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Mike Isaacson

aka melchett mike

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Jul 25, 2026, 11:10 PM

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

A recurring theme of my conversations here over the past three years has been the options for living somewhere more normal. When I met my girls’ mother in the summer of 2015, my head—if not my heart—was already in Berlin....

May 10, 2024, 11:31 PM

Just Hating Jews More

The long seven months since October 7 have been the most melancholy, unsettling of most of our lives (definitely of mine, and I have known a few). And not just because of the savagery inflicted on our brothers and...

Feb 8, 2021, 6:26 PM

David Baddiel: Britain’s useful, go-to Jew

Exiting Stamford Bridge twenty years ago on a wave of euphoria after Hapoel Tel Aviv had dumped Chelsea out of the UEFA Cup, who should I walk straight into . . . but TV celebrity David Baddiel. Though feeling...

Oct 20, 2014, 1:36 AM

Heidis, Milkies and Amalekites

It is no secret. I am not settled here. I need a change. I was originally thinking Cork (I bottled it). Now on the radar is Berlin. And the brouhaha stirred up last week by an Israeli in the German capital...

Jul 30, 2014, 9:51 PM

An open letter to Andy Kershaw (and other useful idiots)

Dear Mr. Kershaw, My attention was recently drawn to your 12 July posting to your Facebook page . And I must admit to having been somewhat taken aback that a former Radio 1 DJ whose show I very much enjoyed in my student days – you...

Jul 15, 2014, 2:55 PM

As Good As It Gets?

Welcome to Jewish reality, 2014. I am not sure who has irritated me more this past week: the English oleh showing off to friends back in Blighty with continual "Look at me! Look at me! I am living under missile fire!" Facebook updates (perhaps...

Jun 27, 2014, 2:44 PM

Unfriending the Cousins

I “unfriend” my Arab Facebook friends, this week. I had met all half-dozen of them on my half-Jewish, half-Arab tour guides course (which I could not complete). But despite sitting with “the lads” – all Arab, more fun than the nerdy new immigrants – at...

May 7, 2014, 11:35 AM

Thank you, Pete . . . a Libertine in every sense

Bouncing home in the early hours of Friday from a second wonderful night of Pete Doherty at Barby Tel Aviv, I am ‘greeted’ by depressingly familiar facebook discussions about Roger Waters and BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) . . ....

Sep 28, 2013, 11:11 PM

The Israeli Way in Death and Mourning

My cousin’s concern about my propensity for doing the right thing – the reason for him lending me Maurice Lamm’s The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning way back in January 2000 – was, I would like to believe, not as well-founded as it was well-meaning. Insofar as...

Aug 20, 2012, 12:45 PM

Foot in Mouth Disease: The Shortest Date

I recently had my shortest ever date. It lasted a grand total of six minutes. And it was still too long. I am not quite sure why I agreed to meet Irit. She was a nagger even on the phone. But there was...

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About Me

A 58-year old writer, ex-journalist and one-time lawyer... but always proud Jew and Zionist. A native Londoner, now residing in Ramat Hasharon. Single plus three (two princesses and a mutt). Why do I do this? As Martin Amis once put it: "Writing is freedom, and to hell with everything else!"

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