On July 11, during the opening phase of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s current cross-border war with Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally came clean. He cited the war as a prime example of why he will neither make significant territorial concessions in the West Bank nor allow the Palestinians to exercise full sovereignty within […]
Did you know that the great Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman was the founder of a world-class Israeli orchestra? Huberman (1882-1947) was the prime mover behind the formation of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, which in 1948 changed its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Josh Aronson’s documentary, Orchestra of Exiles, explores Huberman’s career and his lasting […]
Israel’s just military response to Hamas aggression has not found favor in South Africa’s ruling circles. The deputy secretary-general of the African National Congress, Jessie Duarte, issued a blatantly one-sided statement a few days in which she compared Israel’s response to Nazi atrocities. As she put it, “The African National Congress condemns in the strongest […]
We have been there before. For the third time in five years, Israel and Hamas are fighting a cross-border war, with no end in sight. Now entering its fifth day, it may yet turn into a lengthy and bloody conflict, since both sides are hell-bent on attaining certain objectives and are certainly in no mood […]
Have you ever heard of a movie that took 12 years to finish? The very idea seems ridiculous, if not downright silly. Why should an actor or a director commit to such an interminable project? And what about the issue of continuity? What if an actor dropped out in mid-course? Or died? What then? These […]
Now, more than ever, the Middle East occupies front and center in the daily news cycle. Israel is waging war against one of its arch enemies, Hamas, and an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Hamas’ stronghold, remains a possibility. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a more extreme version of Al Qaeda, […]
Polish Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter draws on his horrific experiences during World War II to try to tear down walls of racial hatred and build a better world. In speeches inside and outside Canada, he preaches the virtues of tolerance and warns that genocide can repeat itself if its causes are allowed to fester. Now a […]
At this year’s World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, which ends on July 13, players have held aloft banners inscribed with the words “Say no to racism.” It’s a worthy, long overdue slogan because racism has been a persistent and ugly feature of professional soccer, particularly in Europe. The “Say no to racism” campaign is […]
Israel’s invariably tense and uneasy relations with the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have hit a new low of late. The collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in April, ending nine months of negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, engendered mutual acrimony, mistrust and bitterness — the toxic ingredients […]
Jan Grabowski’s measured but powerful book, Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland (Indiana University Press), caused something of a sensation when it was originally published in Poland in 2011. One can understand why it stirred such intense debate. Grabowski, a professor of history at the University of Ottawa, writes about the […]