The good, the bad, and the very ugly - Martin Bright's 2012 political awards

As the year end awards ceremonies proliferate, it is only appropriate that the JC should make its own set of honours.

In such a time of austerity there are no gongs as such and the event will not be televised, but here are the JC Political Editor’s Awards, some serious, some less so.

Jewish and Proud Award: Ed Miliband

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Mirvis appointment: This post matters to Progessives, too

The Progressive wing within British Jewry alternates between being non-plussed and concerned about the appointment of a new chief rabbi.

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Lieberman is down — but never say out

Attorney-general Yehuda Weinstein’s announcement last week that the state prosecution was dropping the main charges against Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, indicting him on only one minor charge of breach of trust, opened up yet another chapter in the never-ending legal saga.

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Israel-diaspora ties get boost in UK conference

Some ideas are so obvious you wonder why no one thought of them before. The annual Australia Israel UK Leadership Dialogue is one of them.

Originally a meeting of Australian and Israeli leaders — defined as politicians, thinkers and journalists — the addition of UK delegates has lifted the two-day forum into a sort of Israeli Königswinter Conference.

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Syria: West is making one giant mistake

Is the NATO-sponsored Syrian uprising the West’s biggest Middle East foreign policy blunder since the 1956 Suez Crisis?

What is certain is that tens of thousands of jihadis are now doing almost all the fighting on the ground in Syria, whose army has not fired a single bullet in Israel’s direction since 1967.

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