Society

Monday

Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

Why are Jews being blamed for Hamas’s attack on Israel?

‘Victim blaming’ is one of the sins that is most deplored by the social justice movement. When it comes to the Jews, however, different rules seem to apply, at least when it comes to rape, murder and mutilation. The events of the past few days could not have been more clear-cut. This was an unprovoked assault by Islamist fanatics who rampaged across southern Israel, revelling in savagery against the innocent. The atrocities you have seen on television have been the tip of the iceberg. Women have been butchered, their bodies paraded and desecrated, while grandmothers have been kidnapped with their carers and executed. Families have been gunned down in bomb

Sunday

Efraim Karsh

The death of the two-state solution

Hamas has achieved something that no Arab army has done since the 1948 war: captured several Israeli localities and held them for hours. Yet the magnitude of this initial success, in which they took Israel by complete surprise having lulled its famed intelligence services into false complacency, may prove a double-edged sword.  Yes, they have a huge bargaining chip, with as many as 50 civilians and soldiers believed to have been captured and taken to Gaza, many of them women and children. But it is likely now that Israel will end its decade-long policy of containment in favour of an attempt to totally destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, despite the possible

Seth J. Frantzman

Israel faces a new kind of war

Israelis awoke to sirens on Saturday. They began after six in the morning on the border of Gaza as Hamas began to fire thousands of rockets at Israeli towns and cities. By eight o’clock the rocket fire had reached Jerusalem. By the evening the full extent of the massive attack had become clear. Over 5,000 missiles were fired as Hamas launched an unprecedented attack across the border, infiltrating a dozen communities and massacring civilians.   I drove down to the border of Gaza after hearing the sirens in the morning in Jerusalem. Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system was active, intercepting rockets over my head. This is routine in Israel’s wars: the sound

Arieh Kovler

Israel has faced its darkest day for 50 years

While preparing to head out to synagogue to join the dancing and celebration for the Simchat Torah festival, the rocket sirens started sounding. As we grabbed the kids and ran to our safe room (all new Israeli houses are built with one), I assumed there must have been some incident overnight, some Israeli escalation to trigger this rare but not unprecedented rocket fire on Jerusalem. I was wrong. In a mass surprise attack, Hamas launched a huge barrage of rockets from Gaza at southern and central Israel. But this bombardment was only cover for the real attack: hundreds of armed Hamas terrorists, organised in military fashion, on technical vehicles, poured

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Helen Mirren is perfect to play Golda Meir

The word ‘actress’ used to be interchangeable with ‘prostitute’ and though it’s a good thing that this little misunderstanding was cleared up, it’s a pity that ‘living saint’ has been substituted for hooker. Modern actresses are variously ‘activists’ and ‘humanitarians’ – or whingeing nepo-babies mistaking themselves for the first two. But they are rarely ‘broads’ anymore, the way the great female stars (Taylor, Gardner, Mae West) used to be. Except, that is, for Helen Mirren. The word, though originally meaning a woman of flexible sexual morality, has come to indicate an ultra-tough, good-humoured woman, the binary opposite of the non-binary cry-babies who now frequent the bazaars of Thespis. Mirren has

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Subsidies have defanged the French media

It’s not surprising that much mainstream French journalism is complacent, incurious and stenographic. The elite French media is lavishly subsidised and the torrent of handouts makes tenuous any claim that mainstream French journalism is independent. The most compromised are the broadcasters. Indeed there’s little pretence that they offer more than token auditing of the government. Three billion euros annually goes to French state-owned radio and television stations (which are allowed to top this up selling advertising). The French TV license was abolished so the money is paid directly by the state.  The more the media feeds at the trough, the more it can ignore the interests of readers There’s a gossamer-thin

Heli-Liis Võrno

Has Soviet self-censorship come to Britain?

When the Soviet system fell in my native Estonia I was 17 years old. I’d spent the entirety of those years mastering the main rule for surviving the USSR: you needed two separate identities. One was for home and those you trusted, the other for public places: we knew that in front of outsiders or certain relatives, you simply didn’t speak about some topics. If you followed the rules and kept the two identities apart, you could survive and even prosper. But if you mixed the two worlds up, woe betide you. My grandparents – who’d separated in the early 1950s – led lives that illustrated this. My grandfather had

Saturday

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Could Nigel Farage unlock victory for Keir Starmer?

What is Labour’s offer for Nigel Farage? Yes, you read that right. Of course, Keir Starmer’s party detests almost everything the former Ukip leader stands for, including Brexit and immigration control. That almost goes without saying. But we are well into the phase of the political cycle when grubbing for votes is far more crucial than are purist ideals. A generation ago, in advance of the 1997 election, Tony Blair and his gang were making regular overtures to Margaret Thatcher, who they knew to be deeply unimpressed by her successor John Major. Early in 1995, Blair caused consternation among many Labour left-wingers by praising aspects of Thatcher’s premiership, describing her

Mark Solomons

Stag don’t: Britain’s deer problem is out of control

Britain’s annual wildlife spectacular is just warming up. From the Highlands to the New Forest, the raucous bellowing of amorous stags fills the air. Stags trek up to 50 miles to find herds of hinds to mate with – fighting off other males before they can get down to business.  Granted, it’s hardly the migration of millions of wildebeest across the Serengeti, but deer rutting season is a feast for both eye and ears. Yet this annual event on any wildlife watcher’s calendar comes with a darker environmental cause for concern.  The truth is that we have too many deer in Britain. The current population of two million – the

Friday

Jawad Iqbal

What Kevin Keegan gets right and wrong about football pundits

What was Kevin Keegan, the former England and Newcastle manager, thinking when he decided to share his views on ‘lady footballers’ and female pundits talking about the England men’s team? Keegan made the remarks to an audience of about 250 people who had bought tickets to An Evening with Kevin Keegan OBE, an event held in Bristol.  ‘I’m not as keen, I’ve got to be honest,’ he said, ‘and it may not be a view shared. I don’t like to listen to ladies talking about the England men’s team at the match because I don’t think it’s the same experience. I have a problem with that.’ His remarks even drew

Kelvin MacKenzie

Why is Starmer cosying up to the Sun?

It’s hard to know who has the most to gain from a Faustian pact between Keir Starmer and Rupert Murdoch. Back in 2020, when running for Labour leader, Starmer promised Liverpool he wouldn’t speak to the Sun. Now, he’s hardly ever out of the paper. Ahead of Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Starmer has defended his decision to write for the Sun: ‘I have to make sure that what we have to say is communicated to as many people as possible in the time that we’ve got available. That is why I’m very happy to work with the Sun, to write for the Sun, to do interviews with the Sun.’ Labour’s leader would be

Thursday

Jawad Iqbal

The terrible loss of National Theatre Wales

National Theatre Wales (NTW), the country’s flagship English language company, has warned that it might be forced to close in six months’ time following a cut to its funding. The company has received financial support from the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) for the entirety of its existence but will no longer do so from next spring. NTW said it was ‘deeply shocked’ and plans to appeal against the cuts. Changing the minds of the arts bureaucrats who control the purse strings could prove a tall order, not least because artistic merit appears to count for little in a world dominated by fashionable but ultimately ill-defined targets such as ‘participation’

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The Pope, gay blessings and the Rupnik scandal

13 min listen

Pope Francis’s much-hyped ‘synod on synodality’ began in Rome this week and to say that it has got off to a rocky start is putting it mildly. On Monday, five leading conservative cardinals bounced Francis into making a highly ambiguous statement apparently opening the door to gay blessings. Meanwhile, and this subject is being played down by certain media outlets, allegations of sexual abuse surrounds one of the Pope’s friends. The world-renowned mosaic artist Fr Marko Rupnik has been expelled from the Jesuits after women claimed he sexually abused them – but he remains a priest and for some reason Pope Francis has yet to allow him to be prosecuted canonically. In this episode of Holy

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Is Fifa trying to destroy the World Cup?

It’s official, well almost. Fifa has announced the location for the 2030 (centenary) World Cup. And the winner is… all over the place. In an extraordinary departure the tournament will be played in three continents with matches in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The decision, which will surely be rubber stamped at next year’s congress has been hailed by Fifa as ‘unit[ing] the world in a unique global celebration’ and by Football Supporters Europe (a body officially recognised by Uefa) as ‘Horrendous for supporters’ and ‘The end of the World Cup as we know it.’ It is tempting to speculate if Fifa is on a mission to destroy

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The Pope has gone full Greta Thunberg

At last, the Pope is being taken seriously when he warns of moral degeneracy – well, sort of. When Popes have tried to preach to us about abortion, promiscuity, materialism, drugs and selfish lifestyles, they have widely been treated as old fools or bigoted moralists who want to stop us having fun and being who we are.  But how miraculous the transformation among enlightened opinion now Pope Francis has issued on exhortation on climate change, warning us that ‘irresponsible’ western lifestyles are ruining the planet. Christine Figueres, former UN executive secretary on climate says she ‘warmly welcomes’ the Pope’s exhortation. Climate campaigner Bill McKibben says ‘the work of spiritual leaders around

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The western hypocrisy about Pakistan’s migrant crisis

Pakistan has told all unauthorised Afghan migrants that they must leave the country by the end of October.  Imagine if France announced in the wake of a terrorist attack that it was expelling all Algerians. There would be uproar across the world The announcement was made on Tuesday, and affects as many 1.7 million men, women and children. The Pakistan government prefers to describe them as ‘illegal’ migrants rather than asylum seekers, and justifies the decision because of an increase in terrorist attacks along the Pakistan-Afghan border. There have been 24 suicide bombings in this region since the start of 2023, and the Pakistan military says more than half of

Wednesday

Kristina Murkett

Rishi Sunak’s exam shake-up doesn’t add up

After 13 years in power, the Conservatives have decided to rebrand themselves as the ‘party of change’. Today, Rishi Sunak announced that the Tories will ban smoking for the next generation, scrap a significant portion of HS2, and abolish A-levels and T-levels in favour of new ‘Advanced British Standards’. Rishi Sunak is no longer ‘Inaction Man’, but ‘Over-reaction Man’ While it is encouraging to see the government finally being proactive rather than reactive on education policy, the government will have to put its money where its mouth is if it wants to prove that this is more than a headline-grabbing pre-election gimmick. A British Baccalaureate is not a new idea; dozens

Christopher Snowdon

The many flaws in Sunak’s smoking wheeze

In the run-up to the Conservative party conference, Rishi Sunak was promoting himself as a serious politician who wanted workable policies that respect consumer choice. No more war on motorists! No more pie-in-the-sky net zero promises! Here was a practical man in tune with the concerns of ordinary people. Having teed himself up as a pragmatic, back-to-basics Conservative, it was all the more puzzling when, in his keynote speech, he announced a preposterous anti-smoking gimmick borrowed from Jacinda Ardern that no one was asking for. New Zealand is the only country to have taken seriously the idea of increasing the age at which people can buy cigarettes by one year

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The National Theatre underestimates its patrons

It was a story that Rishi Sunak was not saying what he would decide about the future of HS2. But was it the story? The BBC thought so. On Tuesday, Today’s reporting of the Conservative party conference consisted chiefly of Nick Robinson and Chris Mason gleefully commenting on how the Prime Minister was avoiding their HS2 questions. The explanation, which they chose not to recognise, was that he would have been idiotic to pre-empt his own conference speech on Wednesday. There he did announce his big HS2 change. The only other thing that interested Today, especially Robinson, who specialises in this theme, was that ‘the Tory right’ were being supported

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: HS2 cancellations, (another) doctors’ strike and US Congress meltdown

Home The Conservatives argued about tax and HS2 at their conference in the former Manchester Central railway station. At the end, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, announced cancellation of the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2. He promised £36 billion for a ‘Network North’ and for transport outside London (where there would be a ‘Euston development zone’). He proposed raising the legal age for smoking by one year every year. He declared his values as ‘service, family, work’ and said: ‘A man is a man and a woman is a woman.’ He wore a bracelet saying ‘Dada’. In her own speech, Akshata Murty, his wife, said ‘aspiration’ summed him up.