David Wolchover, at The Blogs

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May 4, 2022, 12:15 PM

Let’s once and for all bury the myth of Hitler’s Zeider

In an interview on Italian TV last week, Vladimir Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov managed to undermine the philo-semitic repute of his puppet master. Asked to explain how Russia needed to de-Nazify Ukraine when its elected leader was a Jew, Lavrov mused “we have for...

Oct 22, 2020, 4:58 PM

Mock trial of Lord Janner smacks of sinister intent

Lord Janner. (Photo credit: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire via Jewish News)

The frankly brutal 18-year sentence meted out to the deranged fantasist Carl Beech last year smacked of scapegoating for the police team who lapped up his make-believe story of a murderous Westminster paedophile ring. Be that as it may, his conviction vindicated the reputation of...

May 28, 2020, 5:17 PM

Why the West Bank must again be part of Jordan

A view of eastern Amman from Jabal al-Qal'a (Jewish News)

For 18 years after the 1949 Armistice, the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank salient thrived as citizens of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. No less so did the so-called refugees, inflated in number out of all proportion to the actual total of self-exiles by...

May 18, 2020, 5:27 PM

There can be a ‘two-state’ solution palatable to all

A Palestinian boy looks behind a wall separating Jewish (Jewish News AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

For 18 years after the 1949 Armistice the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank salient thrived as citizens of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. No less so did the so-called refugees, inflated in number out of all proportion to the actual total of self-exiles by...

Jan 10, 2020, 1:03 PM

Israeli prosecutors are wrong to indict the PM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, December 4, 2018. (Photo by: JINIPIX via Jewish News)

With Israel in constitutional deadlock and regional instability intensifying, there could not be a more opportune moment for Likud and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party to join forces in a unity government. Yet with Gantz professing to dismiss collaboration while Benjamin Netanyahu, under indictment...

Dec 21, 2018, 11:15 AM

US-Saudi alliance vital for hopes of regional stability

Donald Trump arriving in Saudi Arabia.

On 29 December 1170, four royal courtiers waylaid Archbishop Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. As it happens, I have a personal interest in the story: it was my son-in-law’s putative ancestor (and namesake) who delivered the crushing mortal blow. King Henry II, of course,...

Oct 30, 2018, 12:10 PM

Uncanny parallels and a murder in Istanbul

Jamal_Khashoggi. Via Jewish News.
Source: Wikimedia Commons - (credit: Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia: A Deeper Look https://www.flickr.com/photos/pomed/26087328517/)

On 29 December, 1170, four royal courtiers waylaid Archbishop Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. As it happens, I have a personal interest in the story: it was my own dear son-in-law’s putative ancestor (and namesake) who delivered the crushing mortal blow. Of course King...

Sep 28, 2018, 12:54 PM

Random presumptions of Israel’s villainy are bizarre

In a recent Jewish News piece, I suggested that Israel bears no moral obligation to fix the consequences of the Palestinian leadership’s aggressive folly of 1948 when they persuaded five Arab countries to reverse United Nations (UN) resolution 141 by force of arms. If there is no...

Sep 13, 2018, 4:00 PM

Is Israel morally obliged to fix Palestinian folly?

Palestinian refugees leaving the Galilee in October–November 1948. (Source: Wikipedia - via Jewish News)

In his interview in this newspaper last week, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell conceded it was “of course” antisemitic “to oppose a Jewish state”, a phrase that he doubtless intended should stand as shorthand for “oppose the right of the Jewish people to a state of...

May 10, 2018, 2:49 PM

Ken’s Zionist remarks were correct, in context

Instead of advisedly keeping his own counsel, I fear Ken Livingstone did himself few favours in telling LBC last week that the anti-Semitism row in the Labour Party was a “complete diversion”. Whether it warrants his ultimate expulsion from the party between now and July will be...

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About Me

David Wolchover is a Barrister and author of Culprits of Lockerbie