The latest Human Rights Watch report on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip paints a dismal picture on the “perilous state of human rights in Palestinian self-rule areas.” Observers of the Palestinian scene will not be surprised by revelations of arbitrary arrests and torture. Ever since the Palestinian Authority began administering Area A in […]
The death of the notorious Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson on October 21 at the age of 89 reminds us that this form of antisemitism has been a problem for quite a while. I presented a paper on the subject, “Control of the Past as Control of the Future: Denials of the Holocaust,” at a conference […]
If you believe Saudi Arabia’s constantly shifting story about the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, you’ll believe the Brooklyn bridge can be bought. Until very recently, the Saudi narrative was that no harm had come to Khashoggi and that he had left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in peace. Judging by the evidence, he […]
I remember that deliciously surreal moment with piercing clarity — the day I walked into Nicolae Ceausescu’s former bedroom and, on a whim, bounced up and down on the late Romanian dictator’s bed. It might have been the firing squad for me had I been caught doing that before his ignominious downfall and execution in […]
Adolf Eichmann, a major German war criminal who orchestrated the deportation of more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in 1944, was brought to justice in 1960 when the Mossad abducted him in Argentina and flew him to Israel to stand trial for crimes against humanity. Operation Finale, an original Netflix production directed by Chris […]
Three antisemitic films were released by Germany in 1940, a banner year for Adolf Hitler’s regime. Poland had been conquered, spelling finis to its independence and its venerable Jewish community. France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg would surrender to the German army. Only Britain would successfully resist the Nazi onslaught. At a moment when the Nazi juggernaut […]
An Israeli cabinet minister and a member of Israel’s parliament both acted inappropriately and impudently when they lambasted a recent interfaith marriage between an Israeli Jewish man and an Israeli Muslim woman. Tzachi Halevy, an actor, and Lucy Aharish, a television news anchor, had been in a romantic relationship for four years when they got married […]
A landmark lawsuit alleging that Ivy League Harvard University discriminates against Asian American applicants goes to trial in October, thwarting months-long campaigns waged by the university to avoid a courtroom fight. Filed by the group Students for Fair Admissions, it asserts that Harvard uses “racial balancing” to artificially determine the demographic breakdown of each incoming […]
Judging by Israel’s discovery and destruction of yet another Palestinian attack tunnel recently, Hamas is still very much in the business of war. The tunnel, which started in the Gaza Strip and penetrated about 200 meters into Israeli territory, was the 15th destroyed by the Israeli army in the past year. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza […]
Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, has painted himself into a corner, revealing himself as an ultra-partisan political operative. Since his appointment in 2013, he has steadfastly refused to meet the leaders of progressive Jewish organizations, notably J Street, the New Israel Fund and Americans for Peace Now. All of them are critical […]