Fireworks went off over the Tel Aviv skyline this week as thousands of flag-waving Israelis marked the 65th anniversary of their country’s founding. At the same time, a smaller group of Israeli activists explored the other, most often ignored, side to their country’s creation: the forced displaced of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Israeli group …
Continue reading “Palestinian Expulsions Mapped in Hebrew”
Countries frequently define themselves by what they believe to be true. When reality and belief conflict that definition might well be referred to as a "national myth." In the United States many believe that there exists a constitutionally mandated strict separation between religion and government. In practice, however, that separation has never really existed except …
Continue reading “Towards a Christian Zionist Foreign Policy”
A remarkable event took place on Dec. 8, 2011, at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. It was a Jewish-Gentile forum on Israel, Palestine, Zionism, anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, and the imminent threat of war. At the heart was presentation of a new book, Rabbi Outcast: Elmer Berger and American Jewish Anti-Zionism, written by Jack Ross …
Continue reading “The World for Israel, or Jews for the World?”
On Yom Kippur eve last week, when real Jews were praying for their lives, I sat on the seashore of Tel Aviv, thinking. I was thinking about our state, the State of Israel, in which I have, so to speak, a founder’s share. Will it endure? Will it be here in another 100 years? Or …
Continue reading “The Second Herzl”
Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, appears to have driven the final nail in the coffin of the Zionist Left with his decision to split from the Labor Party and create a new “centrist, Zionist” faction in the Israeli parliament. So far four MPs, out of a total of 12, have announced they are following him. …
Continue reading “Zionist Left Writes Its Own Obituary”
JERUSALEM – Rightwing Israeli groups financially supported by Jewish and fundamentalist Christian groups from abroad are on a campaign to undermine free thought in Israeli universities. Collaterally, a move is under way by right-wing parties in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to limit the freedom of action of civil and human rights-minded NGOs. Under the semblance …
Continue reading “‘McCarthyism’ Rises in Israel”
A fascinating debate is entering Israel’s political mainstream on a once-taboo subject: the establishment of a single state as a resolution of the conflict, one in which Jews and Palestinians might potentially live as equal citizens. Surprisingly, those advocating such a solution are to be found chiefly on Israel’s political Right. The debate, which challenges …
Continue reading “One-State Debate Explodes Myth About Zionist Left”
There’s one big difference I’ve noticed between the political Left and Right. Even in the worst of times, lefties have a sense of humor. So I wasn’t surprised to see the grand old man of the Israeli Left, Uri Avnery, sum up his government’s galling attack on the Gaza flotilla with an old Jewish joke. …
Continue reading “Zionist Joke: What Have We Ever Done to Them?”
Israel is a Zionist state. Everybody knows that. There is no (Jewish) politician in Israel who misses an opportunity to repeat this. Last week, when we celebrated the 62nd Independence Day, we were flooded by a deluge of patriotic speeches. Each of the Ciceros, without exception, declared his total commitment to Zionism. By the way, …
Continue reading “In the Name of Zionism”
Deny it and go straight to jail, says Uri Avnery
