Subterranea

Yolande Harmer: Israel's forgotten super-spy in Egypt

In 1948 Israel's super-spy infiltrated Egypt's royal palace, the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab League, only to be cast aside and forgotten

Jul 7 • 

Oren Kessler

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6

June 2025

Notes from underground

Scenes from a bomb shelter (mine), and thoughts on the present apocalypse

Jun 19 • 

Oren Kessler

38

4

May 2025

Before the Viscount of Alamein, there was Monty of Mount Carmel

A few years before halting the Nazis in Egypt, the irascible general commanded a counterinsurgency from his Haifa HQ

May 28 • 

Oren Kessler

19

7

If I forget thee, Guiana

On the eve of the Holocaust, Britain closed the gates to the Holy Land and proposed a Jewish homeland in South America

May 7 • 

Oren Kessler

36

3

April 2025

Reinventing Gaza, then and now

Trump's vision of a 'Riviera of the Middle East' has a century-old precedent. It didn't end well.

Apr 3 • 

Oren Kessler

52

5

February 2025

A ‘fanatic’ as long as he breathes: Ibn Saud vs. the grand mufti

In secret 1939 letter, Saudi Arabia’s founder warned Hajj Amin would lead Palestinians to ruin. He wasn’t alone

Feb 7 • 

Oren Kessler

108

8

December 2024

Mahatma Gandhi’s Zionist ‘soulmate’

The Great Soul opposed Jewish statehood. His ‘lifelong companion’ left his fortune to Israel and his ashes in Galilee

Dec 12, 2024 • 

Oren Kessler

45

11

November 2024

When Mencken came to Palestine

90 years ago, America’s wickedest pundit – whose views on Jews were ‘mixed’ at best – became its unlikeliest Zionist

Nov 14, 2024 • 

Oren Kessler

61

21

October 2024

My grandfather’s diary of Romania’s Holocaust: The poison peas

The story of Vapniarka, a mass-poisoning and paralysis unique even in the grim annals of the Holocaust

Oct 31, 2024 • 

Oren Kessler

21

6

My grandfather’s diary of Romania’s Holocaust

Welcome to my very first Substack post – on the publication of Dr. Arthur Kessler’s concentration camp memoir of Transnistria, the ‘forgotten cemetery’

Oct 24, 2024 • 

Oren Kessler

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