Israel
Day Four: “Attack! Attack!”Friday, June 8, 2012 by Allan Arkush | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On June 1, 1967, when Prime Minister Levi Eshkol yielded to public pressure and turned over the portfolio of defense minister to former IDF chief of staff Moshe Dayan, the mood in Israel changed overnight.
The Six-Day War: Day ThreeAs Nasser was ordering his army to flee the Sinai, King Hussein commanded his to stay put. But within the Old City, only a hundred soldiers remained, the rest having already retreated toward the East Bank.
The Six-Day War: Day TwoOn June 6th, 1967, by 8:00 a.m. Tel Aviv time, Israeli forces had entered el-Arish. It initially seemed desolate, but the Israelis were soon under fire from every window. Israel's leadership, not expecting the war to move so quickly, had not considered what do to beyond el-Arish.
The Six-Day War: Day OneAs the sun rose on June 5th, 1967, squadrons of Egypt's MiG fighter jets took to the skies for their morning patrols. Fearing that an Israeli attack would begin at dawn, their aim was to be ready to meet any Israeli planes.
On the Eve of the Six-Day WarForty-five years ago today, on June 4, 1967, Israel and the Jewish world were in suspense. Today, we recall the Six-Day War as a stunning martial victory by the Jewish state; but on the war's eve, this outcome was wholly unforeseeable. Indeed, the odds appeared firmly stacked against Israel.
Aquarius in ZionThursday, May 17, 2012 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In the great crazy quilt of Israeli religious and spiritual life, the cluster of ideas and practices called "New Age" (in Hebrew, 'Idan Hadash) is increasingly visible. Love it or hate it, it's around, in books, festivals, newspapers, the pronouncements of tycoons, and growing networks of popular Kabbalah.
What is Jewish Dance?Wednesday, May 9, 2012 by Walter Zev Feldman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
For readers interested in the development of folk dance and, to a lesser extent, modern dance in Israel, Seeing Israeli and Jewish Dance, edited by Judith Brin Ingber, a dance scholar who has written widely on Israeli dance, is a valuable resource.
Gershom Scholem, 30 Years OnTuesday, May 8, 2012 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Thirty years after his death at age 84, Gershom Scholem casts a long shadow. The field he created, the modern study of Jewish mysticism, has grown beyond him, yet his work remains the indispensable foundation.
A Vote Not CastThursday, May 3, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
When my Labor Zionist cousins made aliyah from New York City in the 1950s to an agricultural moshav outside Raanana they cast off comfort, kin, and familiarity for the yoke of pioneering Zionism. It was inevitable that they'd lose touch with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Joe DiMaggio's love life, and the fate of the Third Avenue El.
Find, Fix, FinishTuesday, May 1, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
What is the threat? Al-Qaeda? "Terrorism"? "Violent religious extremism"? Israeli analysts call it "global jihad," but U.S. leadership has carefully circumscribed it as "al-Qaeda" or, even more narrowly, personified it as Osama bin Laden and his minions, hijackers of planes and Islam.
Editors' Picks
Torah in the Knesset Dov Lipman, Jewish Press. "Yesh Atid is trying to bring about an environment where mentioning God or our classic sources doesn’t mean that the next step is we’re forcing religion on you." (Interview by Elliot Resnick)
Meshaal, the Moderate? Alan Johnson, Prospect. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal rejects peace with Israel, refusing to "relinquish an inch" of land. But Egypt has guaranteed his re-election in the hope of avoiding war.
Defying the Demographers Yoram Ettinger, Israel Hayom. Demographers have long projected an Arab majority west of the Jordan River. But, today, Jewish fertility is surging as Arab birth rates collapse.
Hitting the Gas David Wurmser, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. In addition to giving Israel energy independence for the first time in its history, Israel's maritime natural gas reserves may make it a major gas exporter to Asia over the coming decades.
Israel's High Holidays Donniel Hartman, eJewish Philanthropy. Once scorned as a representation of the Old Jew's weakness, Yom Hashoah is now as much a Zionist commemoration as Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzma'ut. But is that right?
Draft Priorities Aharon Lichtenstein, Pages of Faith. "I think there’s a legitimate basis for having a certain number of people, who contribute in a meaningful way to the discourse of the beit midrash, who are exempt from army service."
Israel, the Wilsonian Democracy Gil Troy, Daily Beast. When people ask whether Israel can be both Jewish and democratic, they usually imply that such a combination cannot exist. Woodrow Wilson would have emphatically disagreed.
The Storyteller’s Gift Robert Pinsky, New York Times. Retrospective, the new novel by Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua, “undertakes to conjure nothing less than the enigmatic, irresistible majesty of the past that governs human action.”
Mimouna: Gold and Leavened Bread Ari Enkin, Hirhurim. The traditional post-Pesach celebration by Moroccan Jews may commemorate Maimonides’ father—or the Egyptian gold that washed up on the shore of the Red Sea.
Prisoners of War: a Rorschach Deborah Kamin, Foreign Policy. The TV show Homeland has captivated U.S. audiences with its cliffhangers about a returned POW as possible foreign agent. Its Israeli counterpart, Hatufim, has a very different appeal.