Poland marked an historic anniversary on June 23. At a “Polish Freedom Gala” banquet, held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto under the patronage of President Bronislaw Komorowski, Poland hailed its return to the western democratic fold. Twenty five years ago this month, the Solidarity trade union movement staged a peaceful revolution that […]
The current crisis in Iraq is yet another replay of the historic power struggle and thinly-veiled animosities between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Middle East. When the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — an extremist Sunni group known as ISIS — invaded western and northern Iraq earlier this month, it enunciated its intentions […]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal administration coincided with the emergence of state-sponsored antisemitism in Germany and the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. How did Roosevelt respond to these shattering events? Ambivalently, conclude American University historians Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman in their important and cogent book, FDR and the Jews, published by Harvard […]
Andrzej Wajda’s The Promised Land, screened on June 17 by the Toronto International Film Festival and part of its ongoing retrospective on contemporary Polish cinema, transports us back to early 20th century Lodz, a multi-ethnic city in central Poland that brings the uglier aspects of the industrial revolution up close and personal. Based on a novel by […]
Shortly after posting a stunning victory in last month’s European Parliament election, Marine Le Pen, the French politician who leads the National Front, said she hoped to form a far right-wing alliance of like-minded parties in Europe. Tellingly enough, she ruled out joining forces with an ultra nationalist Greek party that, she believes, has embraced […]
I was raised on Polish food with a Jewish accent, but after my first trip to Israel in the summer of 1967, I became hopelessly hooked on Middle Eastern/Mediterranean cuisine, finding it fresh, flavourful and healthy. In Israel, I discovered the wonders of falafel, hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, lamb, beef and chicken skewers, roasted peppers, […]
Tel Aviv, Israel’s lively city set along the shores of the balmy Mediterranean Sea, tends to be architecturally drab. On closer inspection, it leaves a far more positive impression. Founded 105 years ago as a garden suburb of adjacent Jaffa, and now Israel’s cultural and commercial capital, Tel Aviv has the distinction of possessing one […]
Two Middle East powers upgraded their bilateral relations this week as Iran’s president visited Turkey. The president of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, declared that Hassan Rouhani’s visit marked a “new era” in Turkey’s sometimes fraught relationship with Iran. Rouhani, a self-styled reformer who has made it his mission to improve Iran’s foreign relations, was the first […]
Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria three years ago, critics have claimed, not without reason, that the United States has done far too little to arm non-jihadist rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad’s Baathist regime. A few days ago, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, officially confirmed this accusation. In […]
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s accession to Egypt’s presidency is yet another stunning blow to the already battered Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi, previously chief of staff of the armed forces and defence minister, defeated his only credible opponent, Hamdeen Sabahi, a disciple of the late Abdel Gamal Nasser, by a whopping margin in last month’s election. Sisi, who […]