EU Observer: EU leaders dial down 'condemnation' of Israeli airstrikes
Commenting on the EU-summit deliberations on Gaza, British Middle East expert Edmund Fitton-Brown said: "That element of balance [deploring also Hamas] rescues the exercise from being completely counterproductive". The original statement on Hamas' 7 October attack said the EU "condemns [it] in the strongest possible terms", in what Fitton-Brown said was "a 10 out of 10 condemnation" in terms of diplomatic vocabulary. "I think they [EU leaders] have it about right on Syria - balancing criticism with encouragement and potential incentives," the British ex-diplomat, Fitton-Brown, said. But reading the draft summit communiqué on al-Sharaa more closely (which "strongly condemns" the sectarian violence), Fitton-Brown added: "I'm not sure the word 'strongly' is necessary."
The Counter Extremism Project Presents
Enduring Music: Compositions from the Holocaust
Marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Counter Extremism Project's ARCHER at House 88 presents a landmark concert of music composed in ghettos and death camps, performed in defiance of resurgent antisemitism. Curated with world renowned composer, conductor, and musicologist Francesco Lotoro, the program restores classical, folk, and popular works, many written on scraps of paper or recalled from memory, to public consciousness. Featuring world and U.S. premieres from Lotoro's archive, this concert honors a repertoire that endured against unimaginable evil.