Brendan O'Neill: Charlie Kirk was a better anti-fascist than most of the left

His rage against Hamas and its barbarous Jewphobia was moral clarity in action.

There was a clip doing the rounds a few months ago from Charlie Kirk’s clash with students at the Cambridge Union. It featured Kirk going head to head with a fidgeting posh oddball whose ginger bouffant defied gravity. Anyone who’s ever visited Cambridge will be familiar with this kind of kid: woke, pompous, his arrogance entirely out of proportion to his intellect. Tell me this, said Kirk: ‘In the conflict of Israel vs Hamas, who’s the good guy?’ His diminutive adversary twitched and stuttered, then finally spoke. ‘Both Hamas and the Israeli government are evil’, he said, giving perfect voice to that bourgeois pusillanimity that falsely calls itself ‘activism’.

Simon O'Connor: The op-ed Stuff won't publish

Whether ignored, overlooked, or declined - a recent op-ed I submitted to Stuff has not been published - so I thought I would share directly here via Substack.

Phil Goff, a former Labour MP, Minister, and High Commissioner to London, recently wrote an op-ed on the Israel-Gaza conflict, published by Stuff. Much was made of Mr Goff being a former Minister of Foreign Affairs. I decided, as a former Chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense committee to write a reply, now over a week ago. To date, my reply has not been published. Granted, Stuff is under no obligation to do so, but one would think a bit of balance would be welcome including from someone who is also a former politician, involved in foreign affairs, and who has actually been to Israel recently.

Philip Crump: Bearing Witness to October 7

It is close to a year since the terror attacks of October 7 occurred and not a day has passed since then when its effects have not been felt around the world.

The first anniversary of the October 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel is approaching, and not a day since has passed when the consequences and after-shocks of that terrible day have not been felt around the world. More than any other event in living memory, it has polarised and divided people everywhere.