By withdrawing its protection at the UN on the question of Israeli settlement expansion, the fading Obama administration has caused turmoil within many Jewish organisations. Despite a recent American $38 billion military aid package to Israel, many viewed the move as a wholesale betrayal and a deliverance into the hands of Israels enemies. Was the … Read more
Last Shabbat, the prayer for the state of Israel was recited in the main Havana synagogue. It was also the day when the announcement was made of the passing of Fidel Castro, who had broken off diplomatic relations with Israel in 1973. This symbolised Fidel’s individualistic approach towards Jews and Israel while remaining a … Read more
Review of Paul Bogdanor’s Kasztner’s Crime (Transaction 2016) pp. 323 Paul Bogdanor has penned a well-researched book on the contentious Kasztner affair – a controversy that commenced in wartime Hungary and has continued until the present day. In the summer of 1944, a minor Jewish figure, Rudolf Kasztner, negotiated with Adolf Eichmann in the … Read more
“The Egyptian has his thumb on our windpipe”. So muttered Prime Minister Anthony Eden in July 1956 on hearing that President Gamal Abdel Nasser had nationalised the Suez Canal. It led to a clandestine agreement with then Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion for a joint military intervention – and Israel’s subsequent move into Sinai … Read more
THE transformation of Szymon Perski from Vishnyeva in Belarus into Shimon Peres, a founding father of the state of Israel, is a reflection of how the Jews have moved from the margins of history to its mainstream after two millennia of dispersion and persecution. An urbane cultured man who spoke several languages and wrote poetry, … Read more
The political career of Shimon Peres lasted almost as long as a normal lifetime – three score and ten years. The secret of such longevity was his ability to adapt to the political reality – as he saw it – and not to be hidebound by ideological principles. He learned this at the knee of … Read more
Review of Avi Shilon’s Ben-Gurion: His Later Years in the Political Wilderness (Rowman and Littlefield 2016) pp.245 This latest work from Avi Shilon describes in detail Ben-Gurion’s last decade – from stepping down as prime minister in June 1963 until his death in December 1973. They were not glorious years and were peppered by … Read more
The political life of Shimon Peres lasted almost as long as a normal lifetime – three score and 10 years. The secret of such longevity was his ability to adapt to political reality as he saw it and not to be hidebound by ideological principles. He learned this at the knee of David Ben Gurion … Read more
Jeffrey Herf, Undeclared Wars With Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left 1967–1989 (Cambridge 2016) After 1945, Communist East Germany and the far Left in West Germany felt that they had no moral responsibility towards Israel. In their eyes it was just another outpost of imperialism that had placed the yoke of colonialism around the necks of Palestinian Arabs. Prof. Jeffrey Herf’s … Read more
Why have Jews always been involved disproportionately in the social activism of the times? Clearly a central reason must be the inheritance of historical memory; after the Shoah, all Jews are survivors. This was the reason why many Jews were shocked by Ken Livingstone’s inaccurate remarks that Hitler supported Zionism. That it emerged from a Labour man—whose party which has celebrated difference … Read more