Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

A couple of weeks ago, we posted two podcasts in which I sought to give a brief history of Zionism and then an explanation of “How and why October 7 was a violation of the promise that Zionism and Israel had made to the Jewish people.” The first episode we made available to everyone, while the latter was for paid subscribers only. In response to numerous requests on the part of paid subscribers wh...

Our plan had been to post today the second half of yesterday’s presentation on Zionist history and how October 7th represented a breach of Zionism’s promise to the Jewish people. We’re delaying that until tomorrow, in order to be able to share with you today two items that have taken Israeli social media by storm. The video above, a message from Iris Haim to the soldiers in the unit who accidental...

A couple of weeks ago, I had occasion to deliver two remote presentations to a group of professionals in the United States who sought to understand better the deeper meaning of what happened on October 7 and what has unfolded since, in the light of what Zionism was, was meant to be, and what it has promised to the Jewish people. Today’s post includes the first of those two presentations (edited fo...

It’s been a very, very complicated few days in Israel. A few triumphs, the horror of the three escaping hostages killed by our own forces (itself a very complicated story that defies easy “blame”), complete incomprehension at the cruelty Hamas evinced even towards their own children, a heartbreaking picture of a soldier and the three week old daughter he leaves behind, and a celebration of a relea...

By now, you’ve probably heard countless accounts of what transpired on October 7. But unless you’ve seen this clip, which is making its way around Israeli social media, you haven’t heard this story. And if you haven’t heard this story, then you haven’t seen what the emerging generation of Israeli leadership is going to look like, to sound like, to be like. Two extraordinary people—an educator, who...

Ambassador David Friedman calls it like he sees it Our main text today from this weekend’s Israeli press is a fascinating interview with Ambassador David Friedman in Makor Rishon , a small portion of which we have translated below. As Ambassador Friedman is not currently in an official governmental position, he is free to speak his mind. What he says below about the future of Gaza is, I suspect, a...

Even after seeing the now infamous 47-minute video that the IDF is showing to select people (journalists (one of whom tweeted this about his experience of watching it), US Senators , Members of Knesset, members of the White House staff, heads of the CIA and M15 and the New York Times editorial staff , including foreign bureaus, etc.), United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres could only br...

Between the profound crisis surrounding Israel’s judicial reform—a crisis that some predicted could lead Israel to civil war—and the pogrom of October 7 which led to the war that has followed, 2023 has been, without a doubt, the worst year in Israel’s history. Given that, it might seem difficult to answer the question which is the subtitle of my recent book—” 75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israe...

Today marks a week since the “cease-fire” (a contested term in Israel) began—the first hostages came home last Friday night. At this moment, at least, the cease-fire is slated to end today. Unless something dramatic changes, no more hostages will come home tonight, and the fighting will likely resume. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking with Yaakov Katz, former editor of the Jerusalem Post a...

The Yom Kippur War, which erupted almost fifty years to the day before this year’s October 7th massacre, led to an outburst of Israeli song-writing. Many of those songs have now become classics; one of the most famous is “And the wheat grows again.” The refrain goes as follows: It is not the same valley, it is not the same home, You are absent and unable to return, The path shaded by the trees, an...

I recently had occasion to read Dr. Shany Mor’s fascinating essay in Mosaic Magazine which had a very interesting—and different—take on the current conflict and the lens through which we see it. We reached out to Shany, who kindly agreed to talk us through his thesis, in a conversation which we now share with you. He wrote, in part, It is the argument of this essay that the Palestinian predicament...

First your Thanksgiving family “Israel view test”: Does that pesky family member you’re having Thanksgiving with (or not having Thanksgiving with, intentionaly) this weekend sound more like the Brit in the first video, or the German in the second? (HINT: you should definitely hope for the German.) In the first one, watch his eyebrows as she asks her question: And now, our podcast with Mark Dubowit...

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, IDF International Spokesman, has been seen all over international television in recent weeks, earning kudos for his expert and frank representation of Israel during this war against Hamas. I sat with Lt. Col. Hecht in his office on an army base in the center of the country yesterday, and had a far reaching conversation with him about the various reasons for Israel’s providi...

Before we get to our main subject for today, we’re sharing this video, making its way around Israeli social media in English (so you may have seen it), which is part of Israel’s attempt to win hearts and minds in a period in which that seems essentially impossible to do. WARNING: it has some unpleasant images. And now, for today’s podcast …. With the war a month old and showing no signs of ending,...

Shortly before Rosh Hashanah, my friend and colleague, Rabbi Danny Schiff, invited me to have a Zoom conversation with him, for the leadership of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, about the year that has passed in Israel, and what may lie ahead. Conversations with Danny are always illuminating, so I readily agreed. Towards the end of our conversation, Danny asked me what I thought might...

Our daughter, our son and our daughter-in-law all clerked at Israel’s Supreme Court at various times over the past decade. We would hear lots of “court talk” in those days—not about specific cases, of course, but the culture of the court and the like. And periodically, one of them would mention a non-Israeli working at the court, a comment that perplexed me but to which I didn’t pay much attention...

When he moved to Palo Alto, Offir Gutelzon did not imagine himself with a bullhorn, wearing a T-shirt that reads “Saving Israeli Democracy.” Nor did he imagine that he would be part of the founding group of UnXeptable, a grassroots movement launched by Israeli expats to support a democratic Israel. He and his wife also didn’t imagine that it would be a crisis in Israel, halfway across the world, t...

Today we are sharing Part II of our conversation with Professor Ephraim Shoham Professor Ephraim (Effie) Shoham-Steiner is a historian specializing in Medieval Jewish History. He is an associate professor at the Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva (BGU). He is also the director of The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at...

Professor Ephraim (Effie) Shoham-Steiner is a historian specializing in Medieval Jewish History. He is an associate professor at the Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva (BGU). He is also the director of The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at BGU. His research focuses on the social aspects of Jewish history. His first b...

Israel tragically lost a brave, creative Israeli-Arab educator on Friday, when Dr. Dalia Fadila drowned off the Herzliya beach. When we ran our podcast with Dalia almost two years ago, listeners were deeply moved. Many readers and listeners have joined us since then, so today, we are re-running that interview, providing access to everyone. This is the text that accompanied our interview with Dr. F...

Here is this week’s schedule (subject to changes as the new cycle requires): * Sunday : the music video, “I don’t hate,” which more or less shows how much people do hate, even if they are trying not to. * Monday : the numerous suggestions that it’s time for Israel to split into two countries (available in full to paid subscribers). * Tuesday : a podcast (available to everyone) with the founder of...

Here is what we have planned for this week (subject to changes as the new cycle requires): * Sunday : the music video, “I don’t hate,” which more or less shows how much people do hate, even if they are trying not to. * Monday : the numerous suggestions that it’s time for Israel to split into two countries (available in full to paid subscribers). * Tuesday (today): a podcast (available to everyone)...

As grave as Israel’s present crisis is, I’m still optimistic—which does not mean certain—that democracy will survive and even remain largely liberal. Yet if we are to avoid a similar crisis in the future, it will be critical that we eventually understand how we got where we are, and what were and are the underlying causes of this deep, painful national rift. Some of that we will only know with the...

It will surprise no one that there’s an entire network of volunteers behind the protests throughout the country. Many of us who live here get constant WhatsApps — if you’ve been arrested, we’re here to help. Contact this number for lawyers who are volunteering to help you. Shaken up after being arrested or harassed by the police? This number will lead you to professionals donating their time to he...

Judge Barbara M. Lynn has many “firsts” to her credit— she was the first woman member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society at the University of Virginia, where she did her undergraduate studies. She was the first woman associate and later the first female partner at her firm, Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal LLP, a position she held after graduating from SMU’s Dedman School of La...