The Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas since its election victory in 2006, may yet drag Israel into another war. Last month, Israel’s chief of staff, General Gadi Eisenkot, warned the Israeli cabinet that deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions in Gaza — electricity, water and food shortages — are driving Israel and Hamas toward armed conflict […]
At long last, a member of the British royal house will visit Israel in an official capacity. The news that Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, will travel to Israel in the summer to participate in ceremonies marking Israel’s 70th anniversary is long overdue. Better late than never. In addition to Israel, the prince, who’s […]
A 60-year-old subservient wife strikes a blow for women’s rights in Mina Shum’s low-key but forceful film, Meditation Park, which opens in Canada on March 9. The Chinese Canadian woman in question, Maria Wang (Cheng Pei Pei), lives in an immigrant district in Vancouver. An ideal submissive spouse as far as her husband, Bing (Tzi […]
Contemporary Shanghai is a modern, pulsating metropolis of 24 million inhabitants, a microcosm of China’s astonishing ascension to super power status. But from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, when it was occupied by Japan, this vibrant city was a haven for some 20,000 European Jewish refugees, primarily from Germany and Austria but also from […]
Delivering a lecture in 1979, the German scholar Eberhard Jackel nailed it when he said, “We Germans were liberated from (Adolf) Hitler, but we’ll never shake him off. Hitler will always be with us … He is present — not as a living figure, but as an eternal cautionary monument to what human beings are […]
Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife, now available on the Netflix streaming network, is a film that will most likely please the current Polish government, which presents Poland as a model of resistance and a beacon of righteousness during the German occupation from 1939 to 1945. Based on real-life events, it’s the inspirational story of a Polish […]
Israel and its northern neighbor, Lebanon, are embroiled in three disputes that could spill over into violence. On February 12, Lebanese President Michel Aoun warned they could yet trigger a war. Despite the gravity of the situation, major newspapers in North America have virtually ignored the brewing tensions, possibly because they were overshadowed by a sudden […]
I read an unusual news story the other day about a disgruntled airplane traveller, his like-minded fellow travellers and a pathetically timid and spineless airline. Call it, if you wish, a social media spectacle stretched to absurd lengths. In a recent tweet, Dani Williams, a passenger aboard a Virgin Atlantic aircraft, accused the British-based international […]
At its national convention in Ottawa this past week, the left-wing New Democratic Party of Canada adopted a balanced position on Israel’s protracted conflict with the Palestinians. Fears had been circulating that hotheads might hijack the proceedings and cajole the NDP to pass a one-sided resolution calling for the Palestinians’ “right of return.” But thanks […]
From the moment I learned to appreciate fine literature, Ernest Hemingway became one of my favorite authors. I admired his style, his lean, supple, simple, flowing, effortless and evocative prose, which manifested itself beautifully in novels such as For Whom the Bell Tolls and in short stories such as The Killers. Mary V. Dearborn’s illuminating […]