Whatever one may think of his politics, one thing is certain: Geert Wilders certainly has the courage of his convictions. A populist Dutch politician who’s the founder of the nationalist right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV), he is its leader in the House of Representatives, the lower assembly of the nation’s bicameral parliament. His anti-Islam, anti-immigration rhetoric has propelled him […]
A battle royale has erupted in the United States over the selection of the next chairperson of the Democratic Party’s governing body, the Democratic National Committee. Ever since Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz vacated the post last July, on the eve of the party’s national convention, several Democrats have announced their interest in running for […]
Israel’s important but mercurial relationship with Turkey has entered a promising era after years of mutual acrimony, yet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a harsh critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and a supporter of Hamas, continues to criticize Israel, sometimes quite stridently. Israel and Turkey — the only Muslim member of the NATO […]
It’s never too late to fall in love. That’s the premise of Leon Marr’s appealing old-school Canadian romance, The Second Time Around, which will be presented by the Jewish Film Foundation’s Chai Tea series in Toronto on Sunday, December 18. There is nothing “modern” about this film (which opens in theatres in Toronto next March). […]
Film is a powerful tool in mobilizing public opinion in support of a cause or idea. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s rabidly antisemitic propaganda minister, instinctively understood this principle as he launched campaigns to marginalize and demonize German Jews. As commissar of the German movie industry, Goebbels had the authority to commission films. Three of them […]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is running scared. Clearly, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) is nipping at her heels. She is now shifting to the right in an attempt to win next September’s German federal election. The AfD is the first populist party likely to clear the five-percent threshold required to land seats in the […]
In a jab at Israel, and in an ignorant and insulting assault on the historical record, Ecuador’s ambassador to the United Nations, Horacio Sevilla Borja, recently equated Zionism with Nazism. He dredged up this shameful analogy in a speech at the General Assembly to mark International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. “We repudiate […]
As he ends his tenure as U.S secretary of state, John Kerry has fired parting shots at Israel. At a forum in Washington, D.C. on December 4, he made two important points that Israel’s short-sighted leadership would be well advised to heed. He reiterated Washington’s long-held view that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are […]
Since the 1980s, Chinese people have displayed “unprecedented levels” of interest in Jews and Israel, says Zhou Xun, a scholar at the University of Essex. This phenomenon has manifested itself in the proliferation of Jewish studies programs and the publication of books on Jewish history. Xun’s essay appears in The Image of Jews in Contemporary China, […]
Images of Pablo flood my mind, and a smile creases my face, whenever I spy a Maltese. No, I’m not talking about people from the Mediterranean island of Malta. I’m referring to that special breed of canine that so touches my heart. Until Pablo came along, I had no special affinity or particular affection for […]