Israel

Pro-Israel Groups Claim Victory, though Biden Panel Avoids Embracing IHRA Definition of Antisemitism

Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL praised the Biden administration's partial embrace of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism, which critics charge conflates criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism. 

Deborah Lipstadt's Work Abroad as Antisemitism Envoy Complicated by Definitional Dispute

U.S. policy is guided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, though a growing coalition of scholars—including one of its original drafters—argue that the IHRA document is used to stifle criticism of Israel, particularly on campus. 

For First Time, UN Commemorates Palestinian Nakba

Rashid Khalidi discusses the history of Palestinian displacement and the struggle to have the Palestinian side of the Arab-Israeli conflict recognized. 

Given to Antisemitic Rhetoric in Private, Why Did Harry Truman Champion Israel?

Despite expressing many negative stereotypes about Zionists and Jews in general, and facing pressure from George Marshall and other advisors, Truman recognized the new state of Israel. 

Leon Uris's "Exodus" Shaped Jewish Identity for a Generation—Does it Matter Today?

By fictionalizing many of the events surrounding the founding of the Israeli state (and ignoring others), Uris helped launch a profoundly influential view of Israel's place in the world and Jews' relationship to Israel. But a younger generation of Jewish readers seems indifferent. 

Daniel Boyarin's Argument for a Non-Zionist Jewish Nationalism

by Joshua Abramson Cohen

Boyarin's latest work makes provocative arguments that there is a real collective identity of the Jewish people as a nation, but that it is independent of the Israeli state and territory. 

Israel's Founding Contradictions Haunt 75th Anniversary

by Bernard Avishai

A bargain of tolerance between secular bourgeois and religious supremacist wings of Israeli society is being renegotiated by the right wing. Are concessions to religious groups made by David Ben-Gurion at the founding the root of conflict?

Israeli Human Rights and Civil Society Groups Warn UN that IHRA Definition of Antisemitism Shields Israel from Accountability

Signatories include Israel’s largest human rights group, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups, who claim that provisions of the definition equates criticism of Israeli policy toward Palestinians with antisemitism.

Who Attacked Jascha Heifetz in 1953?

Although ties to Jewish extremist organizations were suspected, the person who attacked a violinist in 1953, allegedly for performing the works of Richard Strauss, has never been found. The story resonates with conflicts in Israeli society today. 

Have Protests Stopped Netanyahu's Attack on Israeli Democracy?

by Bernard Avishai

It's unlikely either Netanyahu will abandon his plans for overhauling Israel's Basic Laws to expand his power or that protests will cease in the near future. Israelis will increasingly have to choose whether the state will be a religious one with trappings of democracy or a democratic one with a nominal religious identity. 

Israel and Palestine Have a Way Forward. Will They Choose It?

by Alon Ben-Meir

It is time for Israel and the Palestinians to face the bittersweet truth and accept certain realities on the ground that neither side can change short of a calamity. These inescapable realities will frame the contours of a peace agreement in the context of an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian confederation.  

Israel's Judicial Struggle is Tectonic

by Michael Oren

The former Israeli ambassador to the United States writes that massive protests against Netanyahu's judicial reforms will determine whether there is a future for democracy in Israel. 

I Resigned from the Carter Center over "Apartheid" Charge; I was Wrong

by Steve Berman

American supporters of Israel have blamed the former president as a messenger about the consequences of the occupation; it's time to consider the message. 

Will the Right Wing Israeli Government Break American Jews' Relationship with Israel?

Shaul Magid, Distinguished Fellow of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth, argues that the new government's agenda will force American Jews to recognize that Israel has become an illiberal country, while historian Hasia Diner says it has long been so. 

Youth Failed by Their Leaders: How the Palestinians Lost Their Way

by Alon Ben-Meir

Four generations of Palestinian leadership have failed their youth through intransigence and a failure to distinguish between Israel and the occupation. 

How Israel Lost its Way

by Alon Ben-Meir

After Israel has raised several generations as warriors and occupiers, has the nation lost sight of the toll on its own youth and the consequences for peace? 

Beinart: Some of Carter's Critics Should Apologize While they Can

by Peter Beinart

Peter Beinart says that Jimmy Carter's 2007 book "Peace Not Apartheid" had flaws, but many of its harshest critics ignored whether its claims about the Israeli occupation were factual and leaped to insinuation and outright accusation that Carter was motivated by antisemitism. 

Is a Third Intifada Imminent?

by Daniel Byman

The second intifada, between 2000 and 2005, ended not with negotiated peace but with an overwhelming application of force by Israel on Gaza and the West Bank. As Israeli politics tilts rightward and abandons the idea of a negotiated settlement, it is unclear what will prevent a new escalation of violence. 

Eric Alterman on the Shifting Debate over Israel-Palestine in America

The writer discusses his conclusions about the evolution of the debate among American Jews about the nature of their relationship to Israel and the moral status of American policy. 

Will the US Build an Embassy on Palestinian Land in Jerusalem?

by Rashid Khalidi

As the new ultra-right wing Israeli government prepares to escalate the dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the United States should not allow the siting of its embassy to give cover to this project.