After weeks of fierce fighting, Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. air power, stormed into Falluja on June 17, recapturing parts of the city from Islamic State, which had held it since the end of 2013. Sixty five kilometers west of Baghdad, Falluja was the first major city in Iraq to fall to the jihadists. Having […]
It’s fair to say that Israel has massive security problems, even though it’s the strongest country in the Middle East militarily speaking. Sixty eight years after its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed statehood, Israel faces threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the jihadist organization Islamic State. No longer is Israel threatened by conventional Arab […]
Lone wolves, defined as self-radicalized Islamic radicals who have no formal connections to extremist Muslim organizations but who subscribe to radical Islam and lash out violently on behalf of groups like Islamic State, have become the face of jihad in the United States, writes Peter Bergen in his newest book, United States of Jihad (Crown […]
The mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, and the former Israeli defence minister, Amir Peretz, aroused the ire and indignation of the right-wing nationalist camp in Israel recently by suggesting that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is an ingredient in the toxic brew of Palestinian terrorism. A day after Khaled Muhamra and Muhammed Muhamra […]
Written and directed by Simon Stone, The Daughter is inspired by The Wild Ducks, a 19th century play written by Henrik Ibsen. In keeping with its mood, this Australian film is almost uniformly dark and grim. Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and scheduled to open in Canadian theaters on July 1, it unfolds in […]
Judging by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s two-day trip to Moscow last week, during which he conferred with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, Israel’s relations with Russia have never been closer and better. The cordial bond that Israel has forged with Russia is infinitely stronger than the testy and often bitter relationship it had […]
It’s hard to be indifferent to the films of Brian De Palma. De Palma’s movies, from Scarface and The Untouchables to Carrie and The Black Dahlia, are stylish, fast-moving and hard-hitting. Once he has you in his grip, you cannot let go. The Toronto International Film Festival is presenting 25 of his films at a retrospective scheduled […]
Nimisha Mukerji’s intriguing documentary, Tempest Storm, is a profile of a temptress from a bygone era. The voluptuous lady who fits this description is Annie Banks, a “hurricane of seduction” who goes by the name of Tempest Storm. A sultry stripper who’s been dubbed the Queen of Exotic Dancing, she performs at burlesque festivals and […]
The latest edition of Outlook magazine, dated Spring 2016, arrived in my mailbox on June 6, and much to my surprise, a headline at the bottom of the catchy cover blared, “Farewell Issue.” I needn’t have been surprised. Outlook, which billed itself as Canada’s only progressive Jewish magazine and which I read for some 30 […]
It was a week that concentrated minds. On June 27, 1976, a band of Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked Air France flight 139 en route from Tel Aviv to Paris via Athens. After a brief stopover in Benghazi, Libya, the hijackers diverted the plane to Entebbe, Uganda. The Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Yitzhak […]