Michael Curtiz’s classic, Casablanca, was released by the Warner Bros. studio in 1943 following its premiere in the previous year. Despite the passage of eight decades, it is remarkably fresh. I watched it on the Turner Classic Movies television channel, and it remains as vital and engaging as it was when I last saw it […]
The first season of House of Promises, a bright and atmospheric German-language period piece which takes place in Berlin from the late 1920s until the Nazi takeover in the 1930s, is now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform. The opening scene is captivating and original, hinting of much more to come. Arthur Grunberg (Alexander Scheer), […]
We live in a turbulent age of dislocation. Far-right ethno- nationalism is surging. Extreme left-wing ideologies are on the uptick. Radical Islamist movements have become increasingly influential. Amid these developments, democracy has come under siege and a strain of antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism has emerged. Shalom Lappin examines these unsettling trends in The New Antisemitism: […]
From the moment David Ben-Gurion declared statehood in 1948, Syria, the beating heart of Arab nationalism, has been one of Israel’s most vociferous enemies. But with the sudden fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last December and his replacement by a new government that seems to seek an accommodation with Israel and has distanced itself […]
To no one’s surprise, Russia condemned Israeli and U.S. air strikes targeting Iran’s controversial and potentially ominous nuclear program, which appears to have been on the cusp of being weaponized. Russia’s pro-Iranian stance was expected, since Moscow has a strategic partnership with Iran, one of its closest allies in the Muslim world. Beyond offering Iran […]
A preliminary consensus has emerged that Iran’s nuclear program was considerably degraded during the recent 12-day Israel-Iran war. Israeli and U.S. aircraft bombed three major Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and they were badly damaged, if not destroyed. Since a definitive bomb damage assessment has yet to be released, we cannot be […]
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 […]
One of the “key moments” in Israel’s 12-day war with Iran took place when one of the planners of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel was killed by an Israeli air strike in the Iranian city of Qom. Saeed Izadi, the commander of the Palestine division in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds […]
Israel’s ceasefire with Iran, brokered by the United States and Qatar, is holding despite an exceedingly shaky start. If both sides exercise restraint, the 12-day Israel-Iran war may well have run its course. It erupted with an audacious Israeli preemptive strike on Iran and expanded with Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks against Israel. The […]
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 […]