Fathom 5

By Fathom Editors
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Sderot: the bomb shelter capital of the world

By Alan Craig
Since 2000 the city of Sderot has been a target of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into... Read more > Winter 2014

The unwelcome arrival of the quenelle

By Dave Rich
When the Premier League footballer Nicolas Anelka celebrated a goal by performing a quenelle salute he touched off... Read more > Winter 2014

Holocaust Inversion and contemporary antisemitism

By Lesley Klaff
One of the cruellest aspects of the new antisemitism is its perverse use of the Holocaust as a... Read more > Winter 2014

Israel’s Arab citizens and the struggle for equality

By Joshua Muravchik
'Israel Apartheid Week’ is looming on campuses worldwide. In fact,  as this edited extract from a new ebook... Read more > Winter 2014

Revisiting Isaac Deutscher

By Martyn Hudson
The Polish historian and socialist Isaac Deutscher coined the term ‘the non-Jewish Jew’ to celebrate the tradition of... Read more > Winter 2014

The new Bedouin politics

By Safa Abu-Rabia
An exciting new Bedouin Arab leadership is emerging in Israel’s Negev region. Younger, feminist, critical of both state... Read more > Winter 2014

The Politics of Benjamin Netanyahu: an interview with Aluf Benn

By Aluf Benn
Aluf Benn, Editor in Chief of Haaretz newspaper spoke to Fathom Editor Alan Johnson about the politics and... Read more > Winter 2014

We must divide the land: an interview with Isaac Herzog

By Isaac Herzog
The newly elected Labour leader Isaac Herzog sat down with Fathom to discuss what the Britain-Israel relationship means... Read more > Winter 2014

The Geneva deal and Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions

By Ben Cohen
Amid the fanfare about the interim agreement reached in Geneva in November 2013 over Iran’s nuclear programme –... Read more > Winter 2014

The legacy of Ariel Sharon: an interview with David Landau

By David Landau
Few individuals have had more impact on the history of the state of Israel than its former Prime... Read more > Winter 2014

Sakhir the Rock Opera: an interview with Yariv Ben-Yehuda

By Yariv Ben-Yehuda
Yariv Ben-Yehuda is the co-creator, along with Erez Cohen of the rock opera Sakhir, a high-octane romp through... Read more > Winter 2014

Do look back: Lou Reed’s Jewish soul music

By Steven Lee Beeber
When I was writing my book about the Jewish origins of punk, The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s, I referred... Read more > Winter 2014

Film Review: Bethlehem vs. Omar

By Yair Raveh
The media pitted one against the other. It was indeed a catchy story: two films from two sides... Read more > Winter 2014

The fruits of Arab labour: an interview with Sayed Kashua

By Sayed Kashua
Sayed Kashua is the creator of the hugely popular Israeli television sitcom Arab Labour and one of the... Read more > Winter 2014

Book Review: Rebels Against Zion

By David Hirsh
In the first half of the 20th century, most Jews failed to find their way to a successful... Read more > Winter 2014

Book Review: Moynihan’s Moment

By Michael Allen
The eminent political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset described Daniel P. Moynihan as ‘the prescient politician’ for his suggestion,... Read more > Winter 2014

Book Review: Like Dreamers

By Liam Hoare
Israel, as Amos Oz once observed, was born out of a spectrum of dreams and visions, blueprints and... Read more > Winter 2014

Book Review: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State

By Colin Shindler
In his autobiography, Chaim Weizmann commented that Theodor Herzl was ‘not of the people’ despite being an inspiring... Read more > Winter 2014

Book Review: Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life

By Peter Ryley
The inclusion of the anarchist Emma Goldman in the Yale University Press Jewish Lives series is to be... Read more > Winter 2014

Fathom 4

By Fathom Editors
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The view from outside

By Yigal Shtayim
The tools that citizens are using to advance human rights in Tel Aviv and beyond are evolving. A... Read more > Autumn 2013

Rules of Engagement

By Richard Pater
An Israeli Defence Force reservist recounts a day patrolling the southern Hebron hills of the West Bank. It’s... Read more > Autumn 2013

UNRWA: an obstacle to peace?

By Einat Wilf
For the sake of peace, reform of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is urgently needed,... Read more > Autumn 2013

Women, the Wall and the Struggle for Jewish Pluralism in Israel

By Noa Sattath
Women of the Wall has been challenging Orthodox religious authorities for over 25 years by praying at the... Read more > Autumn 2013

Time to End Palestinian Incitement

By David Pollock
The glorification of violence in Palestinian Authority media must be addressed if peace talks are to succeed. Even... Read more > Autumn 2013

Social Justice in Israel

By Tali Nir and Marc Grey
How much social justice can we really expect from the Nineteenth Knesset? The Association for Civil Rights in... Read more > Autumn 2013

Restoring our glorious tradition

By Dov Lipman
The growing size of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) population, and its self-imposed isolation from the worlds of military service... Read more > Autumn 2013

Hezbollah as a Criminal Organisation

By Matthew Levitt
The radical Shiite Lebanese organisation Hezbollah may be best known for its armed activities, but it also runs... Read more > Autumn 2013

Twenty years after Oslo: peace now?

By Toby Greene
Was Israel’s attempt to resolve its dispute with the Palestinians through bilateral negotiations with the PLO doomed from... Read more > Autumn 2013

Two States is Common Sense

By Hitham Kayali
The one-state solution is a mirage. Only the two state solution can meet the national aspirations of both... Read more > Autumn 2013

Hilik Bar MK on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks

By Hilik Bar
Hilik Bar MK is Secretary General of the Israeli Labour Party, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, and... Read more > Autumn 2013

The Making of Within the Eye of the Storm: an interview with Bassam Aramin, Rami Elhanan and Shelley Hermon

By Alan Johnson
Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, a Palestinian and Israeli, were once dedicated fighters willing to kill and be... Read more > Autumn 2013

On Jerusalem: an interview with Danny Seidemann

By Danny Seidemann
Daniel Seidemann is an Israeli attorney specialising in Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem. He is the founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem,... Read more > Autumn 2013

Christianophobia: an interview with Rupert Shortt

By Rupert Shortt
Rupert Shortt is the author of Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack and religion editor of the Times Literary... Read more > Autumn 2013

Book Review: Menachem Begin: A Life

By Steven J. Zipperstein
'Had there been telephones back then,’ recalled a close aide years later, ‘Begin would never have survived his... Read more > Autumn 2013

Book Review: The Tragedy of a Generation: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism in Eastern Europe

By Henry Srebrnik
The Tragedy of a Generation, states the book’s dust jacket, is ‘the story of the rise and fall... Read more > Autumn 2013

Letting the right one in: the rise of the Israeli horror film

By Yair Raveh
This has got to be the most surprising, and thrilling, of all trends to have ever emerged in... Read more > Autumn 2013

Book Review: Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One

By Andrei S. Markovits
Growing up in the West Romanian town of Timisoara in the 1950s as the only child of a... Read more > Autumn 2013

Book Review: The Invention of the Land of Israel

By Israel Bartal
Shlomo Sand’s political treatise, The Invention of the Land of Israel, is another link in his larger project... Read more > Autumn 2013

Fathom 3

By Fathom Editors
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Occupy Zionism

By Stav Shaffir
The social protest movement is patriotic, seeking to ‘occupy Zionism’ by completing the founders dream of a country... Read more > Summer 2013

A moment to seize in the Israeli-Palestinian arena

By Michael Herzog
In March 2013 Brig. Gen. (ret.) Michael Herzog analysed a possible opportunity in the Israeli-Palestinian arena for BICOM. Here... Read more > Summer 2013

Can the new Knesset fix the old problems?

By Tal Harris
The chances of the new Knesset fulfilling its promise of ‘new politics’ will depend upon its ability to... Read more > Summer 2013

A new vision for Jerusalem

By Meir Kraus
The Arab League decision to create a $1bn fund to ‘maintain the Arab and Islamic character’ of Jerusalem... Read more > Summer 2013

Turkey and Israel: the limits to rapprochement

By Shashank Joshi
Ties between the two countries will be repaired, but not restored anytime soon. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip... Read more > Summer 2013

The pleasures of antisemitism

By Eve Garrard
Antisemitism is much more than a cognitive error. It attracts by providing the deep emotional satisfactions of hatred,... Read more > Summer 2013

What does Israel's Arab minority really think?

By Alexander Yakobson
The Israel Democracy Institute’s annual survey reveals a gulf between the sentiments of many Israeli Arabs and the... Read more > Summer 2013

Responding to the NGOs Durban Strategy: between engagement and confrontation

By Gerald M. Steinberg
Will the new partnership between the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Oxfam challenge the global NGO-led... Read more > Summer 2013

‘We should still be prepared to intervene’: Richard Perle on George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the Arab Spring

By Alan Mendoza
One of the leading neoconservative intellectuals of the last half century, Richard Perle was Assistant Secretary of Defense... Read more > Summer 2013

The Jewish Political Tradition: an interview with Michael Walzer

By Michael Walzer
Political thinker Michael Walzer and Fathom editor Alan Johnson discuss The Jewish Political Tradition, the ambitious multi-volume series... Read more > Summer 2013

Book Review: The Peace Puzzle

By Ahron Bregman
A series of revolutions over the last two years – the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ – has created a... Read more > Summer 2013

Israeli cinema: gay but not queer

By Yair Raveh
Israeli cinema has been more mainstream and gay than subversive and queer. But that may be about to... Read more > Summer 2013

Book Review: The Muslim Brotherhood: From Opposition to Power

By Eric Trager
In the decade following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Western analysts’ search for a ‘moderate Islamist’ alternative to Al-Qaeda... Read more > Summer 2013

Book Review: Moses Mendelssohn

By Robert Fine
Shmuel Feiner’s fine biography of Moses Mendelssohn shows us just how radical was the very ‘German’ moderation of... Read more > Summer 2013

Book Review: Fortress Israel

By Charles D. Freilich
Patrick Tyler begins Fortress Israel with an alleged Israeli ‘hit’ against an Iranian nuclear scientist. In reality, the... Read more > Summer 2013

Fathom 2

By Fathom Editors
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There is a future with Yair Lapid

By Benjy Goldberg
Yesh Atid have brought a reforming passion to Israeli politics. Yair Lapid and his party are prepared for... Read more > Spring 2013

Yair Lapid is the heart of all things: a view from the Centre

By Gil Messing
The success of Yesh Atid, winning 19 Knesset seats just one year after its formation is politically dramatic... Read more > Spring 2013

A new country: a view from the Left

By Jo-Ann Mort
Jerusalem, January 25. The gloomy narrative that Israel’s soul had been captured by the settlers and the ideological... Read more > Spring 2013

Success in politics: a view from the Right

By Yisrael Medad
In the elections for Israel’s 19th Knesset the success of Benjamin Netanyahu almost proved to be his downfall.... Read more > Spring 2013

Israel’s economy: the in-tray

By Alex Brummer
From reforming the banks to the crisis in the Eurozone, from increasing Haredi employment to reducing social inequality,... Read more > Spring 2013

Obama’s second term: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not yet soluble

By Joshua Muravchik
There is no alternative to the two-state solution, but neither party is yet in a position to make... Read more > Spring 2013

Obama’s second term: empower the nation-builders not the extremists

By Hussein Ibish
Salam Fayyad’s institution-building program remains the only policy available to lay the groundwork for a successful two-state outcome.... Read more > Spring 2013

No blank cheques: Morsi and Hamas

By Benedetta Berti
Relations between Egypt and Hamas have improved under Morsi. But he has issued no blank cheque and continuity... Read more > Spring 2013

UK-Israel-Palestine and the new age of the city

By Liam Byrne
We are entering a new urban age, so let’s build world class partnerships between the great hubs of... Read more > Spring 2013

The right to democracy

By Amnon Rubinstein
There is a paradox at the heart of human rights discourse – its failure to recognise the right... Read more > Spring 2013

Why don’t the Arabs of Israel vote more?

By Mohammad Darawshe
A new study by the Abraham Fund Initiatives is optimistic about the potential to increase Arab participation in... Read more > Spring 2013

Needed: a paradigm shift in the ‘Middle East Peace Process’

By Shlomo Avineri
Almost twenty years after the signing of the Oslo Agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the... Read more > Spring 2013

The Syrian civil war

By Jonathan Spyer
The end of the Assad regime will probably not mark the end of the civil war but a... Read more > Spring 2013

Alibi Antisemitism

By Norman Geras
Israel has been made an alibi for a new climate of antisemitism on the left. In Marx’s essay... Read more > Spring 2013

The New Arab Politics

By Ghaida Rinawie-Zoabi
Ghaida Rinawie-Zoabi is the co-founder and general director of an Israeli NGO, Injaz Center for Professional Arab Local... Read more > Spring 2013

Israel’s Jazz Scene: an interview with Eli Degibri

By Eli Degibri
Eli Degibri is an Israeli Jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the co-Artistic Director of the Red... Read more > Spring 2013

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: an interview with Emanuele Ottolenghi

By Emanuele Ottolenghi
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. His most recent book,... Read more > Spring 2013

Israel has a narrative that can resonate: an interview with David Horovitz

By David Horovitz
David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel, a current affairs website based in Jerusalem... Read more > Spring 2013

Head to Head: Yossi Beilin and Ephraim Sneh on the Iranian nuclear threat

By Yossi Beilin and Ephraim Sneh
Israeli policy makers across the political spectrum agree that Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons would be a major... Read more > Spring 2013

In praise of compromise: Simon Round interviews Amos Oz

By Simon Round
Amos Oz has lived through every one of Israel’s wars and fought in two of them. He has... Read more > Spring 2013

The Making of The Gatekeepers: an interview with Dror Moreh

By Dror Moreh
Dror Moreh is the director of the Academy Award nominated Israeli documentary The Gatekeepers, a rare insight into... Read more > Spring 2013

The making of the law in these parts: an interview with director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz

By Ra'anan Alexandrowicz
The Israeli documentary The Law in these Parts won the Sundance 2012 World Cinema Grand Jury Documentary Prize... Read more > Spring 2013

Deathbed the Musical

By Liat Har-Gil
Israeli animation graduate Liat Har-Gil from Rosh Ha’ayen won the 2012 Faith Shorts, the global film competition of... Read more > Spring 2013

Israel reinvents the documentary

By Yair Raveh
The Gatekeepers is a masterpiece in a landmark year for Israeli documentaries. The last fifteen years have seen... Read more > Spring 2013

Can two walk together?

By A.B Yehoshua
An extract from a play by A.B. Yehoshua. Translated by David Janner-Klausner and adapted for stage by Amy... Read more > Spring 2013

Book Review: Israel’s Death Hierarchy

By Avi Kober
This is an excellent account of Israeli casualty aversion by one of Israel’s leading military sociologists. At the... Read more > Spring 2013

Book Review: Beyond Occupation

By Robbie Sabel
The book is a brief for the claim that Israeli practices in the territories amount to ‘a crime... Read more > Spring 2013

Book Review: Moshe Dayan: Israel’s controversial hero

By Shany Mor
Occasionally in the history of nations a character emerges who seems to personify the nation itself, not so... Read more > Spring 2013

Book Review: Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism

By Alan Johnson
The cultural theorist Judith Butler has written what she intends as a critique of Zionism derived from Jewish... Read more > Spring 2013