Regardless of who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds at al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday, it is clear that Israel is being blamed unequivocally for this terrible event by the Arab street. Apart from setting back the prospect of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation by years, this incident may provide the fuel to set the Middle East on … Read more
The Arab street is blaming Israel for the destruction of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza regardless of whether or not Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible. Even before the cloud of suspicion was lifting from the IDF, fearful Arab leaders cancelled the planned summit with President Biden. This terrible episode will undoubtedly provide the fuel to … Read more
The mourners gathered round the body at Alice Shalvi’s funeral in Jerusalem last Tuesday and sang with great emotion and passion, Eshet Chayil – “a woman of worth”. Chanted each Friday night to welcome in Shabbat, it summed up a woman who was deeply loved and revered. Her family, friends, community, students and colleagues in their hundreds accompanied … Read more
Fifty years ago, at exactly 14.00 hours on October 6, 1973, Egyptian and Syrians forces advanced in a coordinated attack on the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), stationed on the east bank of the Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights. For the Jews, the 19-day conflict has passed into history as the Yom Kippur war. … Read more
This Friday marks the start of the Jewish New Year, a time to reflect on the passing year and voice aspirations for the one coming. The central concern for many British Jews this year will be the deep division in Israel over the government’s “judicial reform” which removes the checks and balances that preserve an … Read more
A few weeks ago, the JPR/Institute for Jewish Policy Research published a report on antisemitism in the UK in 2023 and included questions on how British Jews regard Israel’s leaders. The subtext was clearly the crisis about ‘judicial reform’. Close to 4,000 respondents replied, with 79 percent of those who gave an opinion disapproving of … Read more
A few weeks ago, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in the UK published a report entitled, “What do Jews in the UK think about Israel’s leaders and its future?” Comparable to Australia’s Crossroads23 demographic analysis, its authors, Jon Boyd and Carli Lessof, honed in on Jewish attitudes towards Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the “judicial reform” controversy. … Read more
The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner, published by Scribe 2023, pp.370 Some view the Israel of 2023 through rose-coloured glasses — often as a reaction to campaigns against the state from those who wish that a Hebrew republic had never been established in the first place. … Read more
Avi Shlaim, a British historian of the Middle East, was forced to leave Baghdad with his family for Israel as a five-year-old by an Iraqi government that cared little for minorities. Some 110,000 Jews left Iraq in 1950 and 1951 – a Jewish community that could trace its origins back to the Babylonians. Some were … Read more
It is now 500 days since Vladimir Putin launched his war against the civilian population of Ukraine, days that have been peppered with anti-Jewish comments and imagery. In a search for a scapegoat for last week’s mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Putin looked back into Russian history and repeated the … Read more