Handful O’Links

Duelling ideas about what a hostage deal would bring: one here in which Bret Stephens argues it could be, in the long run, an incredibly bad idea, causing more deaths in future; over at Foreign Affairs, Graham Allison and Amos Yadlin make a different case. All three of these thinkers are pro-Israel, so it is a good idea to read both. That said, the latter piece was written prior to the execution of the six hostages. I wonder whether that crime changed the authors’ views.

In France, Emmanuel Macron finally picked a new prime minister – a moderate conservative voice, Michel Barnier. I absolutely love that he did this – it is a poke in the eye to the fans of Hamas who were elected during the French parliamentary elections in July. (Of course, massive protests ensued.) I wrote about the election results previously, on my Substack.

James Earl Jones

Wonderful, underrated – or maybe “under known” – actor. I don’t mean people don’t know his work, but they know Star Wars and CNN, above all. One movie I strongly recommend is Claudine, just a great, gritty, ’70s romance, as only the ’70s seemed to produce. (See my Substack for more about that era in movies.) He had a great sense of humour about himself, too – his appearances on Will and Grace and also The Big Bang Theory were delightful.

The Very Disappointing Anglican Church

So the Archbishop of Canterbury has stated that Israel needs to end its alleged “occupation of Palestine,” etc. He would do well to remember that Israel is not in occupation of Palestine and has never been so. The Palestinian leadership has repeatedly rejected all offers of statehood, or of peace, of a better future. He also ought to remember that Christians thrive in Israel. I have written, at my Substack, about my own sadness at the turn of the Anglican Church here, and also here and here.

VJ Day

August 15th marked the end of World War II and specifically, the end of the Pacific operations. I love the inscription at the war cemetery in Kohima, India. “When you go home, tell them of us and say – For your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

Sleep Deprived

I am a terrible sleeper. And it’s a particular type of poor sleep: I have no difficulty falling asleep but I rarely stay asleep through the night. Sometimes, I take melatonin to help, but I try not to as it leaves me feeling groggy the next day. I used to despair about it – does everyone have this issue? – until I listened to an interview with an evolutionary biologist (I stupidly lost the link) who explained why people tend to wake at about 3 a.m. and stay awake. He said that it is our lizard brain – our fight or flight – looking out for us, after all these years… Apparently, we haven’t evolved to the point that our lizard brain fails to understand we no longer need to worry about woolly mammoths waiting outside the cave to avenge their dead relatives, or rival cave guys breaking into our lovely abodes to muck up our cave art. Oddly, this made me feel better. And now, when I wake up at 3 a.m., I keep that in mind and it does help.