October 11, 2026

Poetic

Take that Kaddish prayer I’ll be saying. It refers to “Israel” three times. The Jews were called Am Yisrael, the people of Israel, centuries before we were called Jews. What’s more, when I say the prayer, I will, following tradition, be facing east – towards Jerusalem. The prayer book in my hand will be full of references to Jerusalem and indeed to Zion, expressing in a hundred poetic ways a yearning to return. This is not some new, political thing. It’s what Jews have been saying and doing for millennia. Many, many centuries before Zionism was a political movement, it was a longing – the need to end a painful exile from the Land of Israel – enshrined in the very heart of Judaism.
- The Guardian, 03/10/2026
The Zionists see nothing in the admiration which their propaganda inspires among many anti-Semites. But they must understand that their ostentatious proclamation of a Jewish nationality that cannot be content with anything but a Jewish State is merely playing into the hands of the enemies of their race.

...

This is the position which The Israelite has assumed from the very beginning of this pernicious agitation. Motives should of course always be considered, but wise men have ever held a fool to be more dangerous than a deliberate evildoer, especially to those whom he seeks to serve. We therefore firmly believe that Jewish Zionism has in the few years of its existence done more harm to Israel than has Christian anti-Semitism, and that Herzl and Nordau and their misguided followers have been most efficient allies of Drumont, Stoecker, and their accomplices.

...

Zionism and anti-Semitism are twin enemies of the Jews, and the former is potentially more dangerous.
- The American Israelite, reprinted in NYT, 19/01/1902

July 29, 2026

Know

And when it comes to monetary policy, there’s one question that bedevils many of us: only one in four correctly identified that an increase in interest rates would lead to lower inflation.

In fact, most Australians believe higher rates will lead to higher inflation

Peter Rickards, manager of the RBA’s public education team, says that Australians have a strong understanding of economic issues that relate firmly to their lived experience...

But Rickards says the impact of higher interest rates on inflation is “quite complex”.

Most of us think more about the cost side of the equation: higher interest rates means higher business costs, which means firms have to raise their prices.

Economists, on the other hand, know that higher interest rates slow the economy and make it harder for firms to pass on those higher prices as fewer consumers come through the door.
Yeah, economists.