Building Tunnels in Gaza and Lebanon: The North Korean Connection

Last week, North Korea launched its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-19, which reached deep into space before descending and plunging into the ocean. This event hardly registered in the international media, days before the American election and the latest episodes in the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. While North Korea is 8,000 km … Read more

On Chaim Weizmann

CHAIM WEIZMANN: A BIOGRAPHYBy Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golan Brandeis University Press (pp. 820) Chaim Weizmann was a remarkable man who truly deserved the accolade of “a founding father of Israel.”This majestic work by Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golani, Chaim Weizmann: A Biography is as absorbing as it is comprehensive. Both authors have written about Weizmann for … Read more

“October 8 and not October 7”: The Corbynistas and the Pogrom

Following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah by the IDF, Jeremy Corbyn – the Labour party’s former and now expelled leader – commented, “Israel’s genocidal intent and violence in Gaza is being repeated in Lebanon. This is what Islamophobia, dehumanisation of brown lives and total impunity looks like” (Morning Star 30 September 2024). Corbyn’s words epitomised the … Read more

Resignation from the Jewish Chronicle

Dear Jake I too join my colleagues, Jonathan Freedland, Hadley Freeman and David Aaronovitch in resigning from writing for the Jewish Chronicle. My name first appeared in the JC in 1966 and I have contributed to the paper for over 50 years. During your editorship, the JC has become sensationalist and unbalanced in its coverage. The … Read more

Blood on his hands

Many Israelis believe that Benjamin Netanyahu has blood on his hands. Since the release of 105 hostages through negotiations last November, the Israeli government has chosen the priority of destroying Hamas rather than securing the release of the remaining hostages.  The families of the hostages have been calling for negotiations for almost a year – … Read more

Hitler’s People

Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich By Richard J. Evans, published by Allen Lane 2024, pp.598 Why did so many hitherto responsible citizens become fellow travellers in Hitler’s Germany? Why were ordinary people in their millions sucked into a whirlpool of deception? These are the questions that have been repeatedly asked since 1945. … Read more

Jews on the Dark Side: Russia and Venezuela

At the beginning of this month, Victor Kara-Murza, a British-Russian dissident, was suddenly released from his Siberian strict-regime camp and flown out of Russia as part of a major prisoner exchange. Murderers and spies were taken to the East, free thinkers and human rights activists were taken to the West. When asked if this exchange … Read more

Between Islamic Nationalism and Christian Nationalism

Before the opening of the new Parliament in London last week, MPs swore allegiance to the Crown on the King James Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Sundar Gutka prayerbook, the Koran and the Hebrew Bible. All this demonstrated the wide diversity of British society in 2024. This positive imagery was shattered by the election of … Read more

On Nicholas Winton

In 1939, Nicholas Winton, with his colleagues in the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (BCRC), Doreen Warriner and Trevor Chadwick, were responsible for bringing 669 children from Nazi-occupied Prague to the safety of the United Kingdom. Winton’s remarkable story was told in the recent film ‘One Life’, in which the brilliant Anthony Hopkins played … Read more