Eetta Prince-Gibson: The Trouble with Drafting the Ultra-Orthodox
Conscripting Haredi men hurts women, the military and Israeli democracy
01
Nov
01
Nov
Book Review // The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
Pillars of Sand
The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
Shlomo Sand
Verso Books
2012, $26.95, pp. 304
Shlomo Sand’s latest critique of Jewish identity focuses on the land of Israel. Just as his last book sought to uncover the Invention of the Jewish People, as was its title, the current book proposes to do the same with the physical territory that millions of Jews today, including Sand himself, call home. This is a daring goal: The connection to the land is the ideological basis not just for the West Bank settlement movement, which Sand despises, but for much of Zionism. To assert its ephemerality is halfway to making the whole thing go away.
Rarely does a scholar lay his motives so bare. In his introduction, Sand warns us that the “emotional foundation of intellectual...
20
Sep
The New Normal
Swift acceptance of gays by the Israeli Defense Forces in 1993 helped transform Israel into one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world. Moment looks at the history—and the future—of the gay rights movement in Israel, from the rainbow flag-strewn streets of Tel Aviv to the more traditional enclave of Jerusalem.
31
Jul
Natan Sharansky: Act III, Scene I
Soviet Jewry’s leading man has had a career of many acts: dissident, politician and now, head of Israel’s Jewish Agency. Through them all, he has held on to his belief in peoplehood, an idea he thinks can cure what ails the Jewish world.
It is a cold night in Washington, DC, and Natan Sharansky is doing what he has done for years, speaking to a group of American Jews, this time participants in a Reform movement conference. He is sick—his eyes are bloodshot and he looks paler than usual—but the crowd listens attentively as he touches upon subjects ranging from Russian Jewry to Jewish unity, arms gesticulating wildly. He rambles—he rarely uses notes—and although his English is fluent, it can be difficult to follow because of his thick Russian accent. No matter that he seems tired,...
28
Jul
Eetta Prince-Gibson: Israel’s No-Win African Refugee Situation
In late May, protestors rioted against the tens of thousands of African migrant workers and asylum seekers living in south Tel Aviv. They attacked passersby, smashed cars and vandalized shops.
Within two weeks, the government began a brutal campaign to deport refugees from South Sudan. Interior Minister Eli Yishai, orchestrating the expulsion, was widely quoted to have declared that Israel “belongs to the white man.” Soon, he promised, he will expel all the Africans in order to ensure “the Jewish character of the Jewish state.”
With tiresome predictability, liberal pundits have taken up the usual refrain in response to such rhetoric, arguing that we, the people who experienced the Holocaust, should behave more morally, should remember what it means to be a refugee, should know where racism leads. The Internet is humming with references to pogroms, Kristallnacht...
28
Jul
Clifford D. May: Khamenei’s Sacred Word: Destroy Israel
There’s nothing wrong with negotiating with your enemies. There is something wrong if you don’t know that those sitting across the table from you are your enemies. Too many Americans, Europeans and even Israelis still don’t grasp that Iran’s rulers—not average Iranians, but those who wield power—believe it is their sacred obligation to destroy us. This is not some misunderstanding that can be resolved through outreach, diplomacy, engagement and “confidence-building measures.” It is at the core of their ideology and theology. We know this because they tell us, clearly and repeatedly. More Americans should understand this—and keep it in mind as the debate goes forward.
Recently, representatives of the United States, the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany—collectively known as the P5+1—have been negotiating with representatives of Iran’s government. These talks...
28
Jul
Naomi Ragen: Has Israel Lost Control Over the Iranian Situation?
On the sleepy afternoon of March 21, 2012, alarm sirens went off all over Jerusalem, sending me and my racing heart lunging toward our air raid shelter. Squeezed in among my neighbors, bags of old clothes and various bicycles, I found my mind wandering back to elementary school at the Hebrew Institute of Long Island. “Get down beneath your desks and cover your heads with your hands,” Mrs. Ganeles instructed us. It was the Cuban Missile Crisis. But I remember thinking even back then: This is ludicrous. Nothing is going to save us from that great white mushroom cloud.
Being a Jew in Israel as Iran’s self-proclaimed genocidal regime methodically prepares its annihilation fantasy makes me feel like the lobster in the “How to cook a lobster” recipe: “First put the lobster into a large pot...
28
Jul
An Olympian Struggle
A DANIEL PEARL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM INITIATIVE PROJECT
The nation’s first and only boycott of Israeli products by a food co-op ignites a fiercely personal community and legal battle in Olympia, Washington, the hometown of Rachel Corrie.
It’s a rare blue skied day in Olympia’s historic downtown strip. At Traditions Cafe—a fair-trade coffee shop and bakery—a slightly grainy black-and-white poster of a young Rachel Corrie hangs in a window. She’s smiling and tucking a lock of her straight, straw-colored hair behind her ear. Beneath her photo is a single word: “Peacemaker.” Below that is another, smaller poster that reads “This property has been declared a Caterpillar-free zone. Stop corporate human rights abuses.”
These posters and their political message are right at home in Washington’s humble state capital, 60 miles south of Seattle. With views of the Olympic Mountains, the...
31
Mar
David Hazony: Israel Catches a “Flytilla” with (Serious) Satire
First off, let me be clear that I do not condone Israel’s official use of sarcasm, wit or anything else that could be construed as more entertaining than the turgid pronouncements of native English-speaking governments. Since my childhood I have been told that government and humor don’t mix.
But in mid-April, when dozens of would-be “flytilla” protesters descending on Ben Gurion Airport from England, France, Belgium and other European countries were handed a letter on official stationery, written in an English that sounded an awful lot like that of the prime minister, few expected that their heartfelt protests would be so summarily, efficiently quashed. Most Israelis were more interested in the letter than in the protest itself, and with good reason. It was a lot more clever.
“Dear activist,” the letter teased. “We appreciate your choosing to...