This should never have happened. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), an annual cultural event that enlivens the city in September with a glittering array of movies from every corner of the globe, has belatedly rectified a foolish mistake that tarnished its reputation. Yesterday, TIFF reinstated The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, a Canadian […]
Anas al-Sharif is dead and buried, but the controversy surrounding his sudden death still lingers. Sharif, a 28-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent based in the Gaza Strip and one of the most prominent Palestinian reporters there, was killed by an Israeli drone strike on August 10 while sheltering in a tent near Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza […]
The severe hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip has blackened Israel’s reputation, left Israeli hostages in the lurch, and diverted attention away from the war Israel has been assiduously waging against Hamas for almost the past two years. In a bid to improve its battered image, which ties into false assertions that Israel is committing […]
If Israel was a normal country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have resigned almost immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, the greatest single catastrophe in Israel’s seven-decade history. It would have been unreasonable for him to have stepped down so soon after this unprecedented disaster, which resulted in the deaths of about […]
You never know what lies around the corner. Case in point: Zohran Mamdani, an obscure New York State Assembly member who had kept a low profile until very recently, pulled off a resounding and stunning upset on June 24 when he defeated Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, in New York City’s Democratic […]
The shock waves of the current Israel-Iran war rippled into downtown Toronto on June 22. A day after the United States sided with Israel by bombing the heavily fortified Fordow nuclear enrichment facility, upwards of 1,500 demonstrators gathered in front of the U.S. consulate on University Avenue to blast the U.S. and Israel during a […]
Elias Rodriguez is the newest face of antisemitic venom, joining a long list of extremists hostile to Jews. On May 21, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., he fatally shot Yaron Lischinsky, a 30-year-old Israeli, and his fiancé, Sarah Milgrim, 26, an American from Kansas. Employed by Israel’s embassy, they had just attended […]
Last June, in a long overdue verdict, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the exemption haredi yeshiva students have enjoyed from compulsory military service since statehood is legally invalid. Although there are currently about 80,000 ultra-Orthodox males between the ages of 18 to 24 who are eligible for recruitment, the armed forces exercised restraint recently and […]
Israel’s just and necessary war in the Gaza Strip has aroused criticism from even some of its friends. The high Palestinian death toll, plus the humanitarian crisis brought on by Israel’s current offensive to ensure that Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are destroyed, have produced stark photographs and videos that have tarnished its image. Foreign […]
The Liberal Party won Canada’s federal election on April 28. Judging by the profusion of Liberal campaign placards planted on the lawns of homes in the mid-town district of Toronto-St. Paul’s, the Liberals were heading for a fourth consecutive victory. St. Paul’s, where I live, is a bellwether constituency whose neighborhoods range from upper-class Forest […]