TheBattleground.eu

13/06/2026

Blame it on the Holocaust. No EU member state has a more troubled relationship with the Jewish people than Germany. In this week's episode of Globalists, Josh White and Mitchell Plitnick talk to Battleground contributor Wieland Hoban, author of Germany’s Jewish Problem (OR Books) and the eBook edition, German Apartheid Politics (Battleground Books), about Berlin’s rejected bid for a seat on the UN Security Council and its ideological significance. Following WWII, support for Israel was Germany’s ticket to international legitimacy. However, it led the German political class to support the Gaza genocide and brought the country into disrepute. [Link in comments]

11/06/2026

Chris Marker’s La Jetée can teach us exciting new things if we forget what we already know about it. The 1962 film exposes the fragility of the memories that make us individuals. That’s what makes its Cold War tale of post-apocalyptic existence so relevant right now. Charlie Bertsch, for The Battleground. [Link in comments]

09/06/2026

It’s easy to see why Yiddish culture is attractive to Jewish leftists. Rooted in the old dichotomy between socialist Yiddishists and Hebrew-speaking Zionists, left Yiddish culture offers an alternative scene for those seeking to be Jewish outside both Zionist contexts and the buttoned-down Jewish establishment. You don’t need to speak Yiddish to understand that. But it helps to remember what it was once synonymous with. Ari Paul, on the new Jewish antinationalism, for The Battleground. [Link in Comments]

07/06/2026

Josh White and Mitchell Plitnick explore the state of play in the Russo-Ukrainian War and whether a peace deal could be reached this year. Kyiv has managed to reclaim territory and take the war into Russia. A desperate Trump needs a domestic win, given his disastrous war with Iran, but a peace deal will likely partition Ukraine. This week's Globalists podcast, Peace with Dishonour: Ending Ukraine's Forever War [Link in Comments]

06/06/2026

Emmanuel Macron conquered the centre without managing to reconstruct it. But the centre cannot hold because the age that produced it is passing away. John Foster, for The Battleground. [Link in comments]

05/06/2026

Trump’s $17 billion “reconstruction fund” was always a lie. It never happened. And Netanyahu has ordered the IDF to occupy 70% of the Strip. As diplomats and pundits wring their hands amid the collapse of yet another Gaza peace plan, they ignore the contradiction embedded in every proposed solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: no one is willing to recognise the Palestinians’ basic right to self-determination. Mitchell Plitnick, for The Battleground. [Link in comments]

04/06/2026

A recurring theme in modern hasbara (Israel advocacy) is the portrayal of the publishing and music industries, and Hollywood, as increasingly Antisemitic, in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It’s a striking accusation, given the prominent role Jews continue to play in the cultural industries—particularly in the United States—both as creators and as executives. Yet this narrative has entered a new, more aggressive phase. Ari Paul, for The Battleground. [Link in comments]

01/06/2026

As Donald Trump navigates ending the Iran war without conceding defeat, US foreign policy remains suspended in an increasingly dangerous limbo. Europe and Asia, indeed the entire world, are paying the price for this inadequacy. When the billionaire first ran for president in 2016, many voters bought into the idea that he was not a politician and that they wanted a businessman in charge. We’re now experiencing the results of that mistake. Mitchell Plitnick, for The Battleground. [Link in comments]

31/05/2026

What most closely links the post-2008 world to Weimar Germany is not extremism, but a deepening loss of confidence in liberal institutions. Liberal democracy may soon collapse, but it’s more likely to deteriorate more slowly, preserving electoral rituals while substantive power migrates elsewhere. John Foster, for The Battleground. [Link in comments]

29/05/2026

In the first episode of Globalists, Josh White and Mitchell Plitnick explore the state of play in the US-Israeli conflict with Iran and whether there is any chance of a diplomatic solution, despite the European Union’s absence from the negotiations. Brussels and London are excluded from the talks as US President Donald Trump seeks a way out of the mess he created. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is doing its best to send a powerful message of deterrence to the West. The Middle East crisis raises long-term questions about where the EU stands in world.

Iran and European Inaction