Joseph Weissman is Media Analyst at the Embassy of Israel Immediate lessons have been drawn from last week’s terror attacks in Paris, as France has bolstered its security by calling up thousands of troops to protect sensitive sites across the capital. Half of these protected sites are Jewish, following the murder of four Jews in the kosher bakery […]
Parliament Street’s Helen Chandler-Wilde compares views on gun control policy in Europe and in the US after Charlie Hebdo massacre On 7th January of this year, two masked gunmen forced their way into the offices of Charlie Hebdo in the 11th arrondissement. The two perpetrators of this attack, thought to be brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, used powerful military-grade firearms to […]
In December 2014, hackers attacked the computers of Sony Pictures, apparently in an attempt to prevent the release of “The Interview”, a film depicting the fictional assassination of Kim Jong-un. The attack was praised by the North Korean National Defence Commission, describing it as a “righteous deed”, and although the North Koreans publicly deny any involvement in the attack, US investigators have concluded that North Korea was responsible for these actions.
Mr. Putin’s week started out bad when he left the G20 summit in a huff after Western leaders “ganged up on him” and turned worse after Germany announced they will not be making their 2020 co2 emissions target. It’s been a tough week for the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. First the Putin regime was singled out at the G20 summit in […]
Something is stirring in the Far East. A dormant nationalism has awoken. Emboldened by economic growth and success at home, the decline and retreat of the West, and the weakness of their neighbours, China has claimed nearly the entire South China Sea as its own and is seeking total regional dominance. Faced by a rapacious, expansionist power, the other countries […]
Despite wanting to steer away from a dreary debate on electoral systems, there does seem to be quite a lot of venom directed at the classic First Past the Post system in the UK. Right at the other end of the spectrum lies the party list proportional representation of Israeli elections. With the second-lowest electoral threshold in the world (currently […]
Social media is impacting life in Africa at breakneck speed, and it is not just the usual suspects Facebook and Twitter. Parliament Street’s Clare George-Hilley explores. I have participated a number of high profile relief effort campaigns in Kenya, The Gambia working with The Glove Projectand Sierra Leone on the Street Child project. A common challenge for all these humanitarian […]
The recent spate of terrorist attacks across Africa have shaken the very foundations of several optimistic countries, replacing hope with fear. From the capture of 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria to the latest round of brutal bombings in Kenya’s capital Nairobi killing over a dozen people and wounding 70 more, the pattern is sporadic but the frequency consistent. This atrocity followed […]
Beginning in the late 1940s, The State of Africa by Martin Meredith looks at the development of the continent through time, as democracy replaced colonial rule, and this in turn was moulded into personal dictatorships and tyrannies, right up to the modern day. An excellent and thought-provoking book, and, as the narrative wore on, I became increasingly disconcerted by what […]
We should not tolerate the intolerant
Parliament Street’s Charlotte Kude analyses the meaning of last week’s events for French society and the wider western world. Also featuring in TheCommentator We are at war. Not my words, those of a French MP last Thursday. Finally, someone says it. This is a war that we didn’t start. Let me clarify: the West is not at war against Islam and never has been. However, it will defend itself […]
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