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 […]
She was the first American female performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of fame, and she’s commemorated on a postage stamp issued in her honour by the United States postal service. Patsy Cline, born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932, was quite a gal. On March 4, the day before […]
Presiden Donald Trump finally did the right thing. He condemned antisemitism unequivocally after studiously avoiding the topic. Just hours before Trump issued a belated denunciation of antisemitism on February 21, Hillary Clinton, his opponent in last November’s presidential election, urged him to speak out against it after more than 170 graves were vandalized at a Jewish […]
The Muslim and Christian Arab inhabitants of Israel, the descendants of Palestinians who remained in their homeland during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s present-day population. Although they’re citizens of Israel, some regard themselves as Palestinians of Israeli nationality, judging by surveys. A number of Israeli Arabs have attained important positions […]
David Friedman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, was on his best behavior on the first day of his confirmation hearing in the Senate a few days ago. He apologized for his use of “inflammatory rhetoric” during the presidential campaign, acknowledged that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not “a […]
Israel’s movie industry is on a roll, as the four films in the forthcoming Toronto Israeli Film Series attest. The festival, which runs from February 25 to 26 at the City Playhouse Theatre, is presented by Israel’s consulate general and the UJA Federation. The opening night picture, The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev, is a delightful […]
Raoul Peck’s documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, is a meditation on race in the United States, a topic unlikely to grow stale or irrelevant due its resonance in American history. Scheduled to open in Canadian theatres on February 24th, Peck’s thoughtful film is framed by the observations of the late African American novelist and […]