Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, but 13 years on Gaza remains a tinderbox and a bone in Israel’s throat. Israel had hoped that its pullout from Gaza, conceived and implemented by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, would bring a measure of prosperity to its generally impoverished Palestinian inhabitants and […]
Late last month, just minutes after Poland’s parliament enacted legislation removing a troublesome clause from its controversial Holocaust law, ratified by President Anderzej Duda last February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, issued a joint declaration intended to defuse tensions between Israel and Poland. In at least two respects, the […]
During the interwar period, Poland, with a Jewish population of 3.3 million, was an incubator for the development of right-wing Zionism. Its foremost proponent, the Russian-born Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, was the founder of Betar, one of the most popular Zionist youth movements in Europe. Claiming a world-wide membership of some 60,000, of whom 45,000 lived […]
The inimitable Phil Rosenthal is back for a second season on Netflix with his entertaining food/travel show, Somebody Feed Phil. He describes himself as a foodie, but he’s really a gourmand rather than a gourmet. Jokey and light, he’s the polar opposite of the late Anthony Bourdain. An indefatigable kibitzer with a gift of the gab […]
On the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, pressure is building on Iran to withdraw its contingent of advisors and troops from Syria. Israel and the United States have demanded Iran’s pullout, as have Sunni Arab nations ranging from Saudi Arabia to Egypt. Even […]
Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, has a lot of explaining to do following a disturbing report indicating it sells white supremacist, neo-Nazi and antisemitic merchandise on its platforms. This can be very distressing for many, but imagine the people that make money through Amazon affiliate programs as well as use FBA to earn money […]
Pope Francis recently issued a decree recognizing the “heroic virtues” of Cardinal August Hlond, the Roman Catholic primate in Poland from the 1920s to the 1940s. It brought Hlond one step closer to sainthood, an exalted status he surely does not deserve. One of his foremost admirers, the Polish priest Boguslaw Koziol, is arguing his […]
Syria’s current offensive to recapture Daraa province from anti-regime rebels is giving Israel cause for concern. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began sending reinforcements to southwestern Syria in mid-May in a bid to stamp out the last embers of the rebellion there. On June 19, the Syrian army, assisted by Russian airpower, Iranian advisers, Hezbollah ground troops […]
When Bobby Shafran began his first semester at an upstate New York community college nearly 40 years ago, he was greeted effusively by some students. The warm reception puzzled him, since he had never set foot on the campus. He soon learned he had been mistaken for another student, Edward (Eddy) Galland, who looked almost […]
As the acclaimed author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was the first science fiction novelist. Her transition from cloistered young woman to acclaimed writer is the subject of Haifaa Al Mansour’s appealing feature film, Mary Shelley, which opens in Canada on July 13. A period piece in terms of atmosphere and language, this evocative movie […]