The New Republic

We live in a world in which the contagion of anti-Semitism is spreading once again. Indeed, the profusion of hostility to Israel is the proof that hatred of Jews is now quite alright, thank you. But, whatever individual and isolated wrongs Israel commits, there are comparisons to be drawn. And the comparisons are to the Arab states and to Palestinian Arab society, in which oppression has flourished since the early years of the last century. And has not stopped flourishing yet. READ MORE >>

Adam Nossiter in the International Herald Tribune makes as clear as the facts allow why there is no mystery in the regime targeting the motorcyclists. As it happens, they are the "gun-wielding...assassins of police officers, politicians and others in this dusty city near the desert" that has moved "the authorities to declare that a radical Islamic sect thought to have been crushed by Nigerian troops last has been revived." The city is Maiduguri. The sect is Boko Haram. READ MORE >>

“Les guichets du Louvre” is a French film released in 1974 in America as “Black Thursday.”  I recall every scene: they were withering, all of them. The movie takes place within one 24 hour period on July 16, 1942 when 9,000 French policemen rounded up 14,000 Jews (including 4,500 children) in the 4th arrondisement of Paris and transported them to the Velodrome d’Hiver on their way to the death camps. READ MORE >>

There is no gloating in my finding Barack Obama's view of Islam more than a bit fatuous. Oh, how I wish it were true... READ MORE >>

During his campaign and at the beginning of his presidency Barack Obama promised to shut Guantanamo and give (most of) its prisoners their freedom. Freedom is a difficult state to bestow on people, especially those who have lived in the circle or shadow of terror or terrorism. In any case, the Congress won't allow the president to close the penitentiary at the southern tip of Cuba. And it certainly won't permit him to sprinkle the remaining inmates around America. This is another instance of Obama choking on his own words. READ MORE >>

The Kabul conference has come and gone, a half day fest which put the finishing touches on the plans for Afghani security and how it can be helped by fully 70 governments, all in attendance, and, of course, with the United Nations represented by its secretary general Ban Ki-Moon. On Monday, Mrs. Clinton was in Pakistan; on Tuesday, Kabul; on Wednesday, South Korea, right onto the edge of its demilitarized zone with North Korea. Today, she is in Hanoi and, of course, she has reproached the government of Vietnam for its well-documented contempt for human rights. READ MORE >>

“But I think we can take it there won’t be any air raids, not on London at any rate,” Sir Joseph Mainwaring says confidently on the day the Second World War, and Put Out More Flags, both begin. “The Germans will never attempt the Maginot line. The French will hold on for ever, if needs be ...” For the rest of Evelyn Waugh’s novel, Sir Joseph's taste for of lofty predictions—“But there is one thing of which I am certain. Russia will come in against us before the end of the year. That will put Italy and Japan on our side”—becomes a running gag. READ MORE >>

The most serious of Spain's torments is its economy. But, unlike Greece, which is basically an underdeveloped country but with high pretensions to being of the heart of Europe, Spain is at the historical and financial core of the continent. READ MORE >>

I’ve been reading Rob Hughes for many years, always with interest, but a recent piece of his in the New York Times (from his On Soccer column in the International Herald Tribune) made me wonder about the pretzel logic that can sometimes accompany political correctness.  READ MORE >>

Barack Obama is fighting hard to be permitted by Congress to throw cotton candy at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Iran. It is unlikely that he will succeed, and that is because even many Democratic senators are simply mortified by the president’s trifling efforts at getting the mullahs to back down from their nuclear aspirations. He has spent nearly 16 months in what he should have known would be a doomed diplomacy to induce Russia and China to get tough with Tehran. Yes, get tough. READ MORE >>