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The ritual of mourning Israel’s war dead is becoming part of Jewish tradition, and has a thing or two to teach Americans

byGil Troy

On Tuesday night, when air raid sirens blare nationwide at 8 p.m., Israel’s loud, hyperactive population will go silent and stiff. From superhighways to ancient alleyways, cars will stop as the drivers and passengers exit to stand at attention. Frozen in longing for loved ones lost, Israelis will begin their Memorial Day for soldiers and terror victims, Yom HaZikaron. Few holidays observed so broadly are this new. Jews have long preserved ancient rituals that often ensure the forgettable remain memorable; Israelis are now creating new rituals to keep the memorable unforgettable. Besides theologians who might be fascinated to observe how quickly Israel’s Memorial Day has gained traction, Americans from left to right should note how effectively this improvised, nation-building holiday unites an often-fractious society....

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Israel’s Minister of the Hyphen

Matan Kahana’s lonely battle to build a religious-Zionist-labor-Orthodox-democratic Jewish state

byMatti Friedman

Chief rabbi of Kyiv, Yonatan Markovich, arrives at Ben-Gurion Airport with family from Ukraine on March 3, 2022. Some estimates say 10,000 Ukrainian Jews will come to Israel to escape the Russian invasion; others predict 10 times that.

The New Ukrainian Aliyah

Israel’s last wave of Ukrainian and Russian Jews is preparing to absorb the next one

byMatti Friedman

Russia’s Next Target for Intimidation Could Be Israel

byKsenia Svetlova

Accommodating Iran Will Be No More Successful Than Accommodating Russia

Putin’s horrifying war in Ukraine shows the likely results of the West continuing to ignore Iran’s nuclear quest

byEmanuele Ottolenghi

Israel’s Minister of the Hyphen

Matan Kahana’s lonely battle to build a religious-Zionist-labor-Orthodox-democratic Jewish state

byMatti Friedman

The New Ukrainian Aliyah

Israel’s last wave of Ukrainian and Russian Jews is preparing to absorb the next one

byMatti Friedman

The New Ukrainian Aliyah

Israel’s last wave of Ukrainian and Russian Jews is preparing to absorb the next one

byMatti Friedman

Russia’s Next Target for Intimidation Could Be Israel

byKsenia Svetlova

Russia’s Next Target for Intimidation Could Be Israel

byKsenia Svetlova

Accommodating Iran Will Be No More Successful Than Accommodating Russia

Putin’s horrifying war in Ukraine shows the likely results of the West continuing to ignore Iran’s nuclear quest

byEmanuele Ottolenghi

Turkey Finds Israel Useful Again

After two decades of manic-depressive relations, Erdogan wants to give the Jewish state another spin

byOfra Bengio

At the end of December 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted a delegation of rabbis from all over the Islamic world, as well as from Russia. In that meeting, Erdogan stated that relations with Israel were “vital for the security and stability of the region,” and described both antisemitism and hostility toward Islam as “a crime against humanity.” Considering that for the past decade, Erdogan had lashed out at Israel repeatedly while employing antisemitic tropes against it, the meeting raised eyebrows. In order to understand the change in rhetoric, and whether it was a mere tactical move or more strategic and long term, it is important to examine relations between Turkey and Israel in a broader historical context....

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When I asked Itzik about human-rights abuses in places like Xinjiang, for example, he replied, ‘I think the Israelis can understand China better than anyone else.’

—Matti Friedman on Israel’s China ties

Remember Deir Yassin!

Historian Eliezer Tauber explores how Palestinian propaganda backfired by turning a bloody battle into a fateful blood libel

byGil Troy

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Nov. 1, 2021

Israel à la Modi

Halvah with cardamom ice cream is back on the foreign policy menu

byP.R. Kumaraswamy

When I asked Itzik about human-rights abuses in places like Xinjiang, for example, he replied, ‘I think the Israelis can understand China better than anyone else.’

—Matti Friedman on Israel’s China ties

Remember Deir Yassin!

Historian Eliezer Tauber explores how Palestinian propaganda backfired by turning a bloody battle into a fateful blood libel

byGil Troy

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The New Bitcoin

The incredible strength of the shekel is playing havoc with Israel’s economy, while leaving its humble and egalitarian past in the dust

byMatti Friedman

The Most Legitimate State on Earth

Israel is the model for the nation-state idea on which the current global order was founded. That’s why opponents of the idea see it as a target.

byLiel Leibovitz

Lebanon’s State Ponzi Scheme Seeks Jewish Investors

The reeling regime in Beirut would like some of that magic Jewish money, please

byTony Badran

What to Expect From Bennett’s Iran Policy

The new government wants to work closely with Washington, reduce Israel’s dependence on it, and prepare for military action. Can it have all three?

byLahav Harkov

Lebanon’s State Ponzi Scheme Seeks Jewish Investors

The reeling regime in Beirut would like some of that magic Jewish money, please

byTony Badran

What to Expect From Bennett’s Iran Policy

The new government wants to work closely with Washington, reduce Israel’s dependence on it, and prepare for military action. Can it have all three?

byLahav Harkov

The Next Lebanon War

It will start without warning. And the consequences are likely to be enormous.

byMatti Friedman

Biden Pays Army Salaries to Iranian Ally

An unprecedented new salary assistance program for the Lebanese military is ‘cleverly’ structured to evade U.S. law

byTony Badran

Israel’s New Post-Netanyahu Government, Explained

Six essential insights about what just happened in Israel and what it means for the country’s future

byYair Rosenberg

An igloo-shaped kindergarten in Beersheba, 1974

Building Israel’s Dust City

After decades of great expectations, Beersheba often seems like a lost cause. But a recent visit revealed a city finally on the cusp of a breakthrough.

byMatti Friedman

Every city is a battle against entropy, and Beersheba (to paraphrase a famous saying about Jews) is like other cities, but more so. There’s one spot where you can stand on a rise of fresh grass overlooking a lovely new amphitheater that will stage cultural activities for the residents of Israel’s sixth-largest city. Then you turn around, without moving a step, and see electric pylons receding from the edge of town into the dun sea of the desert, the tin-shack Bedouin empire spreading over the slopes. You can call Beersheba, population 200,000, the “capital of the Negev,” and air-condition spanking new shopping malls until the jeans are cool to the touch. You can open boutique hotels and unfurl the “biggest pride flag in the Middle East.” But the desert will still hem you in, crushing you with heat at 9 a.m. If the sprinklers fail, the green grass by the new amphitheater will be trash-blown sand in a week.

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The Three-State Solution

The two-state solution has been dead for decades. A one-state solution frightens Israelis and Palestinians alike. Is three the magic number for peace?

byBenjamin Kerstein

Joe Biden’s Ugly Betrayal of the Iranian People

Will the new administration revert to the foreign policy of an old one?

byMariam Memarsadeghi

A Brighter Future

There’s a new wave of North Americans moving to Israel for a different way of life—and they’re not who you’d imagine

byEmily Benedek

Tony Blinken’s Mideast Blind Spot

The U.S. secretary of state and his regional envoy Robert Malley played in the sandbox together as children in Paris but speak different languages when it comes to American foreign policy. The results may be the same.

byMartin Peretz

The Peace Process That Never Was

A brief history of a failed idea

byJosh Hammer

Am I refusing to serve because I was brought up that way, or did I make that choice on my own? If I use words like ‘occupation’ or ‘government policy’ then they’ll see me as a political objector, someone who refuses to serve because of concrete actions taken by our army. If not for the occupation then they’d serve.

—Hallel Rabin, Conscientious Objector to IDF

The Peace Process That Never Was

A brief history of a failed idea

byJosh Hammer

—Hallel Rabin, Conscientious Objector to IDF

Navigate to Israel & The Middle East section

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Three Big Questions That the American Establishment Got Wrong

byMichael Lind

Victory Day in Kharkiv

byDanny Gold

Are Jews a Race Under U.S. Law?

byEugene Volokh

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Arcade Fire’s Age of Doubt

byDavid Meir Grossman

My First Bible

byVal Vinokur

A Jewish-Ukrainian Marriage

Finding Meaning in the Margins

byJonathan Silin

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The Equality of Sickness and Death

byAnne Dubitzky

Israel’s Memorial Day

byGil Troy

Israel’s Minister of the Hyphen

byMatti Friedman

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Red Hot Chili Peppers

byPaola Gavin

Eitan Bernath Is on Top of the ‘World’

byLeah Koenig

For the Love of Mackerel

byNina Lichtenstein

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Was Slavery in Egypt So Bad?

A Decade With Fragile X

byUnorthodox

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The Auto-da-fé of Mexico City

byRonnie Perelis

How British and American Elites Failed to Stop the Jewish State

byMike Watson

Theodor Herzl’s Cursed Children

Why Complex Systems Collapse Faster

byUgo Bardi

The Mask Debacle

byJacob Hale RussellandDennis Patterson

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When in Rome, Do as the Jerusalemites Do

byElhanan Miller

Baseball’s Golden Age

byTevi Troy

Ariel Helwani Won’t Back Down

byElie Bleier

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