Gershom Gorenberg My new column is up at The American Prospect: “Israel lobby” is a term that could have two meanings, if you think about it. In standard Washington usage, it refers to American groups—often but not always Jewish—that lobby the U.S. Congress and White House on behalf of Israel, or rather on behalf of [...]

[Read more →]

The Faux Israeli Everyman, Naftali Bennett, Appoints His Extremist Rabbi To Teach Us Judaism Gershom Gorenberg My latest at The Daily Beast: Naftali Bennett, Israel’s minister of religious services, has decided to appoint Rabbi Avihai Ronski to head a brand-new Jewish Identity Administration. One could simply say, “Ronski is the wrong man for the job.” [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg At a slight delay, here’s my column  from the American Prospect on the Lapid-Netanyahu budget: A familiar tale: In a small country on the Mediterranean rim, the government chooses to solve an economic crisis by enacting an austerity budget. Regressive taxes will rise. Aid to families will be cut. Less will be left [...]

[Read more →]

Why Israel Can’t Be Part of Obama’s Calculus on Syria Gershom Gorenberg My new column is up at The American Prospect: From Tel Aviv, so the usual map sites say, you could drive to Damascus in three hours and 20 minutes, if only there were no borders, barbed wire or war in the way. From [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg My new column is up at the Daily Beast: I bought a pair of tickets to Dudu Tassa and the Andalusia Orchestra performing the works of Tassa’s grandfather and great-uncle, the Al-Kuwaiti Brothers, the forgotten Jewish maestros of Baghdad. The tickets set me back two Yitzhak Ben-Tzvis, the equivalent of one Zalman Shazar, [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg My new piece is up at the Daily Beast: Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz lived on Ussishkin Street in Jerusalem. The street was named by Menachem Ussishkin himself. An early Zionist leader, prideful, pugnacious, Ussishkin headed the Jewish National Fund for nearly 20 years. In 1931 he built an imposing house on what was then [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg And now, from somewhere else. My new article on Australia’s controversy over boat people is up at The American Prospect: Hikmat wore small frameless glasses and a blue-and-white pinstriped shirt, and the dark waves of his hair were combed perfectly. He looked as if he might have just stepped out of the office [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg My new column is up at The Daily Beast: Avigdor Lieberman quit last Friday as foreign minister a few moments before Shabbat began, the preferred timing for Israeli politicians to do something uncomfortable and hold news coverage to a minimum. Lieberman’s goal was to keep his resignation a non-issue. It was a gambit [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg My new column is up at The American Prospect: If you haven’t seen Moshe Feiglin’s satisfied smile or Ze’ev Elkin’s scowl in news coverage of Israel over the past week, you have evidence that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be grateful for the U.N. vote on Palestinian statehood: It has diverted attention from [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg My latest post at The Daily Beast: “Counterproductive.” That’s the adjective that National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor used to describe the Israeli government’s first reprisal for the U.N. vote on Palestine: announcing that Israel was moving ahead on plans for a neighborhood linking Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, and authorizing [...]

[Read more →]

Drafting the ultra-Orthodox is a diversion. It’s more important for their kids to learn math and English Gershom Gorenberg Prospect Magazine in the UK has posted my portrait of the crisis facing Israel’s haredim – and all the rest of us. “The system just isn’t relevant to life,” says Asher Gold. He wears black trousers, [...]

[Read more →]

Gershom Gorenberg My latest column at the Daily Beast: All the talk about war with Iran didn’t make me nervous, even during the past year, when Benjamin Netanyahu has talked about the uselessness of sanctions to stop Iran’s nuclear program day and night, when carefully placed leaks in American papers predicted Israeli air strikes in [...]

[Read more →]