Japan’s attitude to and policies toward Jews from 1933 to 1945 — the years that coincided with the rise and fall of Nazi Germany — is the subject of Meron Medzini’s fine and fascinating work of scholarship, Under the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Japan and the Jews During the Holocaust Period, published by Academic […]
Reinhard Heydrich, one of highest-ranking German SS officers, was posted to Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to stamp out its resistance movement. Heydrich, an architect of the Holocaust, dealt crushing blows to it. As a result, the London-based Czech government-in-exile decided to assassinate him. Two operatives, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, were parachuted into Czechoslovakia to carry out […]
Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from the state of Vermont, unburdened himself of a few choice words of wisdom a few days ago. They’re well worth pondering. Addressing J Street’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., Sanders spoke of the importance of diversity of opinion in discourse about Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Delivering his first […]
It’s disappointing and disheartening that online retailer Amazon is flogging books dedicated to Holocaust denial. This is not only an affront to the historical record, but illegal as well in some countries. I logged on to Amazon the other day and, much to my surprise and disgust, I found books like Did Six Million Really Die? and The […]
The Arab world is in disarray, riven by civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen which broke out following the eruption of the so-called Arab Spring at the end of 2010. But the discord that roils Arab states these days is not only politically inspired. Geneive Abdo, in The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and […]
To most tourists, Hong Kong conjures up images of gleaming skyscrapers, elegant malls, picturesque outdoor markets, luxury hotels and jam-packed roads and streets. But there’s another side of Hong Kong, a quiet, sylvan dimension, that belies its image as a crowded, noisy, fast-moving city. The New Territories, with its dense semi-tropical forests, secluded bays, sandy beaches […]
Credible politicians should not indulge in self-deception, but that’s exactly what Ayoub Kara, the Israeli minister-without-portfolio, did recently. On February 14, a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump were due to hold their first formal meeting at the White House, Kara floated a ridiculous trial balloon that quickly ran out […]
She was the first American female performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of fame, and she’s commemorated on a postage stamp issued in her honour by the United States postal service. Patsy Cline, born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932, was quite a gal. On March 4, the day before […]
Presiden Donald Trump finally did the right thing. He condemned antisemitism unequivocally after studiously avoiding the topic. Just hours before Trump issued a belated denunciation of antisemitism on February 21, Hillary Clinton, his opponent in last November’s presidential election, urged him to speak out against it after more than 170 graves were vandalized at a Jewish […]
The Muslim and Christian Arab inhabitants of Israel, the descendants of Palestinians who remained in their homeland during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s present-day population. Although they’re citizens of Israel, some regard themselves as Palestinians of Israeli nationality, judging by surveys. A number of Israeli Arabs have attained important positions […]