In January 1919, Chaim Weizmann, who would become the first president of Israel, signed an agreement with Emir Faisal, who would rule Syria and Iraq. Signed on the eve of the Paris Peace Conference at which the victors of World War I would determine how to administer the former colonies …

The Zionist Achievement When the French essayist and playwright Edmond Fleg attended Herzl’s Third Zionist Congress in Basel in 1899, he marvelled at the scene. It wasn’t merely the dynamism of the convenor that moved Fleg but the diversity of the delegates. ‘I looked about me. What Jewish contrasts! A …

The White House has announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to sign a peace agreement which will see the two nations establish full diplomatic relations, and “the exchange of ambassadors and cooperation on a broad range of areas, including tourism, education, healthcare, trade, and security.”  The …

Why Zionism faces a crisis, what it will mean and what is to be done. When the French playwright Edmond Fleg attended Herzl’s Third Zionist Congress in Basel he marvelled at the scene. “I looked about me.  What Jewish contrasts!  A pale-faced Pole with high cheekbones, a German in spectacles, …

Keir Starmer, the post-Jeremy Corbyn leader of Britain’s Labour Party, acted swiftly to demote a member of Parliament who tweeted an article containing a paragraph linking Israel to the killing of George Floyd. In truth, when Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey tweeted the interview with the actress Maxine Peake in which she …

The latest US proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been predictably rejected by the Palestinian side. In fact, it was rejected before it was even tabled.  Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced the day before the plan was released, ‘We reject it and we demand the international community …

A new study released on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp has found that a quarter of French millennials haven’t heard of the Holocaust, while an earlier study of American millennials found that 66 per cent did not know what Auschwitz was. …

The Arab-Israeli conflict traverses decades, manifests in regular wars, terrorism and endless political skirmishes in international forums.  It is also a battle to establish narratives – victims and aggressors, Davids and Goliaths, oppressors and oppressed.  Language and the meaning given to basic concepts form a key part of this battle.  …

It is difficult not to savour the irony of two United States congresswomen who advocate boycotts of Israel crying foul at being denied entry into the very country they seek to erase.  Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, two members of the Democratic Party’s “Squad” of neophyte congresswomen from the Party’s …

The economic component of the Trump administration’s intensely awaited plan to achieve an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has been released. Formally titled Peace to Prosperity, the proposal contains a three-pronged program of investment and reforms to transform the Palestinian economy and society through the injection …

The Holocaust ― the term given to the industrial-scale slaughter of the Jews of Europe ― is often examined in isolation. An event without precedent and without successor.  Certainly, the enormity of the killing, the unsparing barbarity and cool sophistication with which it was carried out, and its genesis in …

Amnesty International has unveiled a new campaign to pressure digital tourism companies such as Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and TripAdvisor to delist properties held by Israelis living in the West Bank, and calling on governments to pass legislation that would result in the total boycott of those living in Israeli settlements. It …

Who is really being irresponsible? The negative responses to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recognition of Jerusalem reveals more about the agenda of the respondents than the substance of the policy. The announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that Australia now recognises that Israel’s capital is located in Jerusalem and not …

The partisan advantage-taking began before the bodies had even been identified.   To opponents of the US President, the massacre of 11 Jews during a baby naming ceremony at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, was the logical endpoint of President Trump’s refusal to expressly reject an endorsement from former Grand Wizard …

There is much to find objectionable in Senator Fraser Anning’s first speech to the Australian Senate. The baffling, deplorable invocation of Nazi genocide by referring to immigration as a “problem” requiring a “final solution”, is particularly striking.  But we mustn’t allow this conspicuous statement to prevent us from seeing the real …

There’s light at the top, but it’s always a hard climb. I land at Ben-Gurion Airport just before midnight and begin the long ascent to Jerusalem. The headiness hits me immediately and will remain until I depart 10 days later.  A few hours later I sit bleary-eyed at breakfast ahead …

It is often argued by critics of Israel that the British custodianship of the land that is now Israel between the end of WWI and Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948,  essentially handed the land to the Jews at the expense of the hapless, helpless Palestinians. It is true that Britain hardly …

Cynicism, insecurity and opportunity abound on Holocaust Remembrance Day This year’s commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, was at once illuminated and overshadowed by extraordinary statements on the Holocaust emanating from Europe and the Middle East. The first came from a familiar …

The image of the invariably smiling Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif purring at the side of world leaders, together with the election of the so-called “reformist” president Hasan Rowhani in 2013, have cultivated an image of the Iranian regime as modern, civilised, reasonable and a welcome antidote to the inhuman …

There has long been a conventional wisdom in some foreign policy circles that runs like this: ‘solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and you will harmonise the Middle East, crush the recruitment strategy of jihadists and keep the misery of the modern Arab world far from our screens and our shores.’ Jordan’s …