Anatevka Revisited: Trump’s Ideas

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

Standing Up to Netanyahu

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

Bibileaks and the Jewish Chronicle

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

Building Tunnels in Gaza and Lebanon: The North Korean Connection

Last week, North Korea launched its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-19, which reached deep into space before descending and plunging into the ocean. This event hardly registered in the international media, days before the American election and the latest episodes in the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. While North Korea is 8,000 km … Read more

“October 8 and not October 7”: The Corbynistas and the Pogrom

Following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah by the IDF, Jeremy Corbyn – the Labour party’s former and now expelled leader – commented, “Israel’s genocidal intent and violence in Gaza is being repeated in Lebanon. This is what Islamophobia, dehumanisation of brown lives and total impunity looks like” (Morning Star 30 September 2024). Corbyn’s words epitomised the … Read more

Jews on the Dark Side: Russia and Venezuela

At the beginning of this month, Victor Kara-Murza, a British-Russian dissident, was suddenly released from his Siberian strict-regime camp and flown out of Russia as part of a major prisoner exchange. Murderers and spies were taken to the East, free thinkers and human rights activists were taken to the West. When asked if this exchange … Read more

Between Islamic Nationalism and Christian Nationalism

Before the opening of the new Parliament in London last week, MPs swore allegiance to the Crown on the King James Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Sundar Gutka prayerbook, the Koran and the Hebrew Bible. All this demonstrated the wide diversity of British society in 2024. This positive imagery was shattered by the election of … Read more

On Nicholas Winton

In 1939, Nicholas Winton, with his colleagues in the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (BCRC), Doreen Warriner and Trevor Chadwick, were responsible for bringing 669 children from Nazi-occupied Prague to the safety of the United Kingdom. Winton’s remarkable story was told in the recent film ‘One Life’, in which the brilliant Anthony Hopkins played … Read more