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HRH Israel 

Negotiation in a war of extermination is no solution but surrender

Melanie, , ,

The statement by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Israel’s settlements “are not inconsistent with international law” has been predictably greeted with adulation by Israel’s defenders and denunciation by its enemies. Both sides, however, are once again missing the elephant in the room — as the Trump administration itself is also doing. In its own terms, the statement certainly should be warmly welcomed. It is a remarkable stand for the truth against the unanimous endorsement by the Western world of the big lie about Israel that has done so…

Blake Britain 

Pullman and Blake: subversive artists for a godless era

Melanie, ,

Two cultural treats currently available to us have more in common than might at first be realised. At the weekend, the BBC transmitted the opening episode of His Dark Materials, the eight-part adaptation for TV of the first book in Philip Pullman’s acclaimed and controversial trilogy. London’s Tate Britain, meanwhile, is displaying an exhibition of the visual art of William Blake, the 18th-century poet and engraver known principally for The Tyger and the lines from a longer work that became known as Jerusalem. Both Pullman and Blake are subversive artists.…

antisemitism Israel USA 

Elizabeth Warren and the destruction of the west’s moral compass

Melanie, , ,

The Democratic presidential hopeful, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has suggested that she would consider cutting military aid to Israel to force it to halt construction of settlements in the disputed territories. “It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution, and if Israel is moving in the opposite direction then everything is on the table,” she said. To ensure that no one failed to understand her threat, she repeated her final phrase. Her comment furnished more evidence that Warren resembles British Labour Party…

Britain Israel USA 

From Congress to classrooms: reframing the Israel narrative

Melanie, , ,

Concern about resurgent antisemitism has been at fever-pitch among Diaspora Jews for years. In Britain, the veteran Jewish Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman resigned this week from the party to which she has belonged for more than half a century. A leaked Labour headquarters report on her Liverpool Riverside constituency party showed that in 2017, there was a “worrying amount of antisemitism” and a “toxic atmosphere” with members fearing for their physical safety. If the far-left party leader Jeremy Corbyn became prime minister, says Ellman, he would be a danger…

Global conflict 

The less than pellucid genius of the Syrian debacle

Melanie, , ,

Just as Trump Derangement Syndrome has long caused opponents of President Donald Trump to lose touch with reality, restraint and reason, so its opposite pathology, Trump Adoration Disorder, has caused various folk to perform mental somersaults over the debacle in Syria. For they don’t regard his abrupt decision to pull US troops out of north-eastern Syria as a debacle. They regard it as an act of genius, just like Trump does himself. How so? Well, apparently he didn’t abandon the Kurds at all. Instead, he forced Turkey to walk into…

Culture wars Global conflict 

Freedom of speech struggles not to die in Islamophobic darkness

Melanie, , ,

In December 2018, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (APPG) published its “Report on the inquiry into a working definition of Islamophobia / anti-Muslim hatred”. This decreed that “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” The government’s response was wary. It observed that the MPs’ proposed definition “has not been broadly accepted – unlike the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of antisemitism before it was adopted by the UK government and other international organisations and governments. This is…

conversation Culture wars 

The extinction of reason

Melanie, ,

On a day like today, when there are protests and demonstrations in country after country against governments’ alleged failure to tackle “climate change”, you feel as if you have stepped into a looking-glass world in which people have collectively taken leave of their senses. If, that is, you are someone like me for whom the whole climate change hypothesis is a mad, nightmarish cult in which an infantile (literally) view of the world, peddling ludicrous theories of imminent apocalypse which owe more to medieval millenarian sects than modern science, is…

Arabs Israel 

In a deadlocked election, the real winners are Israeli Arabs

Melanie, , ,

If nothing else, one clear result of Israel’s frustrating general election gives the lie to the claim that Israeli Arabs were being intimidated from casting their vote. This arose from a failed attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party to allow its operatives to film inside polling stations on the unproven charge of voter fraud in the Arab sector. In the middle of election day, a report attributed to Likud that it had installed “facial recognition” cameras outside Arab polling stations was condemned as an attempt to intimidate…

police Britain 

The need to balance humanity with calling criminals to account

Melanie, , ,

Sir Tom Winsor, the chief inspector of constabulary, has a proposal for tackling crime which is likely to produce a rolling of eyes at the Home Office. Writing in this paper yesterday, Winsor said that a significant number of prisoners should not be in jail. Some suffer from chronic mental ill-health and are not evil, but ill. Many have experienced childhood domestic abuse, have received poor treatment for their disorders, have no sense of self-worth and believe they have nothing to lose from a life of crime. There’s much in…

UK Britain 

Prime Minister taken hostage in Britain’s Brexit civil war

Melanie, , ,

Astoundingly, Britain no longer seems to have a functioning government because the prime minister has effectively been taken hostage by the House of Commons. Last night, Boris Johnson was heavily defeated when the Commons voted by a majority of 27 to seize control of the legislative agenda, in order to debate a bill today introduced by Hillary Benn and backed by Remainer MPs. This bill states that unless a deal is reached with the EU or Parliament approves a no-deal Brexit by October 19th (no chance), the government would be…