Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a notorious and shameless antisemite, claims he has a “right” to deny Israeli athletes the chance to compete in a forthcoming swimming competition in his predominately Muslim country. Speaking recently at Oxford University’s debating club, the Oxford Union, he argued that governments have “the right to keep their borders closed […]
Steve King, a nine-term Republican congressman from Iowa, should have known better than to conflate Western civilization with white supremacy. In a recent interview with The New York Times, he put his foot in his mouth when he said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” His subsequent observation concerning the […]
Is there a child who has not read the books of the late British author Roald Dahl? Talented and prolific, he wrote such classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches, both of which were read by millions of children, including my two daughters. Dahl’s books, having been translated into numerous languages, have […]
The 40th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival, which will take place from November 20-29, made news recently by cancelling an award due to be given to the French Jewish movie director Claude Lelouch. Lelouch, whose film A Man and a Woman won the coveted Palme d’Or prize at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, […]
An American university professor who declined to write a letter of recommendation for a Jewish student intending to study in Israel for a semester acted in a discriminatory manner at odds with the hallowed principles of academic freedom. John Cheney-Lippold, who teaches American culture and digital studies at the University of Michigan, told Abigail Ingber that […]
The International Judo Federation issued an important announcement on September 3, one that bodes well for Israeli athletes. The federation disclosed that Israelis will be able to compete on equal terms at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in the United Arab Emirates on October 25-27. This is doubtless a step in the right direction. At last […]
Drawing on his infinite wisdom, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad claims that antisemitism is nothing more than an artificial construct. Interviewed by the Associated Press the other day, he said, “There is one race that cannot be criticized. If you are antisemitic, it seems almost as if you are a criminal. Antisemitic is a term […]
One can only hope that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sincere when he claimed that the outrageous detention and questioning of Peter Beinart at Ben-Gution Airport on August 13 had been an “administrative mistake.” Beinart, a liberal American Jewish journalist who opposes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its policies toward the Palestinians, was […]
The much-vaunted Unite the Right demonstration in Washington, D.C. on August 12 was a bust, a pale imitation of last year’s Charlottesville rally, which emboldened the American far-right. Only a few dozen members of the alt-right — a creepy amalgam of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and racists — showed up, and a late-summer thunderstorm probably deterred […]
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was right to stand up to Saudi Arabia following its petulant decision several days ago to downgrade bilateral relations with Canada across the board. Furious over Canada’s perfectly legitimate criticism of its execrable human rights record, the Saudis went ballistic, dismissing the critique as an unjustified intervention in their internal […]