Barry Rubin Dead at 64

Michael L.

The snippet below was originally published at Y-Net:

American-born Israeli academic Barry Rubin, who made a name for himself for his expertise in Middle East politics, has passed away at the age of 64, after what is believed to have been an 18-month battle with cancer.

A message posted Monday on his Facebook read: "To our great sadness, Barry Rubin passed away this morning. He was surrounded by his wife and children. Your love, support, and prayers have been greatly appreciated. There will be shiva and a funeral, details to follow soon."

The last entry on his own blog, the Rubin Report, was on January 21, when he highlighted the dichotomy between the message about Israel taught in the Arab world and the way the country is viewed by those in power. 

Rubin was the director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

Professor Rubin was among the most insightful analysts of American foreign policy in the Middle East that I have read.   He promised his readers that he would never "lie for peace" and I, for one, very much admired him for it.  It was not, of course, that he did not want to see peace between the tiny Jewish minority in the Middle East and the great hostile Arab majority, but that he did not believe that soft-soaping the issues could possibly get us there.

Rubin was highly critical of the Obama administration for its bungling of foreign policy throughout the region, for Obama's support of the Muslim Brotherhood and the rise of political Islam under the misnomer "Arab Spring," and for the administration's mishandling of the Arab-Israel conflict.

Daphne Anson dropped in last night and gave us the bad news, which Y-Net confirmed this morning.  I find myself very sad about this loss because over the last few years I turned to Professor Rubin on something close to a daily basis for his insight in order to help me better understand the relationship of Israel to the greater Arab-Muslim world and the relationship of the United States and the West toward Israel.  Those of us who followed Rubin knew that he was suffering from cancer, but I have to say after his announcement of the fact, and as he kept on writing despite his illness, I basically forgot that he was sick.

And, thus, his death comes as something of a shock to me, although it should not.  He was very explicit about the fact that he was writing as much as he was over the last year and a half, or thereabouts, because he knew that his time was short.

You will be missed, Professor Rubin.

You will be missed terribly.