A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion by Tom Segev Published by Head of Zeus 2019, pp.804 This is a long but inspiring account of the life and times of David Ben- Gurion. It is a “Jewish journey” like no other. Its dramatis personae cross the stage of Jew- ish history during … Read more
In September 1940, David Ben-Gurion undertook a hazardous voyage across the Atlantic on board the requisitioned Cunard cruiseliner, the Scythia, arriving in New York just before Yom Kippur. He had been in London since early May and observed first-hand the fall of France, the Battle of Britain and death and destruction during the Blitz. He was … Read more
Pope Francis’s announcement that the Vatican will open the archives on the life and times of his predecessor, Pius XII (1939-1958) – some 16 million pages – has answered the call of historians over many decades. The attitude of Pius towards Jews, anti-Semitism and Nazi atrocities has remained a matter of controversy for Jewish and … Read more
Next week Barack Obama will give the annual Nelson Mandela lecture in Johannesburg to commemorate the centenary of the birth of South Africa’s first post-apartheid leader. South Africans will be exhorted “to find the Mandela in each of us” while scores of business leaders and media celebrities are spending a night inside the prison cells … Read more
Review of Anshel Pfeffer’s Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu Published by Hurst, pp. 424 Netanyahu” means “given by God” in Hebrew. Anshel Pfeffer, one of Israel’s most insightful journalists and the author of this excellent biography, clearly doesn’t believe this to be the most appropriate of surnames for Israel’s current prime … Read more
Shortly after midnight on 5 June 1968, Robert Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian living in the US, in the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles during his campaign to become president. Kennedy died the next day – it was the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Six Day war. In subsequent years, Sirhan … 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
Britain’s Moment in Palestine: Retrospect and Perspectives 1917–1948, Michael J. Cohen (New York and London: Routledge, 2014), isbn 978-0-415-72985-7, pp. 518, £90. This is a revelatory book, which comprehensively details Britain’s contentious and anguished moment in Palestine as ruler and colonizer. In one sense this is a solid “old-fashioned” factual overview of British policy during the thirty … Read more
‘His career was as brilliant and promising as it was meteoric and short-lived. His advent seemed to usher in a new era flashing a ray of hope to a darkened world. He faced the desperate problems of our age with courage, with youthful vigour, with profound understanding and deep sympathy for the underprivileged, the disinherited … Read more
Campaigning in Finchley and Golders Green in 2001 (Photo: Sidney Harris) Prior to her visit to meet the rising Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1984, I was asked to join a delegation in Finchley to meet Margaret Thatcher. I hesitated because I was no fan and believed her policies to be destructive and divisive. Yet … Read more