This absurd character with horn-rimmed glasses, beside whom James Bond becomes a flavourless creation. He does not shoot, nor use his fists, nor leap from speeding automobiles like James Bond, but he advises on wars, ends wars, pretends to change our destiny and does change it. So wrote the Italian writer, Oriana Fallaci, over 50 … Read more
The mourners gathered round the body at Alice Shalvi’s funeral in Jerusalem last Tuesday and sang with great emotion and passion, Eshet Chayil – “a woman of worth”. Chanted each Friday night to welcome in Shabbat, it summed up a woman who was deeply loved and revered. Her family, friends, community, students and colleagues in their hundreds accompanied … Read more
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 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
Fifty years ago, in mid-July 1973, the outgoing head of the IDF’s Southern Command, Ariel Sharon, held a retirement party in the garden of his Beersheba home. His farewell speech evolved into a tirade against David Elazar, the IDF Chief of Staff — there was no love lost between the two. Elazar had swept away … 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
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