It’s below zero degrees on the vast dirt hillside above Totah but through the mist and freezing rain, I can see the Syrian general’s target, a small ISIS-held village across a valley of mud. There’s a crash of artillery fire from his Shilka guns, and you wait several seconds before the shells fall behind a…
Human rights abuses by their government have so outraged prominent liberal Israelis that, in an unprecedented move, they have launched a campaign of civil disobedience. Many hundreds have responded to a call by rabbis, pledging to hide victims in their own homes to protect them from Israel’s security services. Moral concern With the mood rapidly…
Since WWI, armies have provided code names for their military operations. Many, however, have been euphemisms to conceal what really stands behind them. This week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a military campaign against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the enclave of Afrin, situated in northern Syria. Codenamed ‘Operation Olive Branch,’ it…
