“Yom Yerushalayim often gets the short end of the stick, often overlooked even by those who profess to celebrate it”
Yom Yerushalayim often gets the short end of the stick, often overlooked even by those who profess to celebrate it. This can be understood in light of the complex nature of the day. For many populations and from several different perspectives, the day is complicated or otherwise compromised. For secular Jews, there isn’t so much […] continued…
“After years of fragmentation, Israeli society seems to be consolidating anew – fusing Jewishness and nationalism, and decidedly on the right”
After years of fragmentation, Israeli society seems to be consolidating anew – fusing Jewishness and nationalism, and decidedly on the right. Since the 1970s the meta-story of Israel has been the steady crack-up of Labor, which, more than a party, was the central institution of Israeli life. While its policies ran politics and economics, its […] continued…
Bibi “has no true ideological home, so he has made his home the Prime Minister’s Office”
It’s a mistake to put Netanyahu in the same category as the strongmen riding Europe’s rightist wave. But it is not a mistake to say he learned their language and cultivated ties with them, some of whom represent the vanguard of a dangerous 21st-century blood-and-soil nationalism. “Only watching from Jerusalem, keeping a tab on his […] continued…
“You can certainly keep people out of your country if you believe they are undermining it; you are playing with fire if you keep people out who disagree with you”
I sincerely doubt the Prime Minister of Israel is directing anyone to interrogate Peter Beinart or Reza Aslan; but I do believe that the government of Israel’s insistence on collapsing the distinction between BDS and violent threats to Israel, which it has done through both formal government ministries and through private channels, fuels the Shin […] continued…
“There are really important arenas…where the comparisons between these two countries need to be interrogated, and where deep work has to take place in order to ensure that the two societies are not reinforcing each others’ weaknesses”
There are really important arenas – ideological trends like the rise of nationalism and shifts in how democracy is valued and understood, and political alliances like the dangerous dalliance between Trump and Netanyahu – where the comparisons between these two countries need to be interrogated, and where deep work has to take place in order […] continued…
“With the erosion of ethnic boundaries in Israel, and the mixing of different traditions to form a more general ‘Israeliness’, traditionalism has become mainstream”
The roots of traditionalism lie in Mizrachi Judaism. In the Orient, instead of the dichotomy between religiosity and secularism, there arose a worldview that saw the loose, non-halachic practice of Judaism as a legitimate option. Full halachic commitment was abandoned in favor of a secular lifestyle that included religious practices — out of respect for […] continued…
“You say you don’t want to connect to Israel for x, y, and z reasons, but – tell me something: do you care about a conversation about Jews in power?”
You say you don’t want to connect to Israel for x, y, and z reasons, but – tell me something: do you care about a conversation about Jews in power? Do you care about the question of the intersection between Judaism and democratic values? Do you care about what Judaism has to say about human […] continued…
“Debates about Israel seem to be the precise place where “existential anxiety” stopped referring to philosophical angst and started referring to the fear your nation could be destroyed”
Our current use of “existential” is about as far removed from artsy-philosophical realms as you can imagine: It’s originally the province of defense analysts and foreign-policy think tanks, national-security types and people who write editorials about the Middle East peace process. In 1982, Chancellor Helmut Kohl described Soviet-American talks as having existential importance to West […] continued…
“The phenomenon of a minority people arising out of the ashes of Auschwitz to reframe not only their world but to also profoundly impact the broader culture may best summarize this century of Jewish influence”
…out of the trauma and tragedy of the earlier decades of the 20th century, Jews redefined their image and reconstructed their roles in the post-World War II period. This represented a point in time when Jews became identified as risk takers and core actors in the public arena, just as they would be seen as […] continued…
“The ‘most moral army in the world’ talking point is both substantively and tactically foolish, it convinces nobody…”
The IDF is not the most moral army in the world, because there is no most moral army in the world. I know this because the words “moral” and “army” are generally at odds, and there is no reason to think that the IDF is an exception to this rule that has lasted through centuries […] continued…
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