Since the collapse of the short-lived ceasefire in Syria two weeks ago, Syria and its ally, Russia, have been mercilessly and indiscriminately pounding the besieged eastern sector of Aleppo, the last major Syrian city still under the partial control of anti-government rebels. The defenceless 275,000 civilians living there have been subjected to constant aerial attacks, with […]
Norman Bethune is Canada’s gift to China. A physician who devoted body and soul to the cause of Chinese independence, Bethune is probably the most famous Canadian ever to set foot in China. A veteran of World War I and the Spanish Civil War, he volunteered his services to China in 1938 as it struggled […]
Israel’s web of settlements in the West Bank, a barrier blocking a much-needed two-state solution, are causing problems for Israel yet again in the international community. Earlier this month, the United States — Israel’s chief ally and benefactor — and the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators condemned the Israeli settlement project. Israel has been […]
The killings in Syria go on, despite efforts to end the carnage. The country’s largest city, Aleppo, lies in ruins. Millions have fled the country. What makes this such an intractable problem? Syria is a very complex country, a kaleidoscope of rival ethnicities and sects. If history is a guide, this is a state that […]
It’s a little-known fact. France, next to Israel, has the greatest number of Jews and Muslims living side by side in any country in the world. France is home to four to six million Muslims and 500,000 to 600,000 Jews. Since a significant proportion of its Muslim and Jewish citizens hail from the same countries […]
It’s amazing to think that it has been 80 years since the famous Battle of Cable Street, which took place on October 4, 1936 in London’s East End, where most of England’s Jews lived at the time. I say this because when I began researching my PhD dissertation on London Jews and British Communism in […]
Arthur Topham, a notorious Canadian antisemite, is playing fast and loose with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada’s bill of rights. Topham, convicted last November of willfully promoting hatred against Jews through his vile website, RadicalPress.com, is using the Charter to challenge the constitutional legality of Canadian hate crime laws. What a cynical and […]
It’s quite clear that a military solution to the ferocious civil war in Syria — which has claimed the lives of some 400,000 combatants and civilians since 2011– is unattainable. The war has reached a bloody impasse. Nevertheless, the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Shiite militias from Iraq […]
With the passing of Shimon Peres on September 28, Israel has lost the last of its major founding fathers. Peres, who was 93, had a career in public service that spanned more than six decades. He held almost every senior post in Israeli politics, including those of prime minister, foreign minister, defence minister, finance minister […]
Tens of thousands of foreign jihadists have flocked to the Middle East to fight forIslamic State, which also known goes under the name of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. By all estimates, 60 to 150 of its recruits have been Canadian citizens, a somber fact that emerges in Mark Bourrie’s The Killing Game: Martyrdom, […]