Politics & Society

To Have and Have Not: Aspirations, Fulfilled and Unfulfilled

Mika Almog discusses her new collection of short stories, “Anticipation” (ציפייה), compiling poignantly unremarkable characters and vignettes, rooted in the Israeli here and now.

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Rachael Ray’s Rapine Recipes

Rachael Ray tweets that hummus is Israeli and is immediately flamed until she herself is golden brown. Can cuisine be colonialist?

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Pascal’s Meteorology

Israel’s Minister of Agriculture sponsors a mass prayer vigil at the Western Wall to fight a four year drought. The move works – record rains immediately fall – but is that good government?

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UNRWA ShmUNRWA

Should the very job description of the UN agency that provides aid to Palestinians be revisited and changed?

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Actually Existing Populism: Anti-Immigration Rhetoric and the Assault on Liberal Democracy

“Foreign Policy” Deputy Editor Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s new book explores the confluence of circumstances that led to the rise of authoritarian populism in countries that were until recently believed to be robust liberal democracies.

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Linguaphobia

White-on-black Arabic billboards go up around Israel and some Jews freak out. What accounts for their fears of one of the country’s two official languages?

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Likud’s Settlement-Schizoid New Year’s Resolutions

Likud ministers vote in the morning to approve a deal with Europe that boycotts settlements, and the Likud Central Committee votes in the evening to annex settlements: What accounts for this settlement-schizoid behavior?

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Putting the Criticism Back into Bible Criticism

Oxford Professor Hindy Najman is on a mission to eradicate outdated approaches to Bible criticism and introduce contemporary approaches to the field.

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The “Herem” of Public Opinion: On Excommunication and Rehabilitation

It was too soon for an august American Jewish institution like the 92nd St. Y to invite confessed groper and harasser Ari Shavit to speak. But how can we ever know when justice has been served?

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