Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to withdraw some 2,000 American ground troops from Syria within 30 days struck Washington like a thunderbolt. “We have defeated (Islamic State), my only reason for being (in Syria),” he said in a Twitter post on December 19, blithely disregarding the advice of his national security officials. Trump’s abrupt announcement, though […]
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has disclosed he is considering the possibility of cancelling a lucrative contract to sell more than 900 light armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia, which has a horrendous human rights record. This was not an entirely surprising development. Two months ago, Canada announced it had suspended the approval of new arms […]
It’s the end of the year and the holiday season is upon us. Curl up in a comfortable chair or couch and enjoy these books for your reading pleasure. James Lacey’s Great Strategic Rivalries From The Classical World to the Cold War (Oxford University Press) delves into the geopolitical conflicts that have engaged major powers […]
Alfonso Cuaron’s stark and absorbing black-and-white neo-realistic Mexican movie, Roma, unfolds as languidly as a steamy night in the tropics. Semi-autobiographical and filmed in quasi-documentary style, it’s set in the upscale but slightly scruffy Roma district of Mexico City in the early 1970s and focuses on the tribulations of a middle-class family and one of its […]
Emulating the pragmatic example set by Russia last year, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the right decision by announcing that Australia would move its embassy in Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem one day. “Australia now recognizes West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel,” […]
Netflix’s eight-part comedy series, The Kominsky Method, created by Chuck Lorre and starring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, chronicles the perils of aging in the entertainment industry, which values the vitality, spunk and effervescence of youth. Douglas portrays Sandy Kominsky, a washed-up actor who ekes out a living as an acting coach in Los Angeles. […]
If you take Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his word, Israel and Saudi Arabia could be on the cusp of establishing diplomatic relations and becoming good neighbors and even allies. This may happen one day, but at the moment, there are no solid indicators that this scenario will pan out. If anything, the Saudis still […]
For the first time ever, the Toronto International Film Festival is paying tribute to one of Hollywood’s greatest directors, Steven Spielberg. From December 21 to January 10, TIFF will host Close Encounters: The Cinema of Steven Spielberg, a retrospective of 28 films he has written, directed or produced. These range from Schindler’s List to Raiders […]
Jews in Nazi-occupied countries were forced to make excruciating decisions as they grappled with the extraordinary perils facing them during the Holocaust. Their survival strategies varied, ranging from coping, compliance and cooperation to evasion, resistance and collaboration, as Evgeny Finkel writes in his superb book, Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival During the Holocaust (Princeton University […]
Hungarian President Viktor Orban expressed “zero tolerance” for antisemitism during his state visit to Israel last July, but he seems to be having second thoughts five months later. Late last month, Figyelo, a pro-government weekly magazine published in Budapest, ran an inflammatory picture on its cover of Andras Heisler, the head of the Federation of […]