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War of Independence


Menachem Begin: A New Life Menachem Begin: A New Life
Friday, May 3, 2013 by Asaf Romirowsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Ensuring that another Holocaust would never take place was Menachem Begin's paramount concern, even when he was Prime Minister of Israel, pursuing Yasir Arafat in his Beirut bunker.
The Challenge of Sovereignty The Challenge of Sovereignty
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 by Michael B. Oren | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

On the eve of Israel's independence, David Ben-Gurion sat alone, questioning whether a people so long accustomed to being the victims of sovereign power could take responsibility for themselves.
On Silence On Silence
Monday, April 15, 2013 by Anita Shapira | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Eschewing Jewish expressions of mourning, Israel's founding generations shaped a national ethos of silence and self-restraint, which found expression in the words of poet David Shimoni: “Don’t mourn, don’t cry/ at a time like this./ Don’t lower your head,/ Work! Work!”
Partition, Then and Now Partition, Then and Now
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 by Allan Arkush | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Since the beginning of the Zionist project, the partition of the land into two states has never found enthusiastic support among either Jews or Arabs.
Editors' Picks
Lions of Israel , Toldot Yisrael. 65 years ago this month, 35 Haganah soldiers died trying to bring supplies to kibbutzim in the besieged Etzion Bloc.  A new documentary tells their story from eyewitness accounts. (Video)
Israel’s Second Joseph Liel Leibovitz, Tablet. Placed in charge of rationing food in the nascent State of Israel, Dov Yosef was widely hated and readily forgotten. But no one went hungry.
Jerusalem Rebuilt Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom. With the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City restored, Israel plans to rebuild the neighboring Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, reclaiming another piece of Jerusalem’s Ottoman-Era glory.