Monthly Archives: July 2018

Six Day War: Unfinished Business

The Left’s Hate Affair with Israel

By Robert Liebman

This is a slightly modified version of an article that originally appeared in algemeiner.com, June 10, 2015.

June 10, 1967 marked the end of the Six Day War and the beginning of the radical left’s hate affair with the Jewish State.

Although Israel neither welcomed nor wanted this conflict, the Left declared that Israel, not the invading Arabs, had been ‘militaristic,’ ‘colonialistic,’ and ‘fascistic.’ Continue reading

Hating Israel is forever, not just for Christmas. Or Chanukah. Or May Day.

Hating Israel (Religiously)

Hating Israel is forever, not just for Christmas. Or Chanukah. Or May Day.

By Robert Liebman, Times of Israel, December 24, 2016 – slighted modified and photographs added, July 26, 2018

Which Side Are You On, Boys?”

The fiftieth anniversary of the Six Day War in 2017 is likely to be overshadowed by commemorations for the one-hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Each is monumentally important.

Leftist detestation of Israel did not begin with Israeli statehood in 1948 or the Suez crisis in 1956. Continue reading

Bashing Israel: A Beginner’s Guide

Bashing Israel: A Beginner’s Guide

By Robert Liebman, Times of Israel blog, May 5, 2014 – slighted amended and photographs added, July 25, 2018

If you want to criticise Israel in terms so extreme as to definitely impress your friends and neighbors, you can amass an impressive intellectual arsenal by boning up on Middle East history.

Or you can save yourself considerable time and energy by learning a dozen or so emotive buzz words. Simply utter them and you win the argument as if by magic. Continue reading

The Gaffe Collection: Greg Gianforte

British Journalism’s Jugular Warfare

By Robert Liebman, Times of Israel blog, May 26th, 2017 – slighted modified and photographs added, July 24, 2018.

“I’m sick and tired of you guys!” Wham! Bam! Politician slams journalist to the ground.

Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate in Montana’s special House of Representatives election, grappled with British reporter Ben Jacobs and threw hiim to the floor. Continue reading

Britain’s Loony Leftists: A Study in Spinelessness

A UK political car crash resonates in Israel

By Robert Liebman, Times of Israel blog, March 4, 2014 – slighted amended and photographs added, July 24, 2018

A collision between a paedophilia advocacy group, a civil-liberties organisation and the Labour Party has resulted in a major British political scandal. The kerfuffle has nothing at all – and everything — to do with Israel. Continue reading

Soccer Riots in Britain

Soccer Riots and British Character

New York Times, May 18, 1986

Brawling is as British as shepherd’s pie. Murder isn’t.

One year after the Brussels soccer riot and on the eve of the World Cup in Mexico City the British national character takes center stage.

On May 29, 1985, fifteen months after moving to London from New York, I watched a live broadcast of British soccer fans running amok in Brussels before the game between Liverpool and Juventus, from Turin, Italy had even begun. When it was over, the body count was 39 dead and hundreds injured. Continue reading

The Gaffe Collection: Off the Cuff

Off the Cuff

by Robert Liebman, originally published July 21, 2012, this version slightly tweaked

My collection of gaffes by American politicians grows—boy, does it grow – with each election, and with every session of Congress.

But the details of one past gaffe elude me. Whodunnit? When did he do it? Alas, why did he not have enough sense to finesse his way out of danger? Continue reading

The Gaffe Collection: Ron Akin

The Gaffe Collection: Ron Akin

by Robert Liebman, 2012

Mister Potato(e) Head

When a schoolboy correctly spelled “potato,” George H. W. Bush’s Vice Presidential running mate Dan Quayle intervened, saying that “potato” should end with an e.

Quayle misspelled.

Todd Akin

Todd Akin

Missouri congressman Todd Akin said that rape victims could biologically fend off pregnancy.

Akin “misspoke.”

Running for a Senate seat in Missouri, Akin said what he meant and believed about abortion, but he ended up on the canvas. He knocked himself out. Continue reading

Wimbledon Olympics 2012

Bum’s Rush

by Robert Liebman

Good afternoon. Have a nice day.

The police may have been trying to tell me something, but a simple No Tickets Available sign would have sufficed.

The London 2012 Olympics opened with glorious pageantry soon followed by controversy, especially over empty seats.

The Games ended on a note of euphoria, and the empty-seat sagas seem to have been completely forgotten. Continue reading

Supermen Schlemiels

Rabbis or Rakes, Schlemiels or Supermen? Jewish Identity in Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis, and Woody Allen

by Robert Liebman

Film/Literature Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1984

Adenoid Hynkel (Charlie Chaplin) holding a globe of the world.

Adenoid Hynkel (Charlie Chaplin) and the world he wants to conquer.

In the topsy-turvy world of Yiddish and, later, Jewish-American narrative, the schlemiel reigns supreme, while the superhero who frequently accompanies him is largely ignored.

This larger than life-size, obviously compensatory doppelganger offers startling insights into Jewish fears of inadequacy, inferiority, and powerlessness—fears which are not necessarily unjustified. Continue reading

Another Beeb Boob

The Beeb Mangles the Meringue – Again

By Robert Liebman, July 20, 2018

Little Isaac’s birthday party descended into catastrophe if not downright tragedy.

He invited all 20 of his classmates to his birthday bash but, on the day, numerous transportation delays in London stranded 19 guests. Only Ahmed, his neighbour, showed up – as did the cake from a nearby bakery.

The two boys amused themselves until cake-cutting time, when Ahmed insisted that the entire cake should be his. Pandemonium ensued – shouting, fisticuffs, tears.  Continue reading

Robert Liebman: Who He?

Robert Liebman: Here and There

Robert Liebman typing on a typewriter

A native New Yorker (Lower East Side of Manhattan, then Upper West Side) based in London, Robert Liebman is a freelance writer specialising in current affairs, property, personal finance, business, travel and sports – and Second World War photographs.

After attending Stuyvesant High School, Robert attended Brooklyn College (B.A., Philosophy), City College of New York (M.A., English) and the University of Massachusetts (Ph.D., English, 1977).  Continue reading