The Last of the Tsars: Nicholas II and the Russian Revolution (Macmillan) 400 pages; £25 By Robert Service The tale of Nicholas and Alexandra has been romanticized in film and verse, demythologized by academics in numerous books and promoted by Vladimir Putin as a means of fortifying Russian nationalism in the public arena. A hundred years later, … Read more
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The refusal of the Labour party’s National Constitutional Committee to expel Ken Livingstone was not unexpected. The verdict of effectively extending Livingstone’s suspension for another year was simply a case of choosing the line of least resistance between Labour’s warring factions. It also reflected the desire of many ordinary Labour members not to believe the … Read more
The latest rebuke to the ‘entry to Israel’ law barring entry to foreigners who call for a boycott of Israel or settlements has come from lecturers in Israel studies in the Diaspora. Although many of the leading lights of the Association of Israel Studies have struggled valiantly against the advocates of BDS on U.S. campuses, they may … Read more
Review of Our Israeli Diary, 1978: Of That Time, Of That Place By Antonia Fraser Published by One World (London 2017) pp149 $16.99 In May 1978, the Nobel Prize winning playwright, Harold Pinter and Lady Antonia Fraser, a celebrated historian who later became his wife, visited Israel. Fraser has now published her diary of … Read more
Review of Neill Lochery’s The Resistible Rise of Benjamin Netanyahu Admiration and respect are not words usually attached to the persona of Benjamin Netanyahu by either friend or foe. Rather, it is his prowess as ‘the national goalkeeper’ and the guarantor of security that matters. In the eyes of many Israelis, the question of … Read more
In November, we will mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour opposition, said that this declaration was a mistake. How will he react this time? It was in 2013 that he offered his opinion on the Balfour Declaration. It arises from his lack of understanding of both … Read more
What Ifs of Jewish History: From Abraham to Zionism edited by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld (Cambridge University Press 2016) pp. 412 Noel Coward wrote Peace in Our Time, a play which imagined defeat in the Battle of Britain and a Nazi occupation of the UK, in 1946. Writers from Philip Roth (The Plot Against America) … Read more
EIGHTY YEARS ago this month, Boris Ginsburg was arrested while walking along a street in Proskurov, a city in western Ukraine.Mr Ginsburg was one of the last leaders of the underground Zionist movement in the USSR. It is believed that he died under interrogation by the GPU, the forerunner of the KGB, in Kaminets-Podolsk. He … Read more
TOURISTS CAN expect their hotel room to be bugged and their every movement watched, but that has not stopped one Israeli travel agency from announcing group trips to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, starting in April. Rimon Tours said earlier this month it had secured an exclusive agreement to issue tourist visas for North Korea. … Read more