The many varieties of anti-Semitism
Deborah Lipstadt shows how anti-Semitic sentiment can spring up where we least expect it.
Israel
An Israeli writer’s final word to his fellow citizens
Amos Oz feared that fanaticism was rising in Israel as well as in the West.
Zionism’s competing visions of Israel
Michael Brenner shows that contemporary debates have precedents in the origins of the movement.
How new is the new Christian Zionism?
There have been many Zionisms over the years. Only one has imagined an eventual end of Judaism.
Dreaming in Israel
In Aharon Appelfeld's novel, a teenage Holocaust survivor sleeps, remembers, and learns to speak anew.
Two Israelis, a lawyer and a rabbi, on the complicated relationship between religion and national identity
What soldiers come home to
Can Christians display a life together that’s as compelling as war?
Hermeneutics in a fragile land
The history of Palestinian Christian interpretation of the Old Testament reminds us of the nuanced, fragile nature of life in that region.
Zionism's theological roots
How does theology shape Jewish democracy, in light of the many competing claims and complex relationships in the land of Israel?
Chosen? by Walter Brueggemann
Are the people of 21st-century Israel the chosen ones of Genesis to whom Yahweh promised the land in eternal covenant? Walter Brueggemann gives a nuanced answer.
There is a sharp contrast between West Jerusalem and mostly Arab East Jerusalem. Along this political and economic divide, violence has erupted.
The Paradox of Liberation, by Michael Walzer
Michael Walzer addresses a surprising question: the interplay between social revolutions and reactive counterrevolutions.
"In the Middle East peace process, the peace was being negotiated by secular elites who lacked the religious language of so many of their people."
The BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement against Israel, which has gained some traction in mainline denominations, raises hotly contested questions. (See, for example, my article “Boycotting the boycott” and the responses to it.) A particularly salient one: Do ordinary Palestinians support BDS? Do Palestinians in the occupied territory want more separation from Israel or more integration with it?