When we moved to Israel in 1983, my first job was at Israel’s largest (at the time) software consultancy. One of my colleagues was a modern Orthodox (“dati”) man. I was far less to the “left” then, and since this man actually lived in a Tel Aviv suburb, not the settlements, I assumed he was [...]
A recent article in Ha’aretz: And what is Zionism nowadays? An archaic and outdated concept born in a different reality, a vague and delusive concept marking the difference between the permitted and the proscribed. Does Zionism mean settlement in the territories? Occupation? The legitimization of every act of violence and injustice? The left stammered. Any [...]
In my previous post I asked a question: does Hamas’ war crimes justify Israel’s? Apparently the answer is yes, for most Israelis. This article recently appeared in the New York Times. In it you find a remarkable insight into the Israeli mind: The Israeli theory of what it tried to do here is summed up [...]
Another excellent article from the Guardian. Best guide to the Israeli political “left” I’ve seen written in English. “The left in Israel always was the preserve of the European elite. Socialism did not grow out of the socio-economic problems of a local working class, but was transferred, along with Bauhaus, Chopin and Brahms, as part [...]
I don’t often publicly respond to a letter I receive. But I thought this exchange might be of broader interest, particularly since it involved one of the more popular pieces I have written.
A while back, Professor Shlomo Avineri reviewed a new translation into Hebrew of Theodor Herzl’s utopian novel Altneuland. Since “Zionism” means so many things to so many different people, it’s worth reading what the founder of the movement had to say, a vision far different than Jabotinsky’s: “…it would be worthwhile to have Israeli high-school [...]
One of the great disappointments of the past two years has been the “collapse” of the “left” or the so-called “peace camp” in Israel. People who supported Ehud Barak, have become disillusioned about the possibility for negotiations. Following Barak’s lead, they see “separation” from the Palestinians, including the building of a separation fence, as the [...]
In this op-ed piece, published in Ha’aretz yesterday, Meron Benvinisti talks about the Zionist attempt to nationalize the landscape of Israel – i.e. to prove ownership of the land through the cult of knowing (which in Hebrew also means sexual love) of the land. Benvinisti writes: “The hidden aspects intrinsic to the cult of ‘Knowing [...]
This recent article by Gideon Levy inspired me to write something about the “demographic threat” and the “right of return.” Before I could put pen to paper (or rather fingers to keybord), Boaz Evron wrote this, which says unequivically, what Levy only dares hint at: For Israel to survive and prosper as a Jewish homeland [...]
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