Gershom Gorenberg My new column at the American Prospect explains why Netanyahu refused to extend the settlement freeze, and what’s missing from U.S. diplomacy. The confession of weakness was startling. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was explaining to the BBC why Israeli-Palestinian peace talks should continue despite Israel’s refusal to extend its freeze on new [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg My new column is up at The American Prospect: A recent news item in a niche publication about a new recruitment program for Israel’s national police force obliquely provided some of the most telling testimony I’ve seen recently about the importance of the current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It said nothing about the talks, yet [...]

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Haim Watzman “Man, this is the life!” I say as I lean back in my empyreanite chair and stretch my legs and arms out as far as they can go. My Talmud is open in front of me, Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” is wafting through the beit midrash, and a cool, [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg A bit delayed, I’m posting my American Prospect article on the latest, nutty attacks from the Israeli right on universities, NGOs, and even wanting natural gas producers to pay the government for the gas they extract: During a decade in Israel’s Parliament, Michael Melchior made his name as an effective legislator. The rabbi [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg The terror attack south of Hebron took place a few hours after I filed my curtain-raiser on the Washington peace talks for the American Prospect. Besides my pain at hearing of the deaths, I also had a tinge of professional self-criticism: Without intending to, I’d made a prediction of quiet in the West [...]

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