The passing of Ed Koch feels like the death of a young man because, despite his 88 years, Koch was bounding with energy and passions. The former mayor was a movie buff, a foodie, a politico, and above all a New Yorker. He was as loud and brash as his beloved Nooo-Yaaaahhk, the city beingContinue reading "Ed Koch, of blessed memory"
Watchman on the Walls
From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel By Robert S. Wistrich University of Nebraska Press, 648 pages The volume, character, and tone of Judeophobia to be found in the public discourse around the world, whether in the form of classical Jew-hatred or the more respectable negation of the validity of the State ofContinue reading "Watchman on the Walls"
Gvirotai ve’rabotai… balagan
NB: This post was scribbled out by your humble writer at 3am on election night and relies on the early exit polls for seat numbers. I wanted to retain the raw reaction to unfolding events so the piece hasn't been updated to reflect final seat tallies. On election night 1977, as the votes poured inContinue reading "Gvirotai ve’rabotai… balagan"
Israel, the Will and Promise
Israel: The Will to Prevail By Danny Danon Palgrave Macmillan, 240 pages The Promise of Israel: Why Its Seemingly Greatest Weakness Is Actually Its Greatest Strength By Daniel Gordis Wiley, 256 pages If you do not recognize Danny Danon’s name, you would probably recognize his face. You will have seen him talking on Fox News or atContinue reading "Israel, the Will and Promise"
Who’s afraid of the big bad Likud?
Hysteria is the default mode of Israeli politics, the timbre of discourse a panicked shriek, but this week things went full-on meshuggah. Ehud Barak resigned as Defense Minister, figuring he had little chance of retaining the job after the election, while former prime minister Ehud Olmert hinted at a grudge-match comeback to take down hisContinue reading "Who’s afraid of the big bad Likud?"
Home Alone: Licence to Kill
Daniel Craig looks rougher, grislier, and altogether more jumpable in Skyfall, his third outing as the spiffing secret agent 007 – and that’s all to the good because this movie, like its sculpted leading man, is sex on legs. Bond had grown darker in recent years, matching the Bourne series torture scene for torture scene,Continue reading "Home Alone: Licence to Kill"
The Obama-era movie
The cult of youth that arrived in the early 1950s with overhyped pop art such as The Catcher in the Rye and Rebel without a Cause has so successfully embedded itself in American life that even the most cutting attacks on its roots have failed to shift it. This valorization of immaturity—what Norman Podhoretz calledContinue reading "The Obama-era movie"
Innocence of Muslims: A Review
"Don't you blame the movies," protests Skeet Ulrich's horror-fanboy serial killer in Scream (Wes Craven, 1996). "Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!" The Obama administration falls into the former camp, blaming the past week of anti-American rioting and the murder of US officials on a dreadful YouTube film assailing the Prophet Mohammed.Continue reading "Innocence of Muslims: A Review"
On Libya and Egypt
I got caught up, I admit it, in the fire and flyting, the exchange of insults, the contempt that boils right up into your heart until you feel bitter and spiteful and mean as a snake. The anger, for that big agglomerated punching bag the mainstream media, has largely subsided. It was fuelled by someContinue reading "On Libya and Egypt"
New sheriffs of the old west
The Western and the superhero movie—the two most American genres in cinema—come from the same literary tradition: the great American mythos. In that tradition, America is history told as legend. This is not to say that the nation’s history is fabricated, but that it is attuned to the rhythms and themes of storytelling: the taciturnContinue reading "New sheriffs of the old west"
Stephen Daisley 