Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Steven Aiello

Balkan Honeymoon Post 4: Greece, Albania, Montenegro

Steven Aiello — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:29:51 +0000

Wednesday morning- we arrived in Thessaloniki (commonly known as Saloniki) without too much trouble (although the Turkish-Greek border crossing would be the worst we went through on our trip, with both countries making everyone get off and show their bags to a customs agent). We began our day at the White Tower museum, a [...]

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Balkan Honeymoon Stop 3: Istanbul

Steven Aiello — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:11:18 +0000

Istanbul (round 2): We arrived in Istanbul’s Sabiha Gocen Airport at approximately 3:00pm, about the same time that we left, thanks to the two hour time zone difference. Our friend AslI was waiting to greet us at the airport, and with her help we took a bus from the airport, then a minibus, to arrive [...]

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Balkan Honeymoon Stop 2: Heading East to Trabzon and Georgia

Steven Aiello — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:17:26 +0000

As our trip’s velocity continues to increase, it’s high time for another post, before I fall any further behind. After the Izmir area, our second destination was Georgia, but getting there was another adventure. We awoke early (4:30 am) to take a taxi to the airport, then consecutive one hour flights to Ankara and then [...]

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Balkan Honeymoon Stop 1: Roman History in Ephesus and Jewish life in Izmir

Steven Aiello — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 06:46:11 +0000

Finding time to write has been difficult, but after a week and a half in Turkey and Georgia, it is time for a second travel-related post. On Thursday, Dec. 20, I arrived at the Sabiha Gokcen Airport (from Tel Aviv) on the Asian side of Istanbul, took a bus west and northward to Taksim [...]

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Balkan Tales I

Steven Aiello — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:24:02 +0000

I am beginning this post, the first of our honeymoon trip to the Balkans, in Ben Gurion Airport. I will continue it on the plane and hope to have finished it by the time we disembark two hours later in Istanbul. During five weeks of traveling, we plan to visit many incredible places and [...]

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Building on Our Commonalities: Reflections After Pillar of Defense and the Palestinian Bid at the UNGA

Steven Aiello — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 05:12:53 +0000

Today is an important, albeit somewhat inauspicious, day in Israeli-Palestinian history. Today the UN General Assembly voted to approve an upgrade of formal diplomatic standing for Palestine, from “observer entity” to “non-member observer state”. November 29th also marks the 65th anniversary of the ill-fated UN Partition Plan, as Irwin Cotler points out. (Today is also [...]

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True Asymmetric Warfare

Steven Aiello — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 03:32:56 +0000

The recent escalation in conflict between Hamas and Israel gives new meaning and salience to the term asymmetric warfare. Asymmetric warfare typically refers to war in which a qualitative (or gross quantitative) imbalance of military power exists, and the weaker entity attempts to compensates for military inferiority by abusing or exploiting international humanitarian laws of [...]

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Aftermath of Benghazi: Charting a New Foreign Policy Course

Steven Aiello — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 03:06:22 +0000

In recent weeks, violent protests erupted against American (and other) Embassies and employees in various Muslim countries in the Middle East-North Africa region. Despite extensive media coverage and analysis, I believe that there are still some key things which have not been said. Moreover, the inadequate and largely hypocritical responses of the Obama administration [...]

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For You Were Strangers in Egypt

Steven Aiello — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:57:26 +0000

One of the more well-known- and powerful clauses in the Torah is ‘כי גרים הייתם במצריים’ – for you were strangers/foreigners in the land of Egypt. Whether as the underlying reason or simply to strengthen its performance, this is typically brought in conjunction with a commandment to treat the convert well or a prohibition [...]

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The TIKVAMUN Debate- Hope for Our Future

Steven Aiello — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:26:15 +0000

50 Jewish and Muslim Arab high school students crowd into an auditorium to debate the issue of Palestinian statehood. A Jewish student rises to speak on behalf of Palestine, his Arab partner at his side. An Arab girl representing Israel argues passionately against unilateral statehood; her kippa-clad partner waiting for his turn to [...]

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How to Represent Saudi Arabia: Lessons Our Youth Can Teach Our Leaders

Steven Aiello — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:13:50 +0000

One of the things which I have found most challenging while teaching high school students about topics like a UN vote on Palestinian statehood, has been getting the students to see other viewpoints. Thus I was very excited when told that a group of my Jewish students from Petah Tiqva would be representing Saudi [...]

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Freedom of Expression in a Global Age

Steven Aiello — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:04:00 +0000

My experience traveling from Israel to Dubai, and the week spent at the Emirates International MUN, could perhaps best be summed up as ironic and symbolic. To be sure, we had a wonderful experience overall; Dubai is a great city and the other participants, hailing from the UAE, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland [...]

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