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
In a few days, a meeting to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Greece will take place at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris. For many, this will be one minor tragedy amidst a multitude during the Holocaust. For some, the deportations may register momentarily about a country of … Read more
Last week, Yigal Amir, the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin, celebrated his 53rd birthday in Ramon prison. He has spent more of his life behind bars than in freedom. He has served more time in prison than Nelson Mandela in apartheid South Africa and, unlike most Israelis sentenced to life imprisonment, it is highly unlikely his … Read more
The demonstrations every Saturday night against “the judicial overhaul” continue in Israel unabated and remain deeply defiant. Even the hiatus of a rocket barrage from Gaza by Islamic Jihad did not mean an abandonment of protest. Unlike in Türkiye and Hungary, many Israelis are not prepared to roll over and whisper their thoughts in private. … Read more