Interesting from Justin Webb in the Sunday Times, from Washington, on the first few days of hectic action from Trump:. The point everyone made after the immediate fun was that the contrast with the humourless, semi-moribund end to the Biden years was so extreme as to be psychologically, almost physically, shocking to the nation.

This from Andrew Sullivan reinforces the point made by Justin Webb yesterday about the sense of exhilaration in the US now after the moribund Biden years, and making America normal again. Yes, it's Trump...but: To say I have conflicted feelings after a week or so of Trump’s return to power would be an understatement. Some of his early decisions remind me …

Beyond Utopia: Escape from North Korea, shown on BBC4 last night, was a superb piece of documentary film-making.The journey of the family from the border Yalu river across China and through Vietnam and Laos to Thailand - with the hero pastor - was extraordinary, only made bearable by the knowledge that, if they'd been caught, …

Howard Jacobson at the JC on remembering Auschwitz:. I don’t expect everybody to agree that the only real subject of art since 1945 has been the genocide – I mean the actual genocide of the Jews, not the politically manufactured genocides of which Jews are now routinely accused – and the only testing philosophical question, “How did that ever happen?”

On Nov. 29 1947, the United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine and the creation of the independent Jewish state of Israel. One of the biggest and lesser known stories of Nov 29 is that the lands allocated to a Jewish state (two color map) were essentially those the Zionists reclaimed from malaria through land purchase, science and education (blue map).

2024年10月23日 · Many Jewish friends have asked why I choose to be outspoken even at the risk of physical safety, losing friendships, etc….So maybe now is a good time to explain. During my first visit to Yad Vashem in 2021, I passed...

2023年10月14日 · In the Telegraph. "My generation has been influenced to think we must support trans unquestioningly. And I did – until it became a reality in our household":. My older sister and I were very close throughout our childhood.

2024年12月16日 · For more detail on why Israel has closed its embassy in Dublin, this from Oliver Sears in Fathom is well worth a read - ‘Anti-Zionism’ has become the new Antisemitism in Ireland: In Ireland, my home for almost forty years, (I was born in London where I lived until I was 18) vehement opposition to Israel and Zionism, in particular, has seen demonstrations with expressions that are ...

2024年11月21日 · I've just finished Adam Kirsch's On Settler Colonialism.It's not much over 100 pages, so an easy day's read. As he notes, it started out with academics in the US, Australia, and Canada, searching for new ways to celebrate the wickedness of their countries - founded as they were by stealing the land from the indigenous inhabitants.

2024年9月27日 · Remember the Abraham Accords? - when it seemed that, at last, those Arab states alarmed by the rise of Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, realised that their best hope lay in putting aside the old hatreds and aligning with Israel.