When fighting antisemitism, you can’t pick and choose

It was one of those incidents that you never expect will happen to you, but when it does, it changes your life irrevocably. Read more

A Bavarian scandal shines a light on Germany’s ‘Holocaust guilt’

For the best part of a week, Germany has been gripped by an antisemitism scandal centred on Hubert Aiwanger, the deputy premier of the southern state of Bavaria. Read more

To weaken Hezbollah, you have to weaken Iran

It’s hardly a revelation that Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shi’a terrorist group in Lebanon, is once again engaging in provocations along Israel’s northern border. Read more

Antisemitism still haunts the European left

France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin last week ordered the dissolution of a Catholic traditionalist association named “Civitas” following claims of antisemitism against one of its leaders. Read more

It’s time for Russia’s remaining Jews to leave

“If necessary, just as we prevented the fall of Assad, we will prevent the fall of Putin.” Read more

Ahlam Tamimi’s 16th victim

Twenty-two years after a Palestinian suicide bomber devastated the Sbarro pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem, the 16th victim of that massacre succumbed to her injuries. Read more

Germany’s far-right comes to Yad Vashem

Ever since its foundation in 1953 by an act of the Knesset, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem has served admirably as Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust. Read more

The antisemitism that never went away

Antisemitism expresses itself in many forms, but few are as lethal or as persistent as the caricature of the hook-nosed Jew sitting on a pile of cash, looking pleased with himself. Read more

‘Righteous justice’: Credit Suisse’s Nazi bank accounts

There are times when the oldest jokes sound quite fresh. I am thinking of the one about the neophyte banker who visits a tailor to be fitted with a new suit. When he returns a week later to collect it, he discovers to his surprise that the pants are without pockets. “You told me you were a banker,” explained the tailor. “Whoever heard of a banker with his hands in his own pockets?” Read more

‘The system has failed:’ Antisemitism flourishes in France

Five years ago, an 85-year-old survivor of the Holocaust, Mireille Knoll, was brutally murdered in her apartment in Paris by two intruders, one of whom was a neighbour she had known since his childhood. Read more

‘Auf Wiedersehen,’ Roger Waters?

Once upon a time, Roger Waters was a hero in Germany. In July 1990, a few months after the razing of the Berlin Wall, the former Pink Floyd frontman performed the group’s 1979 album “The Wall” on the Potsdamer Platz in the newly reunified city. Read more

‘Gobblefunk:’ Author Roald Dahl’s antisemitic legacy

In common with many people who spent their childhood in the 1970s, I loved Roald Dahl’s novels for children, especially “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Read more

We need a better definition of antisemitism

In the world of Jewish advocacy, the “working definition” of antisemitism endorsed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has almost acquired the status of a sacred text. Read more

Getting away with it: Germany’s Documenta art festival

Of the many stories involving antisemitism that dominated the headlines last year, probably the most disturbing involved the serial controversies over antisemitic displays at Germany’s prestigious Documenta festival of contemporary art. Read more

How does Israel interpret the Russian-Iranian alliance?

It is perhaps a measure of Israel’s elevated stature in the world that its newly elected right-wing government is under scrutiny not just for its domestic policies and its approach to the Palestinians but its foreign policy as well. Read more

2022: The year FUD took off

There were many occasions during 2022 when events in the news almost tricked us into thinking that we were living in an earlier time. Read more

BDS versus modern art

“BDS appears here as contemporary art’s foil. BDS undermines contemporaneity’s claims of autonomy and emancipatory effects, fixes its meanings in ways that might make artists bristle, and leaves it only with refusal: either refuse to be a perpetrator or refuse the request made by Palestinian civil society. At this juncture, the latter option should already be unthinkable.” Read more

Russia and Iran are heading for defeat in Ukraine

Those who are nostalgic for the heyday of neoconservatism might want to know that on Wednesday, former U.S. President George W. Bush will host a video discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Read more

What the Kanye West scandal can teach the UN

The Israeli Ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, offered a telling quip during a debate last week at the international body concerning the latest report of its Commission of Inquiry into Israel and its apparently irredeemable offences against international law. Read more

Israel must arm Ukraine

As Russia continues to pound Ukrainian population centres with “kamikaze” drones manufactured in Iran, the time has surely come for Israel to arm the democratic government in Kyiv. Read more

‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi:’ Iran’s Kurdish message

As demonstrations against Iran’s ruling theocracy intensify, many observers have been struck by the slogan chanted by protestors and printed on t-shirts, posters and flyers: “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”—“Women, Life, Freedom.” Read more

Should Israel lead the fight against anti-Semitism?

The just-published Annual Assessment of the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) makes for sobering reading when it comes to the section of anti-Semitism. Read more

If you want peace, reform the Palestinian Authority

That the Biden administration regards Israel as a more congenial and cooperative diplomatic partner than the Palestinian Authority was evident from the remarks delivered by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a Security Council briefing on the Middle East last week. Read more

Iran’s inspirational protest movement

It’s impossible not be astonished and humbled by the bravery of the Iranian people. Read more

Russia: Among the thugs

In the long list of the most hellish places on earth, Russia’s penal colonies come close to the top. Read more

The queen is dead; long live the king?

That Queen Elizabeth II was both Britain’s longest-serving and the oldest monarch is a testament to the period of history in which she lived and upon which she left an indelible mark. Read more

‘Basmanny Justice’ and the Jews of Russia

Six months into the war in Ukraine, Russia is being Russia once again. Read more

Mahmoud Abbas highlights a German problem

In tabled rankings of international donors to the Palestinians, Germany consistently features among the top five nations. Read more

Confronting South Africa’s official anti-Zionism

In no other democratic country in the world has anti-Zionism enjoyed the kind of mainstream success that it has in South Africa. Read more

Anti-Semitism: Back to square one?

Monitoring and analyzing contemporary anti-Semitism, which I do rather frequently, is most of the time a frustrating experience, but no more so than now. Read more

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