Many Israelis believe that Britain is a den of antisemitic iniquity. Many American Jews believe the UK is on the road to a repeat of the violence of 1930s Germany. Many evangelicals believe that Britain’s 300,000 Jews are about to be overwhelmed by the millions-strong Muslim community who have embraced Jihadism. But while there has … Read more
One hundred years ago, the Revisionist Movement was established at the Café du Panthéon in the heart of the Latin Quarter in Paris by acculturated Russian Jews. Its leader was Vladimir Jabotinsky – an intellectual, a man of letters and a spellbinding orator, a figure often quoted by Benjamin Netanyahu. The link is not coincidental. … Read more
I am a Jew because our ancestors were the first to see that the world is driven by a moral purpose, that reality is not a ceaseless war of the elements, to be worshipped as gods, nor history in a battle in which might is right and power is to be appeased. The Judaic tradition … Read more
Two weeks ago, Israel joined Iran, North Korea and Belarus in opposing a UN resolution which named and condemned Russia as the aggressor in the war in Ukraine. Its central reason in following these pariah dictatorships was because Donald Trump’s America had done so. This was how Netanyahu’s government commemorated the third anniversary of the … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
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