Politics & Society Archives

To Have and Have Not: Aspirations, Fulfilled and Unfulfilled

January 15, 2018 0:33:28

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

Rachael Ray’s Rapine Recipes

January 14, 2018 00:08:09

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

Pascal’s Meteorology

January 13, 2018 00:08:54

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?

UNRWA ShmUNRWA

January 11, 2018 00:13:52

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

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

January 8, 2018 00:30:56

“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.

Now That’s Israeli!

January 7, 2018 00:15:31

We weigh in on a tricky question: “What is most Israeli?”

Linguaphobia

January 6, 2018 00:11:23

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?

Likud’s Settlement-Schizoid New Year’s Resolutions

January 4, 2018 00:13:41

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?

Putting the Criticism Back into Bible Criticism

January 1, 2018 00:31:13

Oxford Professor Hindy Najman is on a mission to eradicate outdated approaches to Bible criticism and introduce contemporary approaches to the field.

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

December 31, 2017

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?