A 🧵 on how Iraq & Jordan were born.

I think there's an assumption, perhaps natural through the eyes of a European that pre WWI the middle east was a group of national identities but it really wasn't. People identified in different ways but not as modern style nations.

/1 They often saw themselves as from their small locality, by tribe, by religion or as subjects of the Ottoman empire. After WWI, the land wasn’t neatly carved up. The Ottomans fell, Britain & France made secret deals, and places were often patched together.

/2

I think extreme left-wing ideology has become dangerous. I think for a long time we've told young people their raging hate is not just permissable but virtuous. We've told them that they're *entitled* to it. That it's even required of them to be a good person.

1/6 We've allowed them to feel entitled to threaten or harm or ostracise or harass anyone who will not take on their ideology, no matter how illogical what they're peddling is. We've welcomed this at every juncture. There's no shame attached to their behaviour whatsoever.

2/6

🧵 Jerusalem for Dummies

1/ Let’s get this straight: Jerusalem was the Jewish capital 3,000 years ago. King David, Solomon, the Temple - all there. Everyone knows it. Even the Qur’an calls it the Jews’ place. 2/ Then came wave after wave of invaders: Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, Brits. Everyone took their turn showing up and claiming ownership.

🧵 Famine in Gaza.

This is my read on the situation. Important to understand what's happening. Start with that the IPC, a UN- backed system, is responsible for declaring a famine. The criteria for that are strict, as follows:

/1 IPC Phase 5 “Famine” requires all three thresholds:

1. ≥20% of households in extreme food gap

2. ≥30% acute malnutrition (wasting)

3. ≥2 deaths per 10,000 people per day

/2

Zarah Sultana: care to explain this? 🧵

In the avalanche of double standards and obvious examples of prejudice we see every day from so-called "anti racists" I recommend you stay with me until the end because this is a humdinger.

/1 There's more than one definition of antisemitism, but British MP Zarah Sultana has been an outspoken critic on the IHRA definition. To put it mildly. Here's a recent tweet from her, and she says loudly and proudly: she's an anti zionist.

/2

Mass idelogical fervour 🧵

What I'm seeing has moved from making me angry, to making me nervous. What we’re watching unfold is not “debate” or “activism.” It’s a cult. The swallowing of obvious propaganda, the manic chants, the spitting rage against dissenters.

1/5 Today, I realised how much it reminds me of China’s Cultural Revolution: youth denouncing others, mobs branding people as traitors, truth replaced by loyalty tests. Today’s cultists march under different banners - Palestine, gender ideology, but the pattern is the same.

2/5

🧵 THREAD: Why Gaza is not a genocide.

The claim is loud, repeated daily thousands of times. The facts say otherwise. Here’s why the accusation of genocide against Israel doesn’t hold up to even basic scrutiny. 1. What is genocide?
It’s the intentional extermination of a people. Not collateral damage. Not tragic war deaths. Deliberate, indiscriminate annihilation. So is Israel trying to wipe out Palestinians, or defeat Hamas decisively?

Hitler dreamed of a Jew-free Europe. Jews had no defence, and he nearly succeeded - helped by many.

Now Hamas and others dream of a Jew-free Middle East. This time, Jews ,*do* have a defence. And somehow, that’s what outrages the world.

Here's a reminder of the collaborators.. Austria
After the 1938 Anschluss, Austrians joined the SS in droves. Vienna’s Jews were brutalised, deported, erased.
Of 200,000 Austrian Jews, 65,000 were murdered.
Many Austrians didn’t just comply - they cheered.

If there were "death the the IDF" what would actually happen? Heres's a short briefing of what you could expect to happen.

🧵 1. Well, right away that would be 635,000 people "dead", arounda quarter of a million under 25.

Past to Present 🧵

I could draw on any one of hundreds of examples but today I'm going to tell the story of the 1903 Kishinev Pogrom and I ask soberly that everyone read it and ask themselves what similarities can they see in the 2025 world? A pogrum doesn't happen overnight. It always follows a long period with the same formulated dehumanisation that reaches and eventual crescendo and this one was no different. It came after years of unchecked antisemitism was normalised.

/1

🧵

Here's a realistic look at antisemitism as it currently stands in the west. I think it's important Jews think about this now, so we can see and forge a path forwards. 1.
As we all know, antisemitism is 2000 years old and is ingrained deeply into many cultures and political ideologies, and moreover it shape-shifts masterfully so each new generation can modify it as needed.

🧵
How close is Iran to building a nuclear bomb and how many could it make? The facts are terrifying, and the response from the British PM and foreign secretary were astounding. Here's the quick facts. 👇 1.
Iran currently holds ~5000kg of uranium enriched to 60%. That’s in violation of their agreements and is just one step away from weapons-grade (90%). Enriching from 60% to 90% takes days—not months. Physics doesn’t lie. They’re at the threshold.

🧵
How I see a 2 state solution working.

Before 7 Oct I foolishly believed people were working towards peace. Now, I just don't believe that. After 8 decades things are worse,not better. So here's what I'd ask for if I were an Israeli. First off, complete disarming of Palestine. Harsh? Maybe, but they've proved themselves a constant threat to civilian lives, so if they've got go intention to murder or attack- they don't need to be militarised.

To the Jews... 🧵

Here's a thought for the day. I'm an historian. And a humanitarian. And a Jew. I was also quite naive in the sense that I genuinely believed *most* people would not stand by in silence, or worse, participate in acts of Jew hatred on the streets of Britain.

/1 I genuinely never thought I'd ever see the BBC or Sky News or the UN sharing obvious lies about Jews. Maybe I turned a blind eye when there was plausible deniability, but I genuinely believed British people or international institutions would never stand for such a thing.

/2

🧵 Autism & PIP

There's many posts today from seemingly well meaning people discussing that they can't really see how autism or ADHD are real disabilities, so as the only neurotypical in my household, I'd like to give a short education.

/1 My husband is autistic. He's very high functioning and has never claimed a penny in benefits, but here's how his autism affected his life. I won't go into too much detail, but as an 18 year old despite being a scholar and exceptionally intelligent, he simply could not cope.

/1

🧵 - Racism, hatred and the failure of the western left.

In the West, racism is condemed as the worst imaginable sin. Because the west's worst historical crimes (slavery, colonialism, the Holocaust) were justified by white supremacist ideology.

/1 That idea formed the basis of so much of the progressive ideology post WWII and understandably so. Horrific injustices took place where people were persecuted, horrendously subjugated and murdered... based on their racial identity. The west rightly feels great shame.

/2

Opression🧵

Picture this: you wake up tomorrow and you're denied the right to vote anymore. Ever. Your leaders are now dictators and if you don't agree with their policies you can do nothing about it.

/1 High-ranking officials and their families will live in luxury - travelling, palatial homes, private jets, some will even be billionares from public money, while ordinary people like you will struggle with poverty and unemployment.

/2

🧵 The radicalisation of the left

There's a photo on my office wall of Harold Wilson. I was looking at it last night, wondering how we got from a Labour Prime Minister who loved Britain, valued democracy, and declared himself as the best friend of Israel to where we are now

/1 Wilson was a proud socialist, but he wasn’t anti-West. He saw Israel as a fellow democracy was close friends with Golda Meir. He admired kibbutzim, and defended Israel against its enemies. I wonder how worried he'd be about the Oct 7 attack and the reaction from the world.

/2

🧵 What made the Nazis Nazis? A thread on why modern comparisons are often ignorant, misleading, and minimize the horror of what they actually did in order to score points with needless hyperbole... 1/ The Nazis were defined by racial supremacy, genocidal intent, totalitarian dictatorship, militaristic expansionism, and mass political persecution. Their central goal was not just war or nationalism, but the systematic extermination of "undesirable" groups entirely.

🧵 As the world reacts in horror to even the idea of evacuating Gaza, I'm struck again by the ignorance of the regions history. I am not going back thousands of years, but even to go back to the magic number of 1948 on, which all concepts of right and wrong seem to rest..

/1 ~850,000 Jews were forcibly expelled from Arab lands in the 20th century. They were peaceful, posed no threat, and yet were ethnically cleansed—stripped of homes, businesses & citizenship quietly and with almost no international support or words said.

/2

🧵 It was very sad to watch Holocaust memorial day transformed into another weapon to hurt Jews or erase their history, but of all the nonsense presented, the comparison of the Gaza war with the Holocaust is... well... evil.

/1 The Holocaust was an industrialized genocide of 6 million Jews. It was not a war. Jews had no weapons, no army, no hostages, no political beef with Germans. They were not terrorists. They were not trying to annihlate Germany. They were exterminated simply for being Jewish.

/2