Fathom

Spring / 2014

Fathom 6

By Fathom Editors
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The Journey of the Kurds

By Gary Kent
 The journey of Iraqi Kurdistan from dictatorship to democracy has been remarkable. Gary Kent reports on the transformation... Read more > Spring 2014

The new assault on Israeli academia (and us)

By Cary Nelson
 Cary Nelson, former president of the American Association of University Professors and co-editor of The Case Against Academic... Read more > Spring 2014

A reply to The Lancet’s ‘Open letter for the people in Gaza’

By David Stone
 Introduction On 22 July 2014, one of the world’s leading medical journals, The Lancet, published a letter entitled... Read more > Spring 2014

Philosophers For Hamas!

By Gabriel Noah Brahm
 A leading European philosopher has declared for killing ‘Zionists’ and arming Hamas. Gabriel Brahm asks what it all... Read more > Spring 2014

The Two-State Solution: The Way Forward

By Manuel Hassassian and Raphael Cohen-Almagor
 When we launched Fathom the editors declared that the journal would be ‘a partisan and artisan of the... Read more > Spring 2014

Mutual recognition is essential for a solution

By Toby Greene
 The Hassassian and Cohen-Almagor document is commendable for its embrace of mutual recognition, respect and dialogue, even if... Read more > Spring 2014

Israel’s National-Religious Jews and the quest for peace

By Ofer Zalzberg
 The Middle East Peace Process has often marginalised the voice of the ‘National-Religious,’ or ‘Religious Zionist’ Jews. Ofer... Read more > Spring 2014

Demarcating the Israeli-Palestinian Border

By Professor David Newman
 One reason for the foundering of the recent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks was the failure of the parties to... Read more > Spring 2014

Disaster in the Levant: the Syrian Civil War in its fourth year

By Jonathan Spyer
 Jonathan Spyer is one of the few policy experts to regularly visit the front lines in Syria. In... Read more > Spring 2014

Time for a Revolution in Israel’s Global Engagement

By Gidi Grinstein and Daphna Kaufman
 Israel needs a revolution in how it thinks about foreign relations. To meet huge external challenges it needs... Read more > Spring 2014

Book Review: Israel Has Moved

By Jonathan Cummings
 According to Michel Foucault, the French philosopher, the essence of modernity can be understood in the way in... Read more > Spring 2014

Finding the Words: a review essay

By Liam Hoare
 Books under review: Falling Out of Time David Grossman, Jonathan Cape, 2014, pp.208; Neuland, Eshkol Nevo, Chatto &... Read more > Spring 2014

Book Review: My Promised Land: The Triumph and the Tragedy of Israel

By Hannah Weisfeld
 As a British Jew reading Ari Shavit’s account of modern day Israel, his starting point feels particularly poignant.... Read more > Spring 2014

East meets West in film

By Yair Raveh
 It is not only in politics and the street that Israel’s ethnic tensions surface. Our film reviewer Yair... Read more > Spring 2014

The Philosophy behind ‘BDS’: a review of ‘Deconstructing Zionism: A Critique of Political Metaphysics’

By Gabriel Noah Brahm
 What is one to make of a volume of specialised essays in contemporary philosophy – a compilation including... Read more > Spring 2014

Jerusalem Solitudes in Early Hebrew Literature

By Noga Emanuel
 As the spiritual bedrock of Judaism, Jerusalem had been a magnet for millennial longing. For centuries Jews intensely... Read more > Spring 2014

Israel and the Territories

By Ahron Bregman
 Fathom editors spoke to Ahron Bregman about his new book Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the... Read more > Spring 2014

Israeli Youth in Distress

By Simcha Getahune
 Dr Simcha Getahune, Director of ELEM – Youth in Distress spoke to Fathom’s Bethany Coates about troubled youth... Read more > Spring 2014

America’s Global Dilemma

By Ben Cohen
 ‘Reset,’ ‘Pivot,’ ‘Leading from Behind,’ ‘Red Lines,’ – the catchphrases of President Obama’s foreign policy are now often... Read more > Spring 2014

Jews and the Left

By Philip Mendes
 Dr Philip Mendes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine at Monash... Read more > Spring 2014

The state of Hamas: Toby Greene interviews Benedetta Berti

By Benedetta Berti
 Questions have been raised about the direction and intentions of Hamas since the signing of a reconciliation agreement... Read more > Spring 2014

Saving the Promised Land: Alan Johnson interviews Ari Shavit

By Ari Shavit
 Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land: The Triumph and the Tragedy of Israel is one of the most talked... Read more > Spring 2014

Václav Havel’s legacy and the struggle for human rights in Iran today

By Ladan Boroumand
 Ladan Boroumand is the cofounder and research director of The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation (ABF), an NGO dedicated to... Read more > Spring 2014

Dispatches from the front: a quarterly report from a roving ambassador for Israel

By Einat Wilf
 Welcome to Einat Wilf’s new Fathom column. A former MK and now a roving global ambassador for Israel... Read more > Spring 2014

The ISIS-Kurdish War

By Jonathan Spyer
 Jonathan Spyer, a Middle East analyst, author and journalist specialising in the areas of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria... Read more > Summer 2014

Winter / 2014

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

Autumn / 2013

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

Summer / 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

Most read

Voice of the Week

Our Voice of the Fortnight is Einat Wilf critiquing David Lammy's announcement to renew UNWRA funding

Image of the Week

Released hostage Shlomi Ziv returning to his home in Moshav Elkosh, in northern Israel, 25 June 2024. Photo by Ayal Margolin/Flash90

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