Jennifer Lipman's blog



Mazel Tov: Royal succession change at last

By Jennifer Lipman, October 28, 2011

It looks as though, finally, the UK's archaic laws on royal succession are to be scrapped. The 16 Commonwealth heads have agreed to change the law so that male and female heirs to the throne are treated equally.

David Cameron says he will put it to parliament at the next session, when, one hopes, even the crustiest and most conservative members will accept it.

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Thoughts on Gilad Shalit's release

By Jennifer Lipman, October 18, 2011

When Gilad Shalit was captured, most of us didn't have Facebook. There was no Twitter, no iPhone and certainly no iPad.

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David Cameron, Durban and dancing at the UN

By Jennifer Lipman, September 14, 2011

Political life often seems to be something of a dance, a complicated balancing act in order to offend no-one, appease everyone and commit yourself to nothing.

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Judah Maccabee: as told by Mel Gibson

By Jennifer Lipman, September 9, 2011

What could possibly go wrong?

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Michele Bachmann: The (not) Jewish presidential hopeful

By Jennifer Lipman, August 31, 2011

As with every US Presidential election, the candidates are after the Jewish vote. (The fact that they'd also quite like to capture the Christian vote, the Muslim vote, the Humanist vote and the votes of the people who believe aliens walk among us, is not the point).

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Practise what you tweet? Not these activists

By Jennifer Lipman, August 25, 2011

I'm all for legitimate protest, so while I might view a group called UK Friends of Palestine & (dissident) Israel with suspicion, I wouldn't want to say they shouldn't have a platform.

According to the mission statement on their twitter page, they want: "To raise awareness for non-violent actions to open Gaza and end the occupation."

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Jody McIntyre and the Tottenham riots: quelle surprise

By Jennifer Lipman, August 8, 2011

Two days after the worst rioting in Tottenham since the 1980s, and the facts of what happened are slowly coming together.

What's already fairly clear is that not all the rioters were locals; as David Lammy MP noted in the Times: "Many of the people arrested weren't from Tottenham. The grief of one family must never be hijacked to inflict grief on others."

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Talking won't make all the bigots shut up

By Jennifer Lipman, August 2, 2011

Ten days on from the horrific massacre at a Norwegian youth camp and the debate about the far-right, extremism and multiculturalism continues to rage on the comment pages and blogosphere.

Libby Purves, writing in The Times on Monday, raised a good point, arguing that compulsory English lessons would integrate immigrants and undermine the extremist cause.

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Yiddish praise for Louise Mensch

By Jennifer Lipman, July 29, 2011

Some nice haimishe praise for married-to-a-Jew MP Louise Mensch, as she responds to allegations of drug taking and other misdemeanours from an investigative journalist.

Her reply - essentially "what a shmuck" - is here.

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The subtle delegitimisation of Israel

By Jennifer Lipman, July 28, 2011

It was with a heavy heart that I wrote this story – about the curious absence of Israel from Pull and Bear's global list.

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The Times and Amy Winehouse's Jewish funeral

By Jennifer Lipman, July 27, 2011

Following Monday's moan about the Mirror and its not-entirely-accurate report about Amy Winehouse's funeral, here's another.

The Times today dedicated the majority of a double-page spread to the "celebration of an 'angel' played out in public glare".

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The Mirror and Amy Winehouse's Jewish burial

By Jennifer Lipman, July 25, 2011

It seems clear that troubled star Amy Winehouse will have a Jewish burial, after a post-mortem examination.

While a hungry media waits for more details: when, where, who will attend, will there be a shiva (OK, that one is less of a concern for the media at large), one newspaper decided to explain to its readers how Amy's behaviour in life could impact her death.

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A helpful Yiddish guide to phonehacking

By Jennifer Lipman, July 20, 2011

For all that Jews are supposed to control the media, the News International / hacking / News of the World / Brooks / Murdoch scandal has so far played out without much of a kosher angle. But never fear, it can still be interpreted with one.

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The mystery of Nick Robinson’s glasses

By Jennifer Lipman, July 13, 2011

At the Holocaust Education Trust's Student Ambassadors event last night (more on that in this week's paper), the BBC's Nick Robinson cleared up one of the biggest political mysteries of the week.

No, not phonehacking. I'm referring, of course, to what happened to his signature spectacles.

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It's good to talk (if you're a Jewish MP)

By Jennifer Lipman, July 12, 2011

They say Jews like to talk, and it seems Jewish politicians are no exception.

Parliamentary monitor They Work For You have compiled a list of the most chatty MPs in the class of 2010.

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Haneen Zoabi's black and white argument

By Jennifer Lipman, June 30, 2011

Haneen Zoabi, the Israeli Arab MK, writes a vitriolic piece for Comment is Free on the deportation of banned Israeli Raed Salah. I won't go into the details – you can peruse the contents as you wish – but there was one point that particularly jarred.

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Foreskin Man: the movie

By Jennifer Lipman, June 30, 2011

The comic book into movie formula has become a tried and tested staple of summer cinema. But who would play the mohel-hunting superhero Foreskin Man in a big screen adaptation?

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Your message to Gilad Shalit

By Jennifer Lipman, June 23, 2011

To mark the five years of his captivity, the JC wants to give readers the opportunity to leave a message for Gilad Shalit.

Please post your thoughts and feelings in the space below.

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On Assad, Israel and external enemies

By Jennifer Lipman, June 6, 2011

In his 2004 book The Case for Democracy, Natan Sharansky says it better than I ever could:

"Non-democratic regimes always need to mobilise their people against external enemies in order to maintain internal stability."

It is undoubtedly terrible to think of the 20 people who were said to have been killed yesterday on the border between Syria and Israel.

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Sarah Palin's Jerusalem Day fashion statement

By Jennifer Lipman, June 2, 2011

Israelis may not be overly fussed about Jerusalem Day, but at least there's one person out there who took yesterday's festivities seriously.

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