Features

ONLINE only: Time to Stop Pawning the Palestinians

Frances Weaver — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:34:10 +0100

Author:Claudia Schwartz

There was a time when it was accurate to use the term ‘Arab-Israeli conflict' to describe the dispute between the Jewish state, the Palestinians, and much of the Arab world. Yet lately, given that the upheaval regarding this troublesome spot is increasingly coming from the non-Arab Muslim world, the term has become a misnomer. From Turkey, to Iran, to Malyasia, non-Arab actors are jumping on the anti-Israel bandwagon in order to bolster domestic support and gain regional and global standing. This effectively treats the Palestinians as pawns, and risks harmful consequences for the people these nations claim to support. It is time for the Arab world to reclaim its influence and advance its own interests by working towards finally resolving this conflict.

ONLINE Only: The Mavi Marmara Metaphor

Frances Weaver — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:34:31 +0100

Author:Dave Rich

The working alliance between Islamists and leftists in Britain emerged out of anti-Israel demonstrations after the start of the second Intifada in October 2000, which preceded 9/11 and the protests against the war in Iraq. A decade on, anti-Zionism and the Israel/Palestine conflict remain its energizing core. There is no other conflict in the world which would have motivated Islamist and leftist campaigners to cooperate for a flotilla similar to that which approached Gaza at the end of May, with consequences which are still reverberating around the Middle East and beyond.

Europe's Long Road to the Mosque

Frances Weaver — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:17:02 +0100

Author:Walter Laqueur

Here's How Schools are Set Free, Mr Gove

Frances Weaver — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:11:02 +0100

Author:Chris Woodhead

At times, I think Michael Gove deserves our congratulations. In championing the idea of the "free" school, funded by, but independent of, the state, the Education Secretary has done, I tell myself, all that could reasonably be expected of him. The concessions and compromises he has been forced to make were inevitable. Something genuinely radical might grow from these flawed beginnings. I cross my fingers and hope. More often, I despair.

Free Schools; Empower Parents; Slash the Bureaucracies: the populist headlines have wooed a naively enthusiastic right-wing commentariat. The truth is that the reality will not live up to the rhetoric. State schools will not, given the education policies Gove is pursuing, be free in any significant sense of the word. Parents will not be properly empowered. The bureaucrats will, I suspect, continue to exert their anti-educational influence.

We Have to be Ready For Anything

Frances Weaver — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:04:31 +0100

Author:Alexander Woolfson

Be prepared: Iran's nuclear programme is a threat that will need to be countered

The most famous post-war assessment of Britain's international position came in 1962 from the US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who observed: "Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role." Acheson's words suggested not only uncertainty about Britain's role but also its decline in international status.

History's Greatest Ponzi Scheme

Frances Weaver — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:54:18 +0100

Author:Conrad Black

Very few of the ever-growing number of books about the recent and current world financial crisis try to identify the ultimate causes of this astounding implosion of the longest, strongest and most widespread economic boom in history. Any such analysis by officials became impractical because it became mired in the uneven exchange of allegations between the politicians and the private financial sector. The political class locked arms from across the spectrum to blame private sector "greed". With the exception of a few media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, this theme was taken up by the press. And this version of events has been amplified by the Obama administration's effort to claim and to execute a mandate to take the country much more sharply to the left than the public wishes or would abide.

The Healing Power of Forgiveness

Frances Weaver — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:41:41 +0100

Author:Peter Stanford

Prisoners are encouraged to acknowledge the impact of their crimes

"The first time someone suggested to me that I needed to forgive the man who raped me, I was furious. I wanted him dead. So how dare this person be telling me I had to forgive?" Rosalyn Boyce pauses, pushes her black hair off her face and meets the gaze of her audience of 20 men gathered round her on a circle of chairs in an anonymous meeting room. She has just been describing the violent sexual attack and the psychological and emotional aftermath she suffered when a stranger broke into her house.

Git Lit, or: Why Old Age is All the Rage

Frances Weaver — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:28:38 +0100

Author:Piers Paul Read

My charming, beautiful, articulate and witty daughter-in-law, Catherine Ostler, who edits Tatler, had a sneak preview of my new novel, The Misogynist, and told me that it belonged to the genre "Git Lit" — at the other opposite end of the spectrum from "chicklit". She was too polite, or too mindful of the importance of irenic relations within a family, to call it a "gaga saga".

The publishers are happy with this categorisation. They put the novel's protagonist, Geoffrey Jomier, in the company of other "grumpy old men", no doubt hoping to entice the admirers of Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils, which won the Booker Prize in 1986, or those who have enjoyed the recent novels of Philip Roth. Or Justin Cartwright. Or Ian McEwan's Solar?

The Maestro Of His Own Fate

Frances Weaver — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:15:54 +0100

Author:Daniel Johnson

On the verge of a breakdown, Gustav Mahler (top) consulted Sigmund Freud (bottom) about his volatile relationship with his wife Alma (middle)