Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign state came as a bolt out of the blue, but it was hardly surprising. Israel, the first nation to formally recognize Somaliland, has had a longstanding and clandestine relationship with it. When the State of Somaliland won independence from Britain in 1960, Israel was among the 34 countries […]
Strangely enough, the Canadian government seems to be in no hurry to deal with the pressing problem of rising antisemitism in Canada. Its somewhat lax attitude toward this issue is difficult to understand and fathom. Since Hamas’ one-day invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed around the world. A month […]
Judging by the recent arrest of three young Muslim men in Toronto charged with hate crimes, Canada’s immigration system needs to be fixed as expeditiously as possible. Last month, the Toronto Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that Osman Azizov, 19, Farad Sadaat, 19, and Waleed Khan, 26, faced almost 80 charges […]
Who could have known? New York City, home to the largest Jewish population in the Diaspora, is now governed by an anti-Zionist Muslim mayor, a possibility that seemed inconceivable only a few months ago. A former New York assemblyman from Queens, Zohran Mamdani defeated Andrew Cuomo, the ex-governor of New York, in last November’s municipal […]
Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017), the Polish Jewish sociologist and philosopher, lived through the hardest of times. He experienced a glimpse of the Holocaust in Poland before fleeing to the Soviet Union. And, as a communist in the postwar People’s Republic of Poland, he was ostracized as a Jew and compelled to leave. After an interregnum in […]
As 2025 draws to a close, Israel’s volatile conflict with its arch enemy, Iran, is simmering ominously and threatening to boil over again in another war. Six months after Operation Rising Lion, its 12-day war with Iran, Israel is increasingly concerned that the Iranian regime is expanding its stocks of ballistic missiles and rebuilding its […]
President Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilized the Hollywood film industry to boost national morale and enhance understanding of the United States’ participation in World War II. Jewish directors and screenwriters ranging from George Cukor to Budd Schulberg played a significant role in wartime filmmaking. They produced documentaries and movies that were at once educational, entertaining and […]
Israel’s security cabinet, acting on a resolution proposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, announced earlier this month that 11 new settlements will be built and 8 illegal outposts will be legalized in the West Bank. Smotrich, a settler himself and an ardent champion of the settlement movement beyond the pre-1967 […]
A pragmatic voice of reason was heard in Lebanon a few days ago. Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji went out on a limb and minced no words when he criticized Hezbollah and Iran, both of which have destabilized Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor, for the past four decades. Rajji, in fighting words, declared that Lebanon’s security […]
The fog of war inevitably creates human tragedies. This is the way it has been since time immemorial. Neither soldiers nor civilians are safe in a combat zone. The latest war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which ended this past October following a U.S. brokered ceasefire, was not any different. While more […]