Getting to NO on Campus: Israel and Palestine Edition

By Derek M. Kwait January 13, 2015

  “Middle ground is just another word for failure. I do NOT want to make a deal! We deserve it all!” That’s the philosophy of the “NO-gotiatior,” a man who wants to teach you how to make the power of “No” work in your life. It got me to thinking: What advice might the NO-Gotiator…

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Restore the Northwest Semitic Altar: On Using Archaeology in Jewish Practice

By Jonathan Katz July 8, 2014

  It happens frequently when I go to a new synagogue now. Someone gives a dvar Torah or a talk on the Torah portion, and uses a verse to talk about how different Jews were from all their surrounding peoples. Or there is a discussion of an Israel trip, in which the (justice-obstructing) magic of…

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Admitting Awkward Things: Or, Coming to Terms with Unsavory History

By Jonathan Katz February 18, 2014

I think my education started early. I remember sitting in the car with my mother at the age of 10, en route from my Hebrew school to … somewhere. It was the spring of 2002, height of the Second Intifada,and the rhetoric that went alongside it. I was narrating all of the things we had…

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What we Talk About When we Talk About Settlements

By Amram Altzman December 9, 2013

Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote an editorial last week explaining why Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not the central issue in the Middle East today. He explains that, yes, settlements are definitely one of the obstacles to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, but then proceeds to list the ways in which the…

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What are Israel’s Priorities?

By greback April 21, 2011

Netanyahu Looking Like a Wreck This has dragged out too long. Just shut down the settlement expansion. I have to admit, I am a Religious Zionist. Not all RZs support settlements, but most do . . . and but I do. The settlements actualize the imperative to settle the country. If the land is bought…

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