From The Editor | May/June 2018
On my way to the gleaming airport named after him, I wondered what David Ben-Gurion and his fellow pioneers—Israel’s greatest generation—would think of their country today.
The Epic Battle In Hollywood Over The Holy Land
In The City Where Myths Are Made, The Israeli And Palestinian Storyline Is Always In Rewrite.
Book Review | In Search of Israel: The History of an Idea by Michael Brenner
Brenner’s In Search of Israel: The History of an Idea chronicles the competing ambitions to preserve and nourish Jews and Judaism in safety, embraced by an array of Jewish thinkers and leaders from the late 19th century into the present. Would it be by assimilating into the dominant culture, as the Jewish German foreign minister Walther Rathenau argued?
Opinion | Should Israel Deport African Asylum Seekers? | Yes, It Should
We need to bear witness to the Talmudic dictum, “The poor people living in your own city come first.”
Opinion Debate | Should Israel Deport African Asylum Seekers? | No, It Shouldn’t
Let’s create forward-thinking models—and ambassadors of light from Israel to the world.
What Israeli School Children Learn About American Jewish Life
The year 2017 was another rocky one in the relationship between Israel and many American Jews, punctuated by conflict over matters once considered common ground. Some controversies—including a backlash over comments about American Jews’ military service by Israeli deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely—suggest a level of misunderstanding that could end up harming both sides.
The Lioness Roars Again: Golda Meir at 120
Although she was a trailblazer, second-wave feminists in the 1960s disliked her, and she returned their ire, describing them as “crazy women who burn their bras and…hate men.” Meir resented attempts to turn her into a feminist icon.
Opinion | Symbolic, But Destructive
President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and direct the State Department to begin moving the U.S. embassy there has given rise to a slew of commentary.
Opinion | Does Israel Need a Law to Make It Jewish?
What is the role of Jewish law in the life of a Jewish state? The question might seem abstract, but the Knesset has been debating it heatedly for months, often in discussions that deteriorate into shouting matches.
Opinion | Will Evangelicals Abandon Israel?
A potentially transformative current is running just beneath the surface of evangelical Christian life in North America—one that may have troubling implications for Israel.
Opinion | Politicians Love Jerusalem—But What About Jerusalemites?
Once again, our city has been taken over by jealousy. Once again, it has been reduced to little more than a humiliated pawn in the hands of politicians who, in their attempts to own this city, are willing, quite literally, to let her die.
The Strange Tale of the First Arab Journalist to Visit Israel After the ’67 War
Among those disembarking the Scandanavian Airlines flight on July 23 1967 in Tel Aviv, was a thin, bearded man in his 30s named Waguih Ghali. Like the other passengers, he walked into Lod airport—and stopped at the passport control counter. “You mean,” the clerk said, double checking that he had heard correctly, “that you are Egyptian?”