The United States, having failed to squeeze Iran into submission by military means, is now trying to achieve this objective through economic means. Its change in emphasis was underscored by three events in the past few days. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that the United States does not plan to launch new offensive […]
It is surely a sign of the times. A police cruiser has been parked in front of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in midtown Toronto for the past few months. I pass it whenever I cycle southward on my almost daily bike ride during the relatively short cycling season. The vehicle is there to ward […]
Since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has repeatedly struck military bases and equipment in Syria and seized territory in the southern part of the country to protect its northern border. Last week, in one of its boldest and most provocative moves, Israel bombed Abu al-Duhur, an empty Syrian air […]
Agnes Caffin’s Scheherazade And The Kosher Delight is a lesson in the limits of tolerance. Presented free of charge on line by the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation, this unusual French movie mainly unfolds in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Paris. Although it was released in 2011, its message is timeless and universal. In the opening scene, […]
Bashar al-Assad, the ousted president of Syria, is a war criminal. These are not mere words. Last week, a court in Damascus sentenced him, his brother Maher, his cousin Atef Najib and six former Syrian officials to death for murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity, all committed during the long civil war in […]
A somber anniversary was marked in Afghanistan a few days ago as the Taliban celebrated the fifth anniversary of its return to power. On August 15, 2021, following a costly two-decade war that achieved nothing of lasting value, the United States and its allies unilaterally withdrew their troops from that war-torn country. The ultimate futility […]
Bevan Lee’s Australian television series, A Place To Call Home, definitely strikes a chord. A vibrant family drama consisting of 67 episodes, it is now available on the Amazon Prime platform. I was inexorably drawn into it from the very start. Sarah Adams (Marta Dusseldorp), a nurse and a convert to Judaism whose Jewish husband […]
On August 8, a day after Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan announced the formation of a joint defence pact, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif spoke bluntly. Claiming that Israel is an “illegitimate state” and a “threat to the entire Muslim world,” he called for a “united military front” against the Jewish state. Asif’s inflammatory comments, […]
Antisemitism is now a focal point in the impassioned debate over free speech in the United States as defined by the First Amendment in the constitution, contends James Loeffler in his bold and thought-provoking work, Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America, published by Metropolitan Books. This debate is at […]
Iran lost the war militarily, but may prevail politically. Nearly six months after the United States and Israel launched joint air strikes in Iran, killing a significant proportion of its political and military leadership and massively degrading its armed forces, the Iranian regime has maneuvered U.S. President Donald Trump into a strategic cul-de-sac. Trump initiated […]