For me, Israel is at the forefront of Jewish history. The state is the inheritor of the French revolutionary tradition and nineteenth century European liberal nationalism. As someone who was embedded in the political causes of the 1960s, the Six Day war in 1967 was a watershed. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 propelled…
Fifty years ago, Rabbi Haim Druckman rose to his feet in the Park Hotel in Hebron, greeted more than 60 guests and proceeded to lead the Pesach Seder. The Arab owners of the hotel were told that their visitors were Swiss tourists. The hotel kitchen was koshered and the mezuzot affixed. Moshe Levinger even brought…
In conversation with Ned Temko at Jewish Book Week 2018. https://vimeo.com/261457712
Next week the Glasgow Film Festival will close with a showing of Nae Pasaran! (They Shall Not Pass!) which tells the story of how engineers at the Rolls-Royce East Kilbride factory in 1974 refused to repair aircraft engines that belonged to the Chilean armed forces. Led by General Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean air force, flying…
During his first tenure as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu was dubbed “the magician” by the local media because of his uncanny ability to extricate himself from the most difficult of situations – starting with his unexpected victory over Shimon Peres in the 1996 election. Mr Netanyahu’s luck – or expertise – may have run…
Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel 1917-2017 Ian Black, published by Allen Lane 2017) pp. 640 Ian Black, a longtime Guardian journalist, sees Yasser Arafat’s appearance at the UN in 1974 as the “apogee of his 40-year leadership.” It’s a curious notation in his latest book, Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs…
In recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Trump is reflecting Jewish emotional and spiritual yearning for Jerusalem. In doing so, he is appealing to many outside of the far Right and the strictly orthodox in American Jewry who make up his usual supporters. 82 per cent of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump — far more than…
The Kurds are a fighting people that have proven political commitment and political moderation – they are worthy of their own political independence. So spoke prime minister Netanyahu in June 2014. The overwhelming Kurdish vote in support of independence last Monday was endorsed by Israelis of all political views. It built on half a century…
The overwhelming Kurdish vote in support of independence on Monday was endorsed by Israelis of all political views. It built on half a century of Israeli-Kurdish cooperation which commenced when Golda Meir was Foreign Minister. Nahum Admoni, Mossad chief in the 1980s, described this approach on initiating assistance to the Kurds as “definitely humanitarian, an…
Review of Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman (Yale University Press 2017) pp. 304, £16.99 The Israeli novelist, Amos Oz, described Yitzhak Rabin as ‘not a charismatic man, but rather a logical, skilful captain’. Rabin was both a political dove and a military hawk, who never pretended to be a far-sighted intellectual, had no small…