Adam LeBor - wordsmith of all trades

Does dramatising genocide and terrorism cheapen it, asks @adamlebor, or bring the reality home to a wider audience? thecritic.co.uk/issues/novem…

If you buy one book about the Middle East, writes @adamlebor, make sure it’s The Cauldron thecritic.co.uk/issues/novem…

2 weeks since the election and with a new Knesset sworn-in, we’re still no clearer on when Israel is going to have a new government and what shape it will be. But actually, quite a lot has happened, some of it quite encouraging. 1. Netanyahu’s blatant campaign to disqualify the Arab vote and the election result has fizzled out. In the process his appointee as Shin Bet Chief has been revealed as farcically out of his depth (which is a mixed blessing). 2. The IDF General Staff managed to fend off Netanyahu’s attempts to provoke another war with Iran, long enough for the midterm results and Trump, to put an end to such ideas, at least for a few more weeks. 3. The Netanyahu camp is beginning to fray, with his Haredi allies UTJ formally breaking with him and refusing to endorse any candidate for PM. I’m not sure it’s going to last and I doubt they will be part of an Eisenkot government, but it’s potentially a change in the political landscape. 4. Lieberman is being Lieberman. Inscrutable, cynical and maddeningly impossible to predict. Is he really trying to form a new alliance with the Haredim? Is he preparing the ground for another move? If so in which direction? No surprise there, but it’s frustrating nonetheless. 5. Eisenkot so far hasn’t made any beginners mistakes and seems to be handling the difficult situation well. He hasn’t tied himself down to any position he will have trouble abandoning and gives every impression of being resolutely committed to replacing Netanyahu, so far at least not falling into Bibi’s “unity” trap. 6. Netanyahu is losing his cool very visibly and wasn’t even seen in public for nearly two weeks since election night, until the Knesset inauguration today, where he went ahead and ruined his own “unity” pitch in a hysterical speech. 7. Significant parts of the “Eisenkot camp” (not just Lieberman) still have trouble contemplating a government including, or with the support of the Arab parties. But the entire opposition, all 67 MKs, today signed letters calling for an immediate vote on a new Knesset speaker. Looks like they can work together on some things. Who knows where that may lead. The bottom line remains. It takes a while to form a government in Israel. It took 80 days after the 2021 election and 60 days in 2022. We’re just 14 days in, so savlanut.

A week after inconclusive election results that saw neither side win a large enough majority to form a government, Israel woke on Wednesday to two more major problems. President Trump announced in an interview with Fox News that the United States will stop military aid to Israel by the end of the year. Meanwhile in Michigan Abdul El-Sayed, America's first Muslim senator and vociferous critic of the Jewish state, swept to victory, spearheading the rise of the Democrats' progressive left. President Trump claimed that the terms of a supposed deal had been finalised months ago with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. 'We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel.' ✍️ Adam LeBor Article | spectator.com/article/the-mi…

I don’t know, guys. If you don’t look at Arab politics and see fundamentally different rhetoric and strategies from 20 years ago, then you aren’t actually looking at Arab politics. You’re just reading Likud talking points about it. There’s a massive anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment in the Arab street. Probably 60% of Arab political representation openly represents that sentiment. And also, there’s a powerful and growing demand to join coalitions, including with the right, to work with state institutions, to integrate into Israeli mainstream society, and so on. Arab political parties that leave aside their ideological uniqueness and unite in a demand for a seat at the table always improve turnout in the Arab street. Always. For eight elections in a row now, that rule has held. Raam has grown dramatically, specifically because it brought a Zionist Jew into its list as its crime czar and promised its voters to tackle real world problems by working *with* Israeli state institutions, instead of against them. It is entirely possible for the Arabs of Israel to both feel deeply Palestinian, deeply wary of Israel’s Jewishness, and deeply desiring of greater integration with their Jewish neighbors. Don’t let anyone make excuses for the many anti-Israel radicals in those lists. But also, it’s simply a lie to pretend that the new and growing desire to integrate isn’t happening. Welcome to real life, where two seemingly opposite things can be taking place at once.

I am deeply grateful for the many kind messages and positive feedback I have received, both online and in person, about my Second World War posts. It is heart-warming to know that so many of you find them informative and worthwhile!

As Israel prepares for its election on October 27, the most consequential in decades, I find myself missing my late friend Khamis Abulafia. Khamis was a scion of the famous Jaffa Abulafia dynasty. The fifth child of his parents, he was named for the Arabic word for five. The Abulafia bakery, overlooking Clock Tower Square, is a local landmark – and a symbol of co-existence, closing each year for eight days on Passover, when Jews are forbidden from eating leavened bread. Khamis was a beloved figure in Jaffa, a bridge between its Arab and Jewish inhabitants. ✍️ Adam LeBor Article | spectator.com/article/israel…

Great book. Should have bought yours, not that paperback

Burnham and Miliband have opted for a mess of virtue-signalling which will make life worse for the Palestinians. The Palestinian Monetary Authority does not yet issue a sovereign national currency. For now the Palestinian economy is 'so interlinked with the Israeli economy', says Daniel Abir, deputy governor of the Bank of Israel, that the shekel is 'the obvious choice of currency'. Thus the prospect of UK sanctions raises several key questions that would test greater minds than those of the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. Most of all, how will these sanctions be able to impose meaningful pain on their targets while not impacting on the Palestinians? ✍️ Adam LeBor Article | spectator.com/article/sancti…