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Couldn’t they just go back to blowing up blocks of flats? The Team Scotland parade uniforms for the Commonwealth Games were unveiled on Sunday and confirmed Glasgow’s determination to win gold in the neck-reddening category. First Glasgow 2014 proposed an uplifting opening ceremony in which the Red Road flats would be blown to smithereens; nowContinueContinue reading “The Team Scotland tartan, the Scottish cringe and the indyref”

For America, there will be no going back to the era before September 11th, 2001, to false comfort in a dangerous world. We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness. George W. Bush, September 2003 [1] That pull towards extremism appears to haveContinueContinue reading “Isolationists left and right: The new doctrine of avoidance”

Danny Danon, the rising star of the Likud, has been brought down to Earth with a bump. After boasting during an interview with the Times of Israel that he and his fellow right-wingers in the government would block any move towards a two-state solution, the Deputy Defense Minister found himself under attack from the opposition whileContinueContinue reading “The two-state solution and its enemies”

A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus By Frederic Raphael Pantheon, 368 pages It is no meager feat to defend a man whose own mother could not bring herself to forgive his sins—but this is the task to which Frederic Raphael sets himself in A Jew Among Romans, his apologia forContinueContinue reading “Turncoat in a toga”

The events in Syria have captured the world’s attention but it would be regrettable if they overshadowed an important study released last week. The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society, published by the respected Pew Research Center, surveyed social, political, and religious attitudes across the Muslim world. It is an in-depth report worthy of muchContinueContinue reading “Meet the Palestinians”

Few countries have achieved what Israel has in its first 65 years. From a war-torn desert has sprung a land of prosperity and innovation; from the brutalities of successive colonial impositions a thriving polity, democratic and disputatious; and from a desperate immigrant refuge a proud Jewish homeland. Achievements, the gleaming medals of past endeavor andContinueContinue reading “What’s the point of Israel?”

Margaret Thatcher is being remembered in the United Kingdom and around the world as the fearless conviction politician who rescued Britain from its decline into sclerotic socialism and helped Ronald Reagan bring an end to the Evil Empire and freedom to the enslaved peoples of Eastern Europe. But she should also be remembered as aContinueContinue reading “Margaret Thatcher, mensch”

On an icy February morning in 1975, a modest, unremarkable woman stepped out of a car on Edinburgh’s Princes Street, hoping to walk the retail thoroughfare and shake a few hands for the waiting cameras. Instead, she was mobbed by a crowd of 3000 well-wishers, waving Union Flags and cheering “Maggie”. The throng surged forwardContinueContinue reading “Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady’s life and legacy in Scotland”

My review of Daniel Gordis’s The Promise of Israel, which was published in Commentary magazine in December, prompted some criticism, including correspondence from Mr. Richard H. Shulman. Click here to read Mr. Shulman’s letter to Commentary and see below for my rebuttal (which is also published here). If you want to know what all the fuss is about,ContinueContinue reading “My response to Richard Shulman”