Harry's Place

There are two types of anti-Zionist: those who can do little more than regurgitate stock phrases: “racist,” “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansers,” “colonial settlers,” “Nazis,” etc., or plagiarise the work of others and those who have something interesting to say. It is because Akiva Orr fell into the latter camp, together with the fact that I had [...]

Daniel Inouye, a pro-labor, pro-Israel Democrat who represented Hawaii in the US Senate for nearly 50 years, has died at the age of 88.
Inouye was was one of only three veterans of World War II remaining in Congress. When his fellow Hawaii senator, Daniel Akaka, retires at the end of the year, there will be [...]

When Christopher Hitchens died, this blog published panegyrics. This was not the case when Eric Hobsbawn died. Alan A of this blog determined that Hobsbawn was “wicked” (subsequently changed) and wrote a post largely consisting of an extract of a review of one of Hobsbawm’s books by Hitchens.
Regular readers of this blog will be aware [...]

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

Vidal Sassoon, the legendary anti-fascist, has died:
Born in Britain to Sephardi Jewish parents from Greece and Spain, his father abandoned the family when he was a young child and Mr Sassoon spent seven years living at the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Orphanage in Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale.
After starting as an apprentice hairdresser [...]

From a comment in a lower thread:
His Holiness, Pope Shenouda III, Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, often at loggerheads with the Mubarak regime, died today, aged 89.

Gevork Vartanian, who was placed in charge of Soviet-led security at the Tehran Conference in autumn 1943 at the age of 19, has died.  Under his code-name “Amir”, Vartanian previously had infiltrated a British-run language school in Tehran which was recruiting agents for Soviet Central Asia, and passed on all details of future spies to [...]

‘Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is [...]

Lucian Freud
I’m told that the Wolsey have put a black tablecloth and a candle on his usual table, and kept it empty.

From the annals of news unlikely to be reported on anti-Zionist “leftwing” websites, The Washington Post reports:
Arthur Goldreich, 82, who helped the anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela hide on a farm by posing as his employer, died May 24 in Tel Aviv. No cause of death was reported.
In his autobiography, Mandela describes the South African-born Mr. [...]