Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman has issued a warning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be wise to heed. In an appearance before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee a few days ago, Liberman warned that Israel’s annexation of the West Bank would spark a crisis with the United States, its chief benefactor and […]
Holland, a nation celebrated for tolerance and compassion, had a mercurial relationship with the Holocaust. Dutch Jews who emerged from hiding and from German concentration camps in the wake of Holland’s liberation from Nazi tyranny in 1945 learned to their utter dismay and disgust that they would be fined for not having paid their property […]
Late last month, for the seventh time in six years, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution in defence of its ally, Syria, which has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011. The resolution, proposed by France and Britain and supported by the United States, condemned Syria for deploying banned chemical weapons against rebel […]
Japan’s attitude to and policies toward Jews from 1933 to 1945 — the years that coincided with the rise and fall of Nazi Germany — is the subject of Meron Medzini’s fine and fascinating work of scholarship, Under the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Japan and the Jews During the Holocaust Period, published by Academic […]
Reinhard Heydrich, one of highest-ranking German SS officers, was posted to Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to stamp out its resistance movement. Heydrich, an architect of the Holocaust, dealt crushing blows to it. As a result, the London-based Czech government-in-exile decided to assassinate him. Two operatives, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, were parachuted into Czechoslovakia to carry out […]
Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from the state of Vermont, unburdened himself of a few choice words of wisdom a few days ago. They’re well worth pondering. Addressing J Street’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., Sanders spoke of the importance of diversity of opinion in discourse about Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Delivering his first […]
It’s disappointing and disheartening that online retailer Amazon is flogging books dedicated to Holocaust denial. This is not only an affront to the historical record, but illegal as well in some countries. I logged on to Amazon the other day and, much to my surprise and disgust, I found books like Did Six Million Really Die? and The […]
The Arab world is in disarray, riven by civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen which broke out following the eruption of the so-called Arab Spring at the end of 2010. But the discord that roils Arab states these days is not only politically inspired. Geneive Abdo, in The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and […]
To most tourists, Hong Kong conjures up images of gleaming skyscrapers, elegant malls, picturesque outdoor markets, luxury hotels and jam-packed roads and streets. But there’s another side of Hong Kong, a quiet, sylvan dimension, that belies its image as a crowded, noisy, fast-moving city. The New Territories, with its dense semi-tropical forests, secluded bays, sandy beaches […]
Credible politicians should not indulge in self-deception, but that’s exactly what Ayoub Kara, the Israeli minister-without-portfolio, did recently. On February 14, a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump were due to hold their first formal meeting at the White House, Kara floated a ridiculous trial balloon that quickly ran out […]