Sheldon Kirshner's Latest Posts
A “Moral Gesture” From The Dutch Railway Company
The Holocaust could not have been implemented in its entirety without the web of railways that crisscrossed Europe. Jews from as far away as Greece and as close as Poland were transported to Nazi extermination camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor and Treblinka. They were built on the express premise that national railroad companies would deport Jews […]
Turkey’s Relations With The U.S. Hit Another Low
Turkey’s troubled relationship with the United States took another hit on July 12 when the Turkish armed forces received the first components of the vaunted S-400 Russian air defence system. Just days after acting U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper warned Turkey that it would face economic sanctions if it went ahead with the controversial $2.5 […]
Back In Tel Aviv
After a lengthy absence, I was back in Tel Aviv, the lively and sophisticated seaside city on the Mediterranean that is so synonymous with Israel. Jerusalem is Israel’s spiritual and political capital, a flashpoint in the seemingly endless struggle between Zionism and Palestinian nationalism, but Tel Aviv is its temporal and secular heart and soul. […]
Family Business: A French Comedy Series
The legalization of cannabis in Western countries may well have inspired the creation of the six-part French-language comedy series, Family Business, which is now available on the Netflix streaming network. The plot is very current. The Hazans operate a modest kosher butcher shop in the Marais, a once heavily Jewish-populated neighborhood in Paris. It’s a […]
Israeli Air Raids In Syria Upset Russia
Israel’s bilateral relationship with Russia today is generally cordial. Certainly, it is far better than it was during the Cold War, when Russia unilaterally severed diplomatic relations with Israel twice, first in 1953 and then during the 1967 Six Day War. Nonetheless, given Russia’s close ties with Israel’s arch enemies, Syria and Iran, Israel must […]
Saudi Crown Prince Rides Out The Storm
It would seem that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne, has gotten away with murder. Nine months after reportedly ordering the assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, an unusually grisly killing that shocked even hardened observers, Prince Mohammed, the de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, is back on […]
She Broke A Glass Ceiling
In this age of female empowerment, Tracy Edwards is a shining role model. Thirty years ago, Edwards had the distinction of being the first women to skipper a boat in the gruelling Whitbread Round-the-World Yacht Race (which has since been renamed the Volvo Ocean Race). She was 26, a slip of a girl, when she […]
The Allure Of Petra
Petra was on my mind. This fantastical archaeological site in southwest Jordan, set amid a remote, desolate and brooding sandstone mountain range 900 meters above sea level, had captured my imagination. I had read about Petra in history books, watched documentaries about it, and seen tantalizing glimpses of it in Steven Spielberg’s adventure movie, Indiana Jones […]
Fields Case Sets An Important Precedent
James Fields Jr., 22, is a murderer who richly deserves to pay the penalty for his crime. Two years ago in August, during a white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of racially diverse counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, and injuring many other […]
Questioning The Veracity Of The Holocaust
The Holocaust is a fact in the broad sweep of history, like Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan in 1979, or Iraq’s incursion into Iran in 1980. The truth of these events is never questioned, yet the veracity of the Holocaust is […]
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