Current Analysis The Ongoing Fantasy of Israeli Democracy Before 1967 The past week has a witnessed a flurry of debate in the American and Israeli media over the growing call [http://www.bdsmovement.net/] to boycott companies and institutions that profit from or are otherwise complicit in the ongoing 47-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Shira Robinson • 3 min read
MER Article Maxime Rodinson Looks Back Maxime Rodinson (1915-2004) was a pioneering scholar of Islam and the Middle East, as well as a prominent Marxian public intellectual. A product of classical Orientalist training, he was professor of Old Ethiopic and South Arabian languages at the Sorbonne. His scholarly sensibility was historical-m Joan Mandell, Joe Stork • 23 min read
MER Article Securing Oslo On a Friday afternoon in September 2013, dozens of Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces looked exasperated as they tried to move Palestinian youth away from the wall near Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. Attempting to corral hundreds of children, the PA troops pushed them down the hill toward Aida Andy Clarno • 14 min read
MER Article Settlement Secularism Scan the headlines for news about Israeli settlers, and you are likely to be overwhelmed by stories of a radical and violent religious nationalism: extremists marching on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, guarded by Israeli soldiers, to pray atop the Temple Mount; West Bank colonists torching olive t Callie Maidhof • 13 min read
Current Analysis Breaking “America's Last Taboo” American Zionism has made any serious public discussion of the past or future of Israel -- by far the largest recipient ever of US foreign aid -- a taboo. To call this quite literally the last taboo in American public life would not be an exaggeration. Abortion, homosexuality, the death penalty, eve Alex Lubin • 9 min read
Current Analysis Round Two to Arafat The release of the Swiss Institut de Radiophysique’s Experts Forensic Report [http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/06/yasser-arafat-report-swiss-institut-radiophysique-full-text] Concerning the Late President Yasser Arafat has lent further credence to the proposition that the iconic Mouin Rabbani • 3 min read
Current Analysis What Comes Next Whatever comes next [http://mondoweiss.net/2013/10/israelpalestine-recognized-comprehensive.html] in the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, the State of Israel is here to stay. To acknowledge this fact is not to nod to Israel’s “right to exist” -- people have rights, states are supposed Chris Toensing • 4 min read
Current Analysis UN Admission, Ours and Yours Having declared independence in May 1948, the new State of Israel was lacking in international legitimacy. Recognizing the deficiency, Israeli officials invested tremendous effort over the course of 1948-1949 in securing Israel’s admission to the United Nations. A recent paper [http://www.tandfonli Jamie Stern-Weiner • 3 min read
Current Analysis Power Corrupts Secretary of State John Kerry has staked his credibility on reviving the Middle East peace process. Supporting this effort on the world stage will be high on Samantha Power’s agenda, should her nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations be confirmed. But though she will urge Israelis, Palesti Jamie Stern-Weiner • 4 min read
Current Analysis Inquiring Into International Commissions of Inquiry A Palestinian political prisoner, Arafat Jaradat, died in Israeli custody on February 22. The Shinbet, Israel’s internal intelligence service, claims that Jaradat, 30, died of natural causes. Palestinian authorities suspect foul play, and the Palestinian prime minister in the West Bank, Salam Fayya Lori Allen • 4 min read
Current Analysis Do We Know Enough? In January 2007, amid the furor over Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, former President Jimmy Carter made his first major public appearance about the book at Brandeis University, which defines itself as “the only non-sectarian Jewish-sponsored college or university” in the United States. He received a Stephen R. Shalom • 20 min read
Current Analysis Israel's "Operation Mow the Lawn" One can only imagine the nods of self-satisfaction when an Israel Defense Forces planner came up with “Pillar of Cloud” to name Israel’s subsequent eight-day aerial assault on Gaza. By lifting this metaphor from several well-known passages [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillar_of_a_cloud] in the Tora Steve Niva • 6 min read
