War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Epilogue – Three Faiths, Two States & One World.

Hope for a Future without Children Dying: The prospect of a better future like that in Isaiah’s vision can tempt us to lose sight of the tasks of the present. Hope for a future in which no more children die can be a sin if we meanwhile neglect to do our duty for children dyingContinue reading “War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Epilogue – Three Faiths, Two States & One World.”

War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Part Two – ‘Shalom’ & Resistance:

Traditions of Shalom: Emerging from the Judaistic readings of the Hebrew Bible, which I dealt with in part one of this two-part article, there was a strong biblical tradition, both in the Psalms and among the prophets, from the earliest to the latest times of the kingdoms of Israel, that the Lord is a godContinue reading “War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Part Two – ‘Shalom’ & Resistance:”

War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Part One – The Hebrew Bible.

Prologue – A Time for Every Purpose: For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven; a time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what has been planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a timeContinue reading “War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Part One – The Hebrew Bible.”

British Labour Leaders, Palestine & Israel, 1929-2019.

Recently, Labour leader Keir Starmer (pictured above) has been urged to quit by people within his own party. The immediate source of the discontent has been the Labour leader’s refusal to back calls for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. What is the problem facing the Labour leader? The calls for StarmerContinue reading “British Labour Leaders, Palestine & Israel, 1929-2019.”

Terror as a Tree Without Roots: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict – A Short Documentary History, 1941-76.

Berlin, 1941 – Genesis of a Genocide: Over these past three weeks, there have been many attempts by jihadi propagandists, followed sheepishly by their international apologists and extremists, to excuse or ‘explain’ the pogrom of 7th October by reference to the events of the past seventy-five years of the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, in checking throughContinue reading “Terror as a Tree Without Roots: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict – A Short Documentary History, 1941-76.”

Crying “Jihad” on the Streets of London – Should it be Legal? The Origins of Islamist Extremism.

The Continuing Cries of the terrorists, one year on: On Monday, October 23rd 2023, John Ware wrote in Jewish News: “Imagine being the Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley today as he gets a dressing down from the Home Secretary about why his officers didn’t arrest a member of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir chantingContinue reading “Crying “Jihad” on the Streets of London – Should it be Legal? The Origins of Islamist Extremism.”

How the Taliban Began – Afghanistan 1994-97 – John Simpson’s Journal (and how different are they now, really?)

The Road to Kabul: Recent developments in Afghanistan, particularly over the past fortnight, together with this week’s (18th August) emergency debate in the House of Commons, have prompted me to write further on the question of Afghanistan, taking an even longer view of the key issues of the past quarter century. In my last postContinue reading “How the Taliban Began – Afghanistan 1994-97 – John Simpson’s Journal (and how different are they now, really?)”

Afghanistan – ‘An Anatomy of Reporting’; Twenty-Five Years On: 1996-2021.

The BBC Journalist John Simpson had won the Richard Dimbleby award in 1991 and the News and Current Affairs award in 2000 for his coverage, with the BBC News team, of the Kosovo conflict, when he was asked to meet the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, in a hotel car park in Islamabad in SeptemberContinue reading “Afghanistan – ‘An Anatomy of Reporting’; Twenty-Five Years On: 1996-2021.”