A Lost Utopia

A review of Göran Rosenberg’s Israel: A Personal History

In a speech delivered to the United States Congress on July 25, 2024, Benjamin Netanyahu issued a sharp retort to protestors against Israel’s genocide in Gaza:  They call Israel a colonialist state. Don’t they know that the Land of Israel is where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prayed, where Isaiah and Jeremiah ...
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A Lost Utopia

The Self-Orientalization of Israeli Politics

Why “the only democracy in the Middle East” is cozying up to authoritarian regimes

Israel has often been described as the only democracy in the Middle East. This perception—flawed and problematic as it is—has been central not only for Israel’s defenders abroad but also for many Jewish Israelis’ self-perception. The power consolidation of an extreme coalition of right-wing political parties in recent years, coupled ...
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The Self-Orientalization of Israeli Politics

The Hope and Humor of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Early Essays

A timely review of Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: The War Years, 1939–1945

Helen Schulman's review explores Bashevis Singer's "Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt, The War Years, 1939-1945." The piece highlights Singer's poignant essays, written during World War II, offering a glimpse into his reactions to Nazi atrocities and the erosion of Yiddish culture, and drawing connections to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ...

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The Hope and Humor of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Early Essays

Israel on the Brink

We just had a warning, a taste of what the future looks like short of post-ethnic politics in our post-two-state era

_____ Arvid Jurjaks: I want to start at the current political situation in Israel with Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett being asked to form a government. How much chance do they have to succeed on this, you think? Omri Boehm: I think it's pretty clear that Yair Lapid has no chance, because  Bennett, ...
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Israel on the Brink

The Peace that Kills

Notes from the launch of the Trump & Netanyahu ‘peace plan’

If they can afford it, the Palestinians won't have to pretend to be working with the US anymore. Perhaps the security and economic deals related to the Oslo Accords framework can now be abandoned and this, yet another-peace-that-kills, rejected. It is a fool’s hope, but there might thus be a ...
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The Peace that Kills

Constructing the Neoliberal-Neoconservative Alliance in Israel

The Role of American-funded Think Tanks

On October 15, 2010 Roger Hertog, Chairman of the New York based Tikvah Fund, gave a remarkably revealing speech. The occasion was his acceptance of the William E. Simon Prize, an award granted annually to prominent philanthropists who invest heavily in promoting free enterprise, and in the speech he laid bare the principles ...
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Constructing the Neoliberal-Neoconservative Alliance in Israel