Designating anti-Semitism: Positives and pitfalls

One of the more reprehensible aspects of the global campaign to strip Israel of its legitimacy is the fact that so many leading human-rights organizations have been co-opted by it. Read more

An Israeli ‘dissident’ demolished

The most scathing book review I have read in a very long time appears in the Sept.18 edition of the London-based journal, the Times Literary Supplement. Read more

The return of populist anti-Semitism

To the lexicon of new terminology introduced by the coronavirus pandemic, we can add the latest entry: “Zoombombing,” or the practice of hijacking private videoconferencing calls on the Internet by unwanted intruders. Read more

What’s changed since the ‘Black Death’?

The numbers are rolling in, and they make for grim reading. Read more

The Vatican opens its wartime archive

One of the most persistent and controversial debates about the history of World War II concerns the role of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust, and specifically, the actions of Pope Pius XII. Read more

Truth is not selective: Poland vs. Netflix

Poland’s government won an important victory on the battleground of history last week. Read more

Nabih Berri’s grotesque anti-Semitism

In a puff piece on Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, published on the occasion of his 80th birthday last year, the broadcaster France 24 headlined its profile, “The Great Survivor of Lebanese Politics.” Read more

Polish anti-Semitism is serious, but Yair Lapid is overreaching

Over the last year, Yair Lapid, the co-chair of Israel’s opposition Blue and White Party, has made several outspoken statements about Poland, Polish anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Read more

Vanessa Redgrave: Still hating after all these years

The spectacle of thespians making political interventions is rarely a dignified one. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood’s elite from radical posturing; from the old days, Marlon Brando is one example, Jane Fonda another, while in our own time we can give a mention to Sean Penn, for his embrace of the late Venezuelan dictator (and the author of that country’s present misery) Hugo Chávez…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

New York’s ‘last Nazi’ is finally deported to Germany

During my formal interview for U.S. citizenship, not so long ago, I remember the interviewing officer looking me in the eye and asking if I’d ever had any affiliations with the Nazi German regime…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘existential threat’

On the evening of Monday, July 23, the parliamentary group of the British Labour Party held what Sky News called an “emotionally charged meeting,” during which they endorsed the definition of anti-Semitism used by hundreds of government departments, law-enforcement agencies, municipal authorities and community associations around the world…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

France’s reputation is at stake again over the murder of Sarah Halimi

For the second time in 20 years, France basked in the accomplishment of winning the World Cup with a team whose diverse backgrounds were as much a symbol of national unity as the creative brand of soccer they played. Read more

The Irish Senate’s ‘boycott Israel’ debate

Reading the transcript of the debate that took place in the Irish Senate on July 11 before that body voted, by 25-20, to criminalise commercial relations with Jewish communities in the West Bank, I was struck by how the arguments that were traded fell neatly into one of two categories…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

Denmark confronts Islamism and integration

Imam Mundhir Abdallah is a good example of the dilemmas that have confronted politicians in Denmark in their response to Islamist extremism among the country’s 300,000 Muslims, the large majority of whom are first- or second-generation immigrants…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

Trump, Kim and the ‘good citizen’

One of the many memorable scenes in “The Lives of Others”—an exemplary German movie whose plot centers on the Stasi secret police in the late, unlamented German Democratic Republic—involves the indiscreet telling of a joke about Erich Honecker, the Soviet puppet who served as the GDR’s head of state…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

Who owns the Holocaust?…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

Who owns the Holocaust? That, ultimately, is the key question posed by the impending legislation in Poland that will criminalise any discussion, or investigation, or mere mention, of incidents of Polish collusion with the Nazi occupiers during World War Two. Read more

Win or lose, Iranians want regime change

For the first time in nearly a decade, one dares to believe that the Islamist clerics who have ruled Iran since 1979 will not be in power by the time the 40th anniversary of their revolution rolls around in 2019…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

In decades-long AMIA Jewish center affair, the truth will come out

Like so many pins in a bowling alley, the treacherous former Argentine leaders who signed a secret pact exonerating Iran of its responsibility for the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires are, finally, collapsing under the rolling weight of judicial scrutiny…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

Year zero: the Palestinians and the Balfour Declaration

For the Palestinians, the year zero is not 1948, when the state of Israel came into being, but 1917, when Great Britain issued, in the November of that year, the Balfour Declaration—expressing support for the establishment of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

Harvey Weinstein’s disgrace produces another nasty caricature

Walking through central London last week, and with a spare half hour on my hands, I decided to pay a quick visit to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Inside, I spent most of my time intently studying a painting that I could not recall having seen before: “The Philosopher,” a 1645 canvas by the Italian painter Salvator Rosa…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

On anti-Semitism, difficult questions and contested answers

In his magnum opus “A Lethal Obsession,” the late Robert Wistrich, one of Israel’s finest scholars of the murderous pathways of Jew-hatred, elegantly summarised the character of anti-Semitism at the turn of this century…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

The illiberal world of Stephen Bannon

In considering the furore around President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Stephen Bannon, the CEO of the hard-right news website Breitbart, as his chief strategist, let’s start with the perspective of those who have defended him…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org.
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The decisions facing Donald Trump…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

Donald Trump is now America’s master. Read more

Say it loud, say it clear: no World Cup for Qatar…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

In a normal world, it wouldn’t be Israel that is the target of a campaign for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. The tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar is a far better candidate. Read more

A new age of Middle East insecurity…writes Ben Cohen

Back in 2010, I interviewed Gerard Araud, who is now the French ambassador in Washington, DC, while he was still serving as France’s envoy to the United Nations in New York.We talked at length about Iran, and this was the first thing he told me: “The Iranian nuclear program has no civilian explanation whatsoever. You don’t start a civilian nuclear program by enriching uranium. It’s like if you buy the gas before the car.” Read more

Israel, not Netanyahu, is the ultimate target…writes Ben Cohen

There is no world leader more hated by bien-pensant liberals in the West than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Read more

What’s at stake when anti-Zionism aims for academic respectability?

A potentially ugly row is brewing in the United Kingdom over an academic conference, due to be held at the University of Southampton in April, which carries the title, “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism.” Read more

Getting anti-Semitism wrong at the United Nations…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

You have to hand it to the United Nations, I guess. It’s hard to think of another body that would organise a special meeting on the subject of rising anti-Semitism with anti-Semites not just in attendance, but making speeches as well. Read more

Do we need Holocaust Remembrance Day?…asks Ben Cohen

Do we need Holocaust Remembrance Day? Read more

Tragedy of Mizrahi Jewish refugees emerges from the shadows

To properly understand how the Holocaust has been seared onto Israel’s collective consciousness, one should visit the country on the 27th of Nisan, a date in the Hebrew calendar that falls in either April or May in the solar one….writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

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