Gershom Gorenberg So the furious reaction to Netanyahu’s settlement freeze has made you think that maybe, just maybe, it’s actually for real, and that he has become a pragmatist? Nope, he’s the same old Bibi, as I explain at the American prospect: “No Entrance To Bibi’s Freeze Inspectors,” reads the long, professionally printed banner hanging [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg I have a new piece in Hadassah magazine describing how Israel created the ultra-Orthodox community as we see it today, with its life-time students, large families and poverty: I’m standing in the Kerem Avraham neighborhood of Jerusalem. Across the street is the stone building where Amos Oz, Israel’s most famous novelist, grew up [...]

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Haim Watzman Last monthafter Saturday morning services at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, I stood up in Rabbi Andy Bachman’s spacious study. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Were the personal stories of life in Jerusalem and Israel-forged humor of my Necessary Stories presentation going to click with the 50 sophisticated New Yorkers I found [...]

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Haim Watzman “It’s their land and they can do whatever they want with it,” Roni shrugs. Now, I should explain that a Roni shrug is a geological event. His ninety-minute daily workout in the pool and the weight room has given him shoulders that undulate like a massif in an earthquake. At middle age, he’s [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg My new article on whether Israel is a democracy is up at The American Prospect: Infant mortality among Arab citizens of Israel is two and a half times higher than it is among Jewish citizens. One out of two Israeli Arab college graduates is out of work. Arabs make up 6 percent of [...]

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