad here is tying Palestinian officials in knots even as it has earned the respect of many Palestinians for the audacity of its sorties and its unrelenting fight against the Jewish state. Consisting of no more than several score fighters, the…
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News In Fading Uzbeki Enclave, A Teacher’s Last Lessons
Swaddled in a gray angora scarf and smiling brightly through a mouthful of gold-capped teeth, Miriam Baybatshiava welcomes visitors to what is known as “School Number 36” and the only Hebrew class in the dying Jewish community of Bukhara. The 67-year-old former mathematician is the last teacher of Hebrew in a once-thriving Jewish community, now…
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