An open letter to Professor Gabriel Brahm

Gabriel, I was present at the conference at Exeter and have just read your piece in the Jewish Chronicle, in fact a cross post at the JLC website had ‘urged me to do so’. The piece is also reproduced on the Times of Israel website. I had been one of those critical of the initial agreement and had provided my account of my experience at … Continue reading An open letter to Professor Gabriel Brahm

My weekend with the antisemites (and 2 Zionists) at Exeter

I have just returned from Exeter, where the university held a 3-day conference discussing ‘Settler Colonialism in Palestine’. Far smaller and less organised than the conference that the University of Southampton cancelled, this collection of anti-Zionists ranged from well- known ‘academics’ from the US, Beirut and Australia to several ‘wannabees’ currently working on research at Exeter; these ‘wannabees’ are Ilan Pappe’s academic children. I always … Continue reading My weekend with the antisemites (and 2 Zionists) at Exeter

The anti-Zionist Exeter conference

Over the last two days, it became abundantly clear exactly how far off base the JLC is, how removed they are from events on the ground, and how little they understand the anti-Zionist argument developing within the extreme left. I am now certain they are stuck in the 1980’s, when Europeans still went to the Kibbutz and people romanticised over Entebbe. The idea that the … Continue reading The anti-Zionist Exeter conference

You do not confront anti-Semitism by waving a white flag

Imagine if you can, a marketplace of ideas in a small city somewhere on the coast in South West England. The owners of this market by law must ensure free trade, free that is for as long as it does not promote violent extremism. Within this market are people who despise the Jewish state, creating for themselves a corner of the market, refusing to deal … Continue reading You do not confront anti-Semitism by waving a white flag