Peter Chester Arnold

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Jun 28, 2022, 4:07 PM

1492 – A new perspective?

To most people of European origins, 1492 beings up the name ‘Christopher Columbus’. To most Jews of European origins, 1492 brings up the word ‘expulsion’. The former, if they stop to think about it, see his voyages as having been...

Feb 3, 2022, 1:48 PM

‘Apartheid’ in Israel?

Israel is carrying out “the crime of apartheid against Palestinians” and must be held accountable for treating them as “an inferior racial group”, says Amnesty Arab Israeli students and West Bank Arabs attend university in Israel. Apartheid? Arabs and Jews and...

Sep 29, 2021, 8:14 AM

Why does political correctness override common sense?

Political correctness is rampant in the English-speaking world. Certain words, phrases or sentences may not be uttered without fear of being pilloried. The 21st century ‘stocks’ are social media, where verbal excrement, and even death threats, are levelled at...

Sep 19, 2021, 8:09 AM

I’m sure that all Jews are affronted when someone makes a comment, or when they see or read a poster or daubing on a wall, which refers to Jews and money. The immediate response is to cry “Antisemitism!” One cannot...

Sep 14, 2021, 10:21 PM

Bias and truth: what to ‘believe’?

The loose use of the word ‘believe’ confuses debate about bias and truth. “I believe…” lies anywhere on a scale between the שְׁמַע and “I believe that the tomatoes are cheaper at the store down the road.” The latter...

Sep 5, 2021, 7:40 PM

Covid-19 in three little words

If there were to be a motto for the world’s medical and scientific ‘experts’ who opine on the future of the current pandemic, it should surely be Umberto Eco’s words out of the mouth of William of Baskerville, "Rather...

Apr 18, 2021, 2:58 PM

Jackie’s racism

Jackie was one of those unusual South African Jews whose mammaloshen was Yiddish, but whose social language was Afrikaans. Not until, in her teens, when the family moved to Johannesburg, did she learn that English was the lingua franca...

Apr 12, 2021, 5:43 PM

Some problems cannot be solved

‘Solutions’ to the Arab-Israeli clash have been around for more than a century since the Balfour Declaration. Behind the thinking is the thought: “There must be a solution.” Why must there be a solution? More than a century ago, HL Mencken wrote The Cult of Hope,...

Feb 21, 2021, 5:02 PM

Challenges to ‘open societies’, including Israel

‘Open societies’ and today’s enemies: internal challenges to the West, including Israel What is an ‘open society’? Those which encourage the expression of different points of view. Writing after the horrors of WWII, Karl Popper identified totalitarianism and its supporting...

Feb 2, 2021, 2:58 PM

Chain migration, ghettoes and COVID-19

First, a little about my interest in migration, ‘chains’ and in a major cause of the current pandemic, ‘ghettoes’. I was the first of my large South African family to decide, in 1953, to migrate to Australia. I came after...

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About Me

Retired medical practitioner, Dr Peter Chester Arnold OAM, fled 1960s apartheid South Africa for Australia. He has since graduated in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and has been a professional editor for more than 30 years on politics, sociology, medicine, history and Holocaust studies.