America in the 1930s seemed like fertile ground for the rise of home-grown fascism. Consider the anecdotal evidence. Increasing numbers of Americans were open to the wholesale transformation of the United States into a fascist dictatorship. Financially and psychologically hobbled by the Depression, they were receptive to authoritarianism and antisemitism. And they were inured to […]
Loud, aggressive and intimidating Palestinian protests supporting Hamas, demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, and falsely accusing Israel of genocide have been proliferating like weeds in Canadian and American cities for more than three months now. Frankly speaking, they have gotten out of hand, the sanctity of freedom of assembly and free speech […]
South Africa has gone down a very crooked road in accusing Israel of “genocidal intent” in its military campaign to eradicate Hamas and remove it from power. In light of the atrocities that Hamas perpetrated last October in southern Israel, which ran the gamut from mass murder to sexual assault, Israel had every moral and […]
Since the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip more than three months ago, the United States, Israel’s chief ally, has struggled to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the Middle East. To deter Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen from intervening in the war Israel is […]
Jewish settlers in the West Bank have been quietly establishing “facts on the ground” since Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7 and murdered 1,200 people in an unprecedented rampage which triggered the fifth war in the Gaza Strip in 15 years. Israel, meanwhile, has been conducting a counter-terrorism campaign in the West Bank […]
Americans For Peace Now, a dovish pro-Israel organization affiliated with the Peace Now movement in Israel, issued an unrealistic and naive statement on January 8 that unintentionally plays into the hands of Hamas. Calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war, it urged the Biden administration “to push” Israel to adopt and implement a […]
They are a minority-within-a-minority. Regardless of where they live, Hasidic Jews dwell on the periphery of societies, hewing to changeless values and norms and uncompromisingly refusing to blend into their surroundings. Hasidim are the subject of A Life Apart, an intriguing documentary by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform. […]
Leopold Tyrmand (1920-1985), the scion of an assimilated Polish Jewish family, escaped into Germany, the lion’s den, as the Nazis carried out the mass murder of Jews in Poland during the Holocaust. After the war, he went back home and earned a living as a journalist. Stymied by the totalitarian nature of the postwar communist […]
To put it plainly, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is out of touch with reality. In recent days, he has called for the emigration of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and the rebuilding of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, from which Israel withdrew unilaterally in 2005. Smotrich’s foolhardy recommendations have been seconded by his sidekick, […]
From the moment that Israel was brutally attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7, Hamas leaders and field commanders in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere were on notice that their days were numbered. The assassination of Hamas’ deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, on January 2 lends credence to this assessment. Arouri, 57, and several of his […]