Barry Rubin passed away today. He was a great man, a writer and analyst who told the truth about Israel and Islamism. He was born in the United States and was solidly liberal–until the last few years. He was deeply unhappy with the changes in America, particularly the changes in education. He spent a year in the U.S. recently while writing and researching, and his son attended public school in Maryland. Barry wrote about the indoctrination going on in his son’s fourth grade classroom.
He wrote many books about Israel. His latest is about the Nazi origins of anti-Israelism in the Muslim world, a topic that most people avert their eyes from.
He also wrote two blogs, one on Blogspot and another for PJ Media.
I met Barry online years ago, after he was interviewed for the Shire Network News podcast. Barry loved On Second Thought, my contributions to the podcast. My humor tickled him very much, and that in turn tickled me. We emailed, and sometimes spoke on the phone. We met for lunch in Maryland a few years ago. He was charming and intelligent and we had a wonderful conversation about the issues of the day concerning Israel. One of the things I liked best about Barry is that he always felt the situation was much better than most people thought. He was positive about Israel’s future, and would tell you why things were so good in such a way as to make you walk away feeling hopeful as well.
He was struggling with cancer for some time, and we were hopeful that he could beat it. But his voice was stilled far too soon.
Israel has lost a champion, but a champion ignored by the mainstream media–because he spoke and wrote the truth, and they wanted to continue publishing the narrative.
My heart goes out to his wife and children. May his memory be a blessing.
If you’d like to honor Barry’s memory, make a contribution to the Gloria Center, which he directed. The writing, research, and analysis will continue–but without Barry. He will be greatly missed.