Anatevka Revisited: Trump’s Ideas

Prime Minister Netanyahu was only informed about Donald Trump’s ideas about relocating the Palestinians of Gaza on the day before his meeting with the president. It also came as a surprise to US Secretary of State Rubio and most of Netanyahu’s delegation. Even Netanyahu seemed bemused at this turn of events. As the Trump look-alike … Read more

Israel and Ireland

Last month, Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Saar, ordered the closure of its embassy in Dublin. It followed an Irish proposal to join South Africa in the “genocide” accusation at the International Court of Justice at the Hague. Ireland, together with Spain and Norway, have formally recognised the State of Palestine.  This was the … Read more

Six Movers and Shakers in British Politics

During the 1930s, Winston Churchill, cast out from the political establishment as an eccentric warmonger, earned his living through his writing. In 1937, he coined the phrase “making the weather” in his book Great Contemporaries about figures who changed history but never made it to the top. Churchill specifically directed his attention to Joseph Chamberlain, a … Read more

Iran is in our eyes and ears

Iran has been in our eyes and ears throughout the last year. Its direct and open confrontation with Israel has marked a substantial change from the clandestine shadow war that has been ongoing since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Steven R. Ward’s book Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence: A Concise History provides the background to … Read more

Standing Up to Netanyahu

At the end of October, a conference was held near Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the kibbutzim which bore the bloody brunt of Hamas’ October 7 assault.  It was attended by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and another ten government ministers, to support the (re)establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. Even Yitzhak Goldknopf of the non-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism attended.  Last … Read more

Bibileaks and the Jewish Chronicle

Several Sundays ago, I returned from lunch with friends to read that three of Britain’s best-known and respected Jewish journalists, Jonathan Freedland (Guardian), Hadley Freeman (Sunday Times) and David Aaronovitch (The Times until 2023) had resigned from contributing to the Jewish Chronicle (JC). Freedland wrote that he needed to break his connection with the JC because “I no … Read more

Netanyahu and the International Criminal Court

There has been uproar in the Jewish world about the accusations of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which have been levelled at Israel and its call for the arrests of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. The ICC was established in 2002 on the basis of the Rome Statute four years earlier. Its role was to … Read more

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