“‘I’m disappointed in you, Dick. The report you have produced is grossly unfair’. “I was genuinely puzzled and said: ‘Unfair to the Jews or to the Arabs?’ “To this he replied crossly: ‘No, unfair to Britain, of course. You’ve let us down by giving way to the Jews and Americans’.” So wrote Richard Crossman, … Read more
Review of Daniel Heller’s Jabotinsky’s Children The acknowledged founder of the Zionist Right was the assimilated Odessa-born intellectual Vladimir Jabotinsky, whose abilities were admired by both acolytes and opponents. A hundred years ago he founded the Jewish Legion, which fought in the British campaign in 1918 to take Palestine from the Turks and promoted a … Read more
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THE LETTERS are full of horrifying news about pogroms and the terrible state of mind everybody is in. I can imagine what is going on in everybody’s head and heart. And it is precisely at this difficult time that I am not on duty as a Zionist. This pains me. So wrote Chaim Weizmann to … Read more
At noon on December 11 1917, General Allenby dismounted and walked through the Jaffa Gate to take possession of Jerusalem from the defeated Turks on behalf of the British Crown. Five days later Naaman Belkind and Yosef Lishansky were hanged by the Turks in Damascus. They were members of the intelligence network of young Palestinian … Read more
Why commemorate the Balfour Declaration? After all, some in Britain consider it to be ‘a historic mistake’. Others see it as the ultimate rebellion – the attempt of a small, persecuted people to return from the margins to the mainstream and thereby succeeding against all the odds. Many Jews believe that it was solely Judaism … Read more
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/emily-thornberry-criticised-for-disgraceful-balfour-comments-1.447016 30 November 2017
In a year of anniversaries which relate to the history of modern Israel, perhaps the centenary of the Balfour Declaration is the most significant. For those who resent the rise of a Hebrew republic in the Land of Israel, it represents a colossal historic mistake. It clearly upsets the ideological applecart, anchored in the belief … Read more
Review of Sean Matgamna’s book The Left in Disarray Most of the time, the key terms of the anti-capitalist Left have no clear meaning, they express and convey emotion, not reason. They are the tools of demagogy more than of reasoned discourse … our language of politics is decayed, disablingly. So opens Sean Matgamna’s timely … Read more
There are many ways to fight a war. And there are many ways to depict it after hostilities have ceased. Popular culture tends to focus on the battlefield whether on the ground, in the air or at sea. Yet many gave their lives to defeat Nazism in areas that succeeding generations have tended to gloss … Read more