Geoffrey Paul

Sharon: The Life Of A Leader

By Geoffrey Paul, December 5, 2011

By Gilad Sharon
Harper, £24.99

There is an element of the surreal in the image conjured by his son of this once bluff, tough. roiling figure of a man now in the sixth year of a coma from which he is unlikely ever to emerge.

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Where were you when........?

By Geoffrey Paul, September 13, 2011

As almost a lifetime critic of Israel's lack of public relations skills, I have watched even more aghast than usual as Turkey's Erdogan has made the running against Israel with his portrayal of her attack on the Turkish “humanitarian relief flotilla” to Gaza as something not short of an international crime. I will concede absolutely that, confronted with opposition.

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Review: A Line In The Sand

By Geoffrey Paul, September 12, 2011

By James Barr
Simon & Schuster, £25

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Not in my lifetime

By Geoffrey Paul, September 8, 2011

I have always believed – sometimes, admittedly, in desperation – that what opponents, enemies even, address to each other in public does not truly reflect the life-and-death stuff of which they talk in private. Lives really depend upon this hidden intercourse.

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From Oxford to Ramallah

By Geoffrey Paul, September 3, 2011

An unexpected spanner has been thrown into the intention of Ramallah to seek recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN later this month.

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Fascinating Tosh

By Geoffrey Paul, August 31, 2011

I am ever fascinated by the world of the chassidim, especially when introduced to a dynasty of which I had no previous knowledge and which, in general, has managed to remain aloof from the outside world and struggles to keep it that way.

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Review: The Anatomy of Israel's Survival

By Geoffrey Paul, August 30, 2011

By Hirsh Goodman
Perseus, £17.99

There comes a moment when, if attempting an analysis of Israel's political and military dilemmas, you just have to get on with it hoping that, between pen and publication, nothing will happen - an intifada, a war, an assassination - that will make your assessment little more than footnotes to a volume of history.

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An Israeli Autumn?

By Geoffrey Paul, July 25, 2011

A major dilemma is fast looming for that larger part of the diaspora which, if not subservient to the slogan 'Israel right or wrong', feels emotionally, ideologically, even, it might be said, tribally committed to total support of the Jewish State, certainly when face-to-face with a critical non-Jewish world.

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1967 and all that

By Geoffrey Paul, July 17, 2011

s'funny how everybody got uptight in May when President Obama spoke of an Israel-Palestine peace agreement based on the 1967 boundaries with land swaps (presumably to take account of some current realities). Not a few Israeli – and other - commentators saw this as some kind of sell-out of the special American-Israeli relationship.

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Steady as you go!

By Geoffrey Paul, June 14, 2011

It is depressing how all the evidence is building for a summer, autumn and winter of discontent and we, the everyday victims, have little choice but, Canute-like, to sit there at the edge of the threatening ocean of strikes and allow them to wash over us.

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Obama's major dilemma

By Geoffrey Paul, May 20, 2011

“The key problem is this: American support to the Peace Process requires American public support to Israel.  American public support to Israel infers defense commitments directed against Arab states (and Iran).  Defense commitments directed against Arab states inherently undermine the construction of a new relationship with the Arab world.”

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Dateline Washington

By Geoffrey Paul, May 3, 2011

Just as those who were around at the time recall where they were when Kennedy was assassinated, folks here in Washington DC are already exchanging details of where they were when they heard of the Osama bin Laden assassination.

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More than a few crumbs

By Geoffrey Paul, April 21, 2011

Having spent the first days of Passover in an American venue of kosher excess - 24-hour food of such variety, quality and abundance that it becomes almost impossible to accept a small portion, the wine bottles piled high with an invitation to help yourself - it came as a real shock to open the New York Times to a front page splash, based on a Census Bureau report, that the poorest village, town o

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The Fifth Question

By Geoffrey Paul, April 12, 2011

Is there no end to Jewish ingenuity (or the ability of some to see a way of making a dollar or two)?

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A view from the Grill

By Geoffrey Paul, April 1, 2011

Is it just me or is there something that smells particularly unpleasant tucked into the middle of Alistair Horne's review (published in this week's Spectator luxury supplement) of a meal in the new Savoy Grill?

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A view from the Grill

By Geoffrey Paul, April 1, 2011

Is it just me or is there something that smells particularly unpleasant tucked into the middle of Alistair Horne's review (published in this week's Spectator luxury supplement) of a meal in the new Savoy Grill?

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Review: Memories After My Death

By Geoffrey Paul, March 28, 2011

By Yair Lapid (Trans: Evan Fallenberg)
Elliott & Thompson, £18.99

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Only be well!

By Geoffrey Paul, February 2, 2011

Part of the post-operative recovery programme for patients in hospital has to be the care, attention and, by no means least, diet provided for their recuperation. Having been the unfortunate close-up viewer of the kosher diet provided in a leading London hospital, I can only say, if you can possibly help it, don’t opt for the meals provided by a well-known kosher caterer whose offerings, while well intended, are plainly not designed for the bed-bound patient.

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Revolution by Twitter

By Geoffrey Paul, January 26, 2011

Have we entered a new era of revolution by tweet?

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Mitigating shame

By Geoffrey Paul, January 20, 2011

Daniel Liebeskind has designed one of his most poignant memorials, a miniature in scale when compared with his Berlin Jewish Museum or his plans for the rehabilitation of the site of the World Trade Centre in New York. The “Wheel of `Conscience” as he calls it is reminiscent of a ship’s steering wheel. At its centre is a mesh of revolving gears as would be found in an engine room, individually bearing the words hatred, xenophobia, racism and antisemitism. On the reverse are the names of more than 900 German Jews who sought refuge from the Nazis in 1939 aboard the liner St Louis.

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