Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution by Shlomo Avineri Published by Yale University Press 2019, pp.221 Why should Karl Marx be included in Yale’s excellent Jewish Lives series when the subject of this fascinating book never referred to his Jewish origins? Shlomo Avineri, the eminent Israeli intellectual and academic, has attempted to unravel Marx’s connection to … Read more
Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, will celebrate his 50th birthday on May 23, according to the English date. He will have spent almost half his life in prison and has not shown a scintilla of remorse for his act. Coming from a devout Yemenite family, his primary and secondary schools were charedi but he unusually … Read more
Searching for Socialism, by academics Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, traces the odyssey of Labour’s “Old Left” from the 1970s until the defeat of the far left in last year’s elec-tion. It looks at the political voyage of left-wing Brexiteers from Tony Benn to Jeremy Corbyn; and also indicates that the mindset of the far … Read more
LAST WEEK, DAVID FRIEDMAN, the US ambassador to Israel, gave a flurry of interviews to explain and justify the possible annexation after July 1 of part of the West Bank by the new Netanyahu-Gantz government. In an article in the New York Post, he was clearly upset about a recent proposal in Foreign Policy magazine by Philip H. … Read more
Ring a ring a rosesA pocket full of poses Atishoo, AtishooWe all fall down THE ORIGIN of this familiar nursery rhyme is often attributed to the Black Death of 1348 when Jews in several European countries were accused of poisoning wells in order to deliberately cause the pandemic. Jews were subsequently murdered in great numbers … Read more
Britain’s Pacification of Palestine: The British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt 1936–1939, Matthew Hughes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), ISBN 978-1-107-10320-7, pp. 478, £34.99. This work by the military historian Matthew Hughes describes in great detail the multifaceted approach taken by the British army “to grind out the rebellion” (blurb), the suppression … Read more
One hundred years ago, Rabbi Harris Cohen ushered in the children attending the Stoke Newington Sunday morning cheder, called for quiet and told them: ‘‘Palestine is our land again. God’s promise to our fathers thousands of years ago is being fulfilled in our days!’’ The Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers had passed a … Read more
AT JEWISH DINNER PARTIES in north west London, the topics of discussion not so long ago were Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn’s inability to deal with anti-Semitism and the inanities of Netanyahu’s latest manoeuvre to remain in power – topics all swept away, including the dinner parties themselves, by social distancing and self-isolation. Instead of tea and biscuits … Read more
“ISRAEL WILL NOT ALLOW IRAN to achieve nuclear weapons and will continue to act methodically against Iran’s attempts to militarily entrench on our borders.” So spoke prime minister Netanyahu at last week’s Israeli cabinet meeting. Was this simply another attempt by Netanyahu to deflect attention from his own woes? His current trial for breach of trust, … Read more
IRVING BERLIN: NEW YORK GENIUSBy James KaplanPublished by Yale University Press, pp.324 Born at the end of the 19th century in Siberia, Israel Beilin or Izzy Baline, but best known as Irving Berlin, lived to be 101 – and during his long life composed some of the most enduring contributions to the American songbook. A … Read more