Fathom

Latest Issue Autumn / 2023

Fauda: How the Transformation of the Right Brought Israel to the Verge of a Constitutional and Social Crisis

By Calev Ben-Dor
 Calev Ben-Dor argues four changes have transformed the Israel Right: Benjamin Netanyahu’s need for political survival overpowering his... Read more > September 2023

Rewriting the History of the Corbyn Years (Part 2): Agenda Journalism in Asa Winstanley’s book Weaponising Anti-Semitism

By John Ware
 John Ware was the reporter for the 2019 BBC Panorama documentary Is Labour Antisemitic? In Part 1 of... Read more > September 2023

How NGOs Fabricate the Legal Definition of Apartheid to Attack Israel

By Salo Aizenberg
 Salo Aizenberg is the author of Amnesty International’s Cruel Assault on Israel: Systematic Lies, Errors, Omissions, and Double... Read more > September 2023

‘Apartheid’: An Open Letter to Benjamin Pogrund

By Salo Aizenberg
 Benjamin Pogrund was deputy editor of the Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg, closed down because of its stand... Read more > September 2023

Jeremy Jones AM : A Tribute

By Colin Rubenstein
 The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) is utterly devastated by the passing of our widely admired and... Read more > September 2023

The Fathom Debate: Judicial Reform in Israel

By Aylana Meisel and Paul Gross
 As Israelis continue to be divided by the government’s plans to change the judicial system, Fathom is pleased... Read more > September 2023

Rewriting the History of the Corbyn Years (Part 1): What Martin Forde KC Got Wrong

By John Ware
 John Ware was the reporter for the 2019 BBC Panorama documentary Is Labour Antisemitic? He explains here why... Read more > September 2023

The Peculiar Afterlife of Abram Leon

By Kathleen Hayes
 Kathleen Hayes argues that Abram Leon, author of The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation, murdered by the Nazis... Read more > September 2023

The Oslo Accord: Three Decades Later

By Oded Haklai
 Oded Haklai introduces the new issue of the journal Israel Studies Review. Thirty years since the signing of... Read more > September 2023

Opinion | Why Is a Leading Think Tank Promoting Misleading Opinion Polls About Israel?

By Alexandra Fishman and Max Samarov
 Alexandra Fishman and Max Samarov take issue with what they see as ‘leading’ questions used in a recent... Read more > September 2023

A Call to Faculty Unions to Restore Civility and Respect for the Jewish People on Canadian Campuses

By Cary S. Kogan et al.
 This call is authored by the Steering Committee for the Network of Engaged Canadian Academics. Inspired by the success... Read more > September 2023

Summer / 2023

The Democratic Socialists of America just endorsed ethnic murder

By Ari Allyn-Feuer
 The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest left-wing organisation in the United States and a prominent... Read more > July 2023

Democratic Socialism, Israel and the Jews: An Interview with Michael Harrington (1975), with new preface by Mitchell Cohen (2020)

By Mitchell Cohen and Michael Harrington
 The interview reproduced below, with Michael Harrington (1928-1989), the leading US democratic socialist of the second half of... Read more > March 2020

Towards Israel-Saudi Normalisation?

By BICOM
 In comments this week, President Joe Biden discussed the possibility of normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia. While... Read more > July 2023

Book Review | Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of State and Nation

By Marc Goldberg
 Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of State and Nation is perhaps the... Read more > July 2023

An Open Letter from Jewish Scholars about Today’s Intellectual Environment

By David Bernstein et al.
 A group of over 230 Jewish scholars has signed an open letter expressing concern 'about the current ideological... Read more > July 2023

The 1948 Arab war against Israel: An aftershock of World War II?

By Matthias Kuntzel
 Matthias Küntzel’s new book, Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East, explores the still under-analysed impact of Nazi... Read more > June 2023

Israel and the Haredim – Between integration and separatism: A Review Essay

By Daniel Goldman
 Daniel Goldman is a businessman, social activist and a former chair of the Coalition for Haredi Employment, Gesher... Read more > June 2023

13 Ways for Israel to securely create a better status quo

By Justin Feldman
 Justin Feldman argues that any solution to the conflict must first bring both peoples closer together in better... Read more > June 2023

Fathom eBook: Birthing Zionism – Studies of 19th-century British Christian Zionists: George Eliot, Laurence Oliphant and Rev. William Hechler

By Philip Earl Steele
 This Fathom eBook collects three essays by Philip Earl Steele published in Fathom Journal between 2019 and 2022:... Read more > June 2023

A good principle misapplied: the case for thinking again about the Jamie Driscoll decision

By Alan Johnson
 Alan Johnson, writing in a personal capacity, asks if the UK Labour Party has misapplied the principle of... Read more > June 2023

The Zionist Case for a Divided Jerusalem

By Blake Flayton and Samuel J. Hyde
 Blake Flayton is a columnist for the Jewish Journal and Samuel J. Hyde is a writer and political... Read more > June 2023

Spring / 2023

Fathoming the Intellectual Revolution of our Times | The Disorientations of Lethal Journalism: On Western Media and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

By Richard Landes
 Richard Landes is a historian who taught at Boston University. His work focuses on apocalyptic beliefs at the... Read more > May 2023

Film Review | Ha-Midrashia

By Sara Hirschhorn
 Sara Hirschorn is the author of City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard... Read more > May 2023

Burning Down the House - The Crisis in American Psychoanalysis: How Wokeism and Identity Politics are Destroying the Profession and...

By Jon Mills
 Jon Mills is a Canadian philosopher, psychoanalyst, and psychologist. He is an honorary professor in the Department of... Read more > May 2023

Book Review | The Antisemitic Origins of Islamist Violence: A Study of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State

By Daniel Ben-Ami
 Islamism is one of the least understood forms of anti-Semitism. Leave to one side those who foolishly romanticise... Read more > May 2023

The 1936 Revolt still rages today: an interview with Oren Kessler

By Oren Kessler
 Oren Kessler’s new book Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict (Rowman... Read more > May 2023

The Three Best Israeli Short Stories recommended by Noga Emanuel

By Noga Emanuel
 Fathom regularly invites writers to select their favourite books on a theme or subject. Here, Fathom film and... Read more > May 2023

Why Israelis are so Happy at 75

By Jonah Cohen
 The following is a revised version of Jonah Cohen’s keynote speech at the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts’s... Read more > May 2023

A Modern History of Palestinian Rejectionism

By Ben-Dror Yemini
 Ben-Dror Yemini argues that media, academia, and the Israeli and global left have committed a huge deception in... Read more > May 2023

Diary | Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut in a divided Israel

By Paul Gross
 British-Israeli Paul Gross reflects on his experience of two days of annual celebration and mourning in Israel amidst... Read more > May 2023

Opinion | The Meaning of Diane Abbott’s Astonishing Letter

By David Hirsh
 Leading Corbynite Labour MP Diane Abbott has had the party whip withdrawn after writing in The Observer that... Read more > April 2023

Book Review | Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism Is Built Into Our World And How You Can Change It

By Daniel Ben-Ami
 Dave Rich’s book on that thorniest of subjects, anti-Semitism, has already received many plaudits including glowing testimonials from... Read more > May 2023

Opinion | Can fasting be a tool for political healing?

By Khinvraj Jangid
 Rabbi David Stav, head of the Orthodox Tzohar organisation, has called for fasting as a response to the... Read more > May 2023

Iran’s drone diplomacy is a danger to the West

By Alex Grinberg
 Alex Grinberg is an expert on Iran based at the Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy. He warns... Read more > April 2023

Patterns of Antisemitism in Mainstream Media Comment Threads. Case Studies of the UK, France and Germany

By Karolina Placzynta
 Karolina Placzynta is a researcher for the Decoding Antisemitism project at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism, Technical... Read more > April 2023

The Three Best Books on Critical Theory and Antisemitism, recommended by Matthew Bolton

By Matthew Bolton
 Fathom regularly invites writers to select their favourite books about a subject. Here, Matthew Bolton recommends three on... Read more > April 2023

Book Review | Sharing the Promised Land: In Pursuit of Equality Between Jewish and Arab Citizens in Israel

By Eugene Bardach
 Pity the soul who has to forsake those sentimental (or rousing) Zionist songs of her youth, like Shir... Read more > April 2023

The Protest Envoy: Ehud Barak comes to London

By Jack Omer-Jackaman
 Last week, on the day a general strike was called in response to the sacking of Defence Minister... Read more > April 2023

Lara Sheehi’s Joyous Rage: Antisemitic Anti-Zionism, Advocacy Academia and Jewish Students’ Nightmares at GWU

By Cary Nelson
 Fathom Editor’s Introductory Note. Sometimes it is hard to know what is the more alarming: the state of... Read more > April 2023

My Israeli Music: Ittay Flescher

By Ittay Flescher
 With over 20 years’ experience in formal and experiential education settings, Ittay is regularly invited to teach in... Read more > April 2023

Book Review | Israel 201: Your Next Level Guide to the Magic and Mystery and Chaos of Life in the...

By Amy Weinreb
 The world has reached a saturation point with Israel 101 books. We have enough options to guide readers... Read more > April 2023

Diary from Jerusalem | Calev Ben-Dor | Israel’s Rebellion

By Calev Ben-Dor
 Fathom deputy editor Calev Ben Dor reflects on a tumultuous few days in Israel and tries to make... Read more > March 2023

Book Review | Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism Is Built Into Our World and How You Can Change It

By Sarah Brown
 Everyday Hate’s clarity and engaging style make it an invaluable introduction to antisemitism; however, it also has plenty... Read more > March 2023

‘I am one of those liberals who got mugged by reality’: An Interview with Gadi Taub

By Gabriel Noah Brahm
 When Fathom launched we promised there would likely be a piece in every issue with which you would... Read more > March 2023

For Political Compromise, and then Judicial Reform

By Donna Robinson Divine
 Judicial reform is necessary, but if there is no compromise on its character the full measure of damage... Read more > March 2023

‘A lachrymose conception of 20th century North African Jewish history’: A Rejoinder to Lyn Julius

By Sam Shube
 In the previous issue of Fathom we carried Sam Shube’s analysis of Israel’s ethno-political divide and a critical... Read more > March 2023

‘The Mizrahim recognised that the antisemitism fuelling the conflict between Israelis and Arabs was the same as that which they...

By Lyn Julius
 Lyn Julius replies again to Sam Shube. For their earlier exchanges see here, here and here.   Sam... Read more > March 2023

Culture Wars, Ethnicity and the Future of Israel’s Democracy

By Sam Shube
 ‘Second Israel’ is the key to modern Israeli politics not just to Netanyahu’s victory in 2022. These Israelis,... Read more > March 2023

Fallacies about Mizrahi Jews and Israeli Politics | A Reply to Sam Shube

By Lyn Julius
 Lyn Julius is the author of Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight... Read more > March 2023

Book review | Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism Is Built Into Our World and How You Can Change It

By Kathleen Hayes
   ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’ – William Faulkner In the early hours of... Read more > March 2023

Opinion | Ben-Gvir is no Begin

By Jonah Naghi
 Jonah Naghi is the Chair of Israel Policy Forum's IPF Atid Steering Committee in the city of Boston.... Read more > March 2023

‘This is an attempt to change the structure of Israel from a constitutional democracy to a regime where, once political...

By Amichai Cohen
 With debate in Israel raging over the government’s proposed judicial reforms and with President Herzog’s compromise proposals yet... Read more > February 2023

Winter / 2022

Book Review | Kreisky, Israel, and Jewish Identity

By Liam Hoare
 On 28 September 1973, two Palestinian terrorists from the Syrian Ba’athist faction As-Sa'iqa hijacked a train near Marchegg... Read more > February 2023

Book Review | British Trade Unions, the Labour Party, and Israel’s Histadrut

By Luke Akehurst
 Ronnie Fraser has been bravely fighting a sometimes lonely battle against antisemitism and anti-Zionism in the British trade... Read more > February 2023

Opinion | Western Democracies Face Two Threats: The Tyranny of the Majority and The Tyranny of the Minority

By Alan Johnson
 Alan Johnson is the editor of Fathom, He writes here in a personal capacity.   Against the Tyranny... Read more > February 2023

‘A gamechanger in Israel’s relationship with Egypt and cooperation with the EU’: The geopolitics of Israel’s natural gas fields

By Calev Ben-Dor
 Israel has discovered enough natural gas to become a regional energy exporter. As Europe wrestles with its energy... Read more > February 2023

‘For peace, a political agreement between politicians is not enough’ | An interview with Noor A’wad, Palestinian activist with Roots

By Joshua A. Brook
 Noor A’wad joined Roots, a Palestinian-Jewish peacebuilding organisation, in 2016 after meeting Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Ali Abu... Read more > February 2023

Book Review| Israel: A History in 100 Cartoons

By Keith Kahn-Harris
 In 2006, the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri announced an ‘International Holocaust Cartoon Contest’ as an outraged riposte to the... Read more > February 2023

Book Review | Victorious

By Liam Hoare
 ‘Unlike others, I am no longer slaughtering sacred cows,’ Amos Oz told Niva Lanir in a 2012 interview... Read more > February 2023

Open letter to The George Washington University regarding allegations of antisemitism

By Daniel Burston et al.
 Hundreds of academics have signed an open letter to George Washington University expressing their deep concern about its... Read more > February 2023

Small Vote, Great Power: Rabbi Tau, Avi Maoz, the Noam Party and the Threat to Equal Rights in Israel

By Daniel Goldman
 About a half a million Israelis voted for the ‘Religious Zionist’ slate which made the three parties that... Read more > January 2023

Opinion | Judicial Reform is needed to preserve the legitimacy of Israeli democracy

By Adi Schwartz
 Adi Schwartz is a former staff writer at Haaretz and is co-author with Einat Wilf of The War... Read more > January 2023

Archive | Menachem Begin on Law and Democracy

By Fathom Editors
 In the increasingly fiery debate over the role of Israel’s judiciary, former Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin seems... Read more > January 2023

When Discourse about Israel Becomes Antisemitic: A Guide for the Perplexed

By Cary Nelson and Michael Saenger
 Cary Nelson and Michael Saenger argue for understanding antisemitic anti-Zionism as ‘a prejudice with definable characteristics’ and of... Read more > January 2023

‘If these ideas get implemented, it will be a major shift. Israel will become a different country’: An Interview with...

By Calev Ben-Dor
 Former Likud Justice Minister Dan Meridor discusses what he sees as the erosion of liberal values within the... Read more > January 2023

A World War and a Jewish War: Derek Penslar reviews Dan Diner

By Derek Penslar
 Derek Penslar reviews Dan Diner’s, Ein anderer Krieg: Das jüdische Palästina und der Zweite Weltkrieg - 1935 –... Read more > January 2023

Book Review | Ten Years Hard Labour

By Marc Goldberg
 Chris Williamson was a Labour Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Derby North. He served as Shadow... Read more > January 2023

Defending Israel’s Legitimacy: Proposals for a reborn Ministry of Strategic Affairs

By Jacob Dallal
 Jacob Dallal reflects on his five-years working at the Ministry of Strategic Affairs from 2016 to 2021 to... Read more > January 2023

Book Review | Bibi, My Story

By Yisrael Medad
 The memoirs of politicians and public figures, it has been claimed, are among the most popular form of... Read more > December 2022

The Annual Fathom Lecture 2022 | Why we should all be Zionists if we want peace

By Einat Wilf
 On 7 December 2022, in celebration of its 10th birthday, Fathom invited Einat Wilf to deliver the inaugural... Read more > December 2022

The Progressive Friend of Israel in the era of Ben Gvir: Prospects and Tasks

By Jack Omer-Jackaman
 Jack Omer-Jackaman argues that this is a perfect opportunity to prove the truth of what progressive friends of... Read more > December 2022

Lessons from Germany’s Social Democrats for the Israeli Labor Party

By Kira Lewis
 Kira Lewis believes the Israeli Labor Party can learn some lessons from a historic social democratic party that... Read more > December 2022

Fathom at 10: Celebrating our first decade

By Fathom Editors
 Fathom was created by BICOM in 2012 for the long haul. We were created not to chase the... Read more > December 2022

Opinion | Navigating China’s Security Presence in the Middle East and North Africa

By Grant Rumley and Carol Silber
 Grant Rumley is the Goldberger Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Glazer Program on Great... Read more > December 2022

Judicial Reform is Not Dangerous for Israeli Democracy – it is Essential

By Russell A. Shalev
 Suzie Navot of the Israel Democracy Institute argued in Fathom that the judicial reforms being considered by the... Read more > December 2022

Yet again, the Courts find for John Ware and his BBC Panorama documentary 'Is Labour Antisemitic?'

By John Ware
 Documentary maker John Ware explains why he has brought three successful court cases against those who he believed... Read more > December 2022

Book Review | Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews

By Kathleen Hayes
 This is a very important book. Over the last decade or so, a sweeping ideology that looks much... Read more > November 2022

The Three Best Books by Israeli Writers (Not Called Oz, Grossman, or Yehoshua), recommended by Liam Hoare

By Liam Hoare
 Fathom is inviting experts to select their three favourite books on a theme or subject. The series began... Read more > December 2022

The Iranian Uprising and the Nuclear Threat: How Should the West Respond

By Matthias Kuntzel
 Matthias Küntzel is the author of Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11. This talk was given at... Read more > November 2022

Judicial Reform and the Implications for Israeli Democracy

By Suzie Navot
 In this edited transcript of her conversation with BICOM Director Richard Pater, Vice-President of Research at the Israel... Read more > November 2022

'Politically homeless': Yamina voters tell their story

By Calev Ben-Dor
 Calev Ben-Dor talks to former Yamina supporters to understand their views on the Bennett-Lapid government and voting considerations... Read more > November 2022

‘The Jews Are Guilty’: Christian Antisemitism in Contemporary America

By Alvin Rosenfeld
 Alvin Rosenfeld holds the Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies at Indiana University and is the Director... Read more > November 2022

Book Review | Bibi: My Story

By Colin Shindler
 When he was asked by a student in 2018, what is the most important subject to study for... Read more > November 2022

Most read

Voice of the Week

Our Voice of the Fortnight is Fathom contributor Dave Rich announcing the launch of his new Substack newsletter ‘Everyday Hate: Reflections from the frontlines of antisemitism'. Dave's newsletter will cover the subjects in which he is a widely respected expert: what antisemitism is, why it keeps happening, and – crucially – what we can do about it. Follow at https://everydayhate.substack.com/

Image of the Week

Jews pray as they perform Tashlich, or the casting off, a Jewish practice performed on the afternoon of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year at the beach in Tel Aviv, on 17 September 2023. It is customary to throw pieces of bread or stones into a large, natural body of flowing water to cast away the sins of the past year and resolve to be a better person in the coming year. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90

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