Colin ShindlerIsraeli recruits gather last month at the graves of fallen soldiers and other victims of war, Mount Herzl cemetery By Efraim Karsh Yale University Press, £20 Palestine Betrayed is a detailed riposte to the version of the Israel-Palestine conflict that places the blame solely at Israel’s doorstep. Efraim Karsh, Professor of Middle East and Mediterranean … Read more
Theodor Herzl was born, 150 years ago this week, in Hungary, moved to Austria as a teenager, embraced German nationalism at university and found salvation in Zionism during the last decade of his short life. In part he was trying to solve his own Jewish problem of who he really was. A few years before … Read more
Defend the Realm By Christopher Andrew | Knopf | 1,056 pages | $40 In October 1909, Commander Mansfield Cumming of the Royal Navy and Captain Vernon Kell of the British Army started work in a small office in London’s Victoria Street which had been rented by a private detective. Thus began Britain’s security service, known … Read more
Right-hand man: Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party appeals to ordinary Israelis’ deep-seated fears By Dani Filc Routledge £75 Why do so many impoverished Israelis vote for the Right? Netanyahu’s policies of privatisation and empowerment of the private sector clearly seem to be against their interests. Yet they shout: “Long live Bibi and Israel”. Dani Filc … Read more
“The mark of an arrogant nation that has overreached itself” sounds more like an irritated imperial satrap of a bygone era than a reasoned Guardian editorial about the Mossad (24 March). Why nation and not government? Everybody? Does this include the Israeli peace camp, as well as those Israelis who held doctored British passports? Since … Read more
Why improving Israel’s image is a tough job Following Gorbachev’s accession to power in 1985, I was able to visit Jewish refuseniks in Moscow, after many years of being refused a visa due to my work for Jews in the USSR. I met many remarkable people on that visit, including Yuli Edelstein, shortly after his … Read more
Lenin was only interested in Jewish nationalism in so far as it related to the Russian workers’ movement Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000, an important feature in the debate on the Israel-Palestine imbroglio has been a questioning of the legitimacy of Israel as a nation-state by sections of the political … Read more
Sir, The Jews emerged as an ethnic group in the area known as the Pale of Settlement in eastern Europe in the 18th century. Many considered themselves to be part of a people with a culture, history, literature, languages and a religion. Zionism and other solutions to the Jewish question emerged out of the advent … Read more
Protesters against Israel’s incursion into Gaza demonstrate in Trafalgar Square in January. Anti-Israel feeling at SOAS was more noticeable during this period, says Professor Colin Shindler. But he says he has never faced antisemitism from students or lecturers As a former chemistry lecturer, Colin Shindler knows all about explosive situations. His new appointment could certainly … Read more