Benny Morris is the Israeli historian whose scholarly work changed the way the Israel Palestine conflict is viewed. He coined the term ‘new historians’ which has come to include Avi Shalim, Ilan Pappe and Tom Segev. These historians challenged some myths about the creation of the state of Israel. In more recent years Morris appears to have come to regret some of the assertions he has made, or perhaps more accurately, the way in which his research has been used. Some extracts from his latest interview in Ha’aretz: “The first intifada was violent but not lethal. It was a popular revolt. People threw stones and a few people were killed.…
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Talking to Tories Beyond the Pale for Corbyn…Hamas, Hezbollah, IRA not so much
Labour MP Mike Gapes hits the nail on the head here Apparently Corbyn is prepared to hold talks with Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad and Iran without preconditions. But not with the UK Prime Minister. Why ? https://t.co/zcvxkptw7U — Mike Gapes (@MikeGapes) January 17, 2019
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Two dead parrots
After the largest ever defeat for a government and an unsuccessful motion of no confidence it’s clear that both May and Corbyn have now been found out. May has been riding two horses, trying to keep both the Brexiteer and Remain wings of her Party onside, but the wheels have finally come off her wagon. I previously thought that she might, just, get her deal through but it looks like delaying the vote was counterproductive. It does appear that Caroline Lucas’ grasp of mathematics is as weak as the shadow Home Secretary’s as *only* 116 MPs have to change their mind, not “several hundred” – although that’s still a herculean…
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UNWRA employee created PFLP symbol
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were some of the most sadistic terrorists at a time when sadism was all the rage in the killers who were attacking Israel. I just saw that the person who designed their logo was an UNWRA employee from Jerusalem called Vladimir Tamari Check this out Following the overwhelming Arab defeat and the total occupation of Palestine, including Jerusalem in the Arab-Israeli War of June 1967, the Palestinians countered with a guerrilla war – the Resistance. I was in Beirut at the time, cut off from home and family, and working for UNRWA the United Nations Agency to support Palestinian refugees in the…
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Four strategic threats on Israel’s radar | a special briefing by former IDF intelligence head Amos Yadlin
Speaking at a private Fathom Forum in late 2018, Director of the Institute for National Security Studies, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin presents an overview of the different regional threats facing Israel as well as the ongoing challenge of the Russian presence in the Middle East. Below is an edited transcript of his remarks. INTRODUCTION Israel faces numerous strategic security challenges both on its borders and hundreds of miles away. Its main security challenges come from Hamas in Gaza, Iran’s entrenchment in Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In order to fully understand the scope of these threats, one must analyse them on a scale of immediacy and severity…
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John Cleese is Heading to Tel Aviv
From the Times of Israel: Plan for an evening of laughs and guffaws next autumn as British funnyman John Cleese, 79, arrives in Israel as part of his “Last Time to See Me Before I Die” tour, with a performance on September 1, 2019, at Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium. Here he discusses the tour:
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The Brigade
I have been reading the book The Brigade by Howard Blum and was unable to put it down until I finished it. The book documents the activities of the British army’s Jewish Brigade at the end of World War II and in the following months. A unit 5,000 strong and mostly consisting of Jewish volunteers from Palestine, but also with a fair few Jews from elsewhere, Blum does a fantastic job of bringing this unit to life. He mostly tells the story through the eyes of three soldiers in the brigade and their role in hunting down Nazis and rescuing survivors from the camps and engineering their arrival in Palestine.…
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Lewisham Labour Party Goes Full on Conspiracy Theory
This from Euan Philipps of Labour Against Antisemitism: Seriously, WTF are @LewDeptLabour on? Have they bothered to read the IHRA? “Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy”. Worrying. https://t.co/VGHUn3OTP4 — Euan Philipps (@EuanPhilipps) January 12, 2019 This is the motion they passed:
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The US Withdrawal from Syria: A Blessing in Disguise?
This piece (sharing the same title as this blog post) written by (res) Major General Gershon Hacohen for the Begin Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies is receiving some positive comments at the moment. For me it falls far short of the mark. I have pasted the conclusion below, the full article can be found here: “What Israel needs most from the US at the present time is political and diplomatic backing in support of its vital national interests, primarily 1) support for its continued hold of the Golan as a vital condition for its defense; and 2) cessation of pressure for further territorial withdrawals in the West Bank. With luck,…
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The Trouble With “White Jews”
Okay, I’ll admit that I’m late to the party, but I’ve only recently discovered that in the US, it has become really fashionable to designate Jews as “white” and to castigate them for enjoying “white privilege” or even accuse them of “upholding white supremacy.” While I got immediately furious for reasons I’ll explain, it seems that if you are an American Jew who wants to be counted as broadly sympathetic to progressive causes, you better uncritically embrace your “whiteness” and ruefully ponder the attending privilege and the ways in which you might contribute to white supremacy. Obviously enough, this discourse developed in the very specific context of American debates about…
