The novels of Joseph Roth (1894–1939) capture with equal mastery the Galician shtetl, the aristocratic Austrian family, and war-torn Siberia. In addition to his many works of fiction, Roth produced a mass of journalistic writings, many of which have been newly translated into English by Michael Hoffman in a collection titled The Hotel Years. In his review, Frederic Raphael comments on Roth’s uncanny ability to see what was in store for Europe:

Roth was the first novelist to mention Adolf Hitler’s name in print, as far back as 1923. The view from the street, if not yet the gutter, allowed him to see it all coming. . . . [He possessed] a two-eyed vision of the collapse of what he called, in “Germany in Winter” (1923), “the regulating consciousness.” His realization that common decency was no longer a reliable social adhesive was first prompted by the sight, in the west end of Berlin, of

two high-school kids . . . arm in arm, like a pair of drunks, and singing:
“Down, down, down with the Jewish republic. Filthy Yids! Filthy Yids!”

And passersby got out of their way. No one stopped to slap their faces. Not out of political indignation. But because in any other country the irritation of a kid bothering the street with his half-baked politics would have provoked someone to a pedagogic measure. In Germany the convictions of high-school boys are respected. That’s how law-abiding people are in Berlin.

The piece, like many of those collected in The Hotel Years, appeared in the Frankfurter-Zeitung. Ten years later, its editorial board sang from the same hymn sheet as the wanton students. In the interim, Roth’s reportage, even on mundane occasions, carried the menace of the writing on the wall.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.