UK’s arms ban: pure hypocrisy

Earlier this month, the British government appeared to take the first step towards the imposition of an embargo on the export of United Kingdom-manufactured military equipment to Israel.
That is not how the news was meant to look. Indeed, it now seems that the decision was not meant to be in the public domain at all.

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Don’t sneer at Madoff’s wife

Why does Ruth Madoff inspire such vitriol? According to the New York Times, the wife of fraudster Bernie Madoff, who is now serving a 150-year sentence for running a massive Ponzi scheme, is “the loneliest woman in New York City”.

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So Gaza was disproportionate

Earlier this year, two military operations were undertaken in two of the world’s most volatile conflict zones. In the first, Israel launched a large-scale incursion into Gaza, following months of rocket and grenade attacks against Israel by Gaza’s Hamas government and by independent Islamist militias that Hamas was unable or unwilling to control.

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Yes! If you will it, you’re a Jew

If it’s physically possible to give a cheer and a sigh at the time, then that was my reaction on hearing last week’s ruling in the JFS case.

I cheered that the Court of Appeal had seen the injustice in denying a boy a Jewish education just because his mother’s conversion was not deemed good enough by an Orthodox establishment that prides itself on having the most intransigent “standards” in the entire Jewish world.

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Can the Board speak for us all?

What does the future hold for the Board of Deputies of British Jews as it approaches its 250th birthday?

It is being said that, for the first time in its history, the Board’s leadership is now left-of-centre — not in any narrow, party-political sense but rather as a measurement of the leadership’s perceived position in relation to a range of communal issues.

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What a daft idea for a boycott

There’s a letter for me waiting at The Times today. “Dave, how’s this for a conspiracy?” scrawls an H. Mullin on the blank side of a piece of paper. On the other side is a photocopy of page 5 of some indeterminate publication featuring an article by a Harry Mullin. The piece concerns the supposed landing in Scotland “a few years ago” of submarine-borne Israeli agents bent on the extermination of Mr Mullin’s pals in the British Anti Zionist Organisation, and on the execution of PLO representative in London Said Hammami.

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Could the whole sorry, not to say costly, mess have been avoided?

The time has surely come to pin the tails firmly upon the donkeys to which they rightfully belong.

To judge by my electronic mailbag, British Jewry is in a state of confusion over the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of “M,” whose mother was converted by a non-Orthodox Beth Din and whose application for admission to the JFS was, on that basis, vetoed by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks.

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Obama’s deadly hand revealed

Among American Jews, a degree of buyers’ remorse has been detected recently.

Almost 80 per cent of American Jews voted for Barack Obama as President. Those of us who warned that this man would endanger Israel were scorned.

How could that possibly be, said the secular, liberal American Jews. He’s a Democrat, he’s black and he’s pro-abortion. With this triple-lock of unassailable virtue, how can he be bad for Israel? Now some of them are getting an awful feeling that they may have made the biggest misjudgment of their lives.

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Are all Jews in the news ours?

Did you know that David Cameron has Jewish roots? I must confess I didn’t until I read an item in last week’s Jewish Tribune. I was aware of Cameron’s direct descent from William IV and William’s fecund mistress Dorothea Jordan, and that Cameron is therefore a distant cousin (a fifth cousin, twice removed, to be exact) of our present Queen — though on the wrong side of the sheets (a fact upon which the Tribune was naturally silent).

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Mohammad’s got my mobile

In Canada visiting friends last half term, we had just taken off on a flight from Montreal to Toronto. “Can I have my phone back, Lily,” I asked my 13-year-old daughter.

“I haven’t got it, Dad.”
“But I gave it to you at the gate!”
“I put it on the table.”
“I didn’t see it.”
“That’s not my fault!”

My mobile has not only got 1,200 numbers in it, but losing it means business disaster.

Also my mother would like to hear from me again.

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