Fathom

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

Spring / 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

Winter / 2013

Fathom 1

By Fathom Editors
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Letter from Gush Etzion

By Samuel Lebens
 Think you know who the settlers are? Think again I live beyond the Green Line. That makes me... Read more > Winter 2013

The accidental wisdom of Israel’s maligned electoral system

By Shany Mor
 Routinely berated for producing weak governments beholden to minorities, Israel’s electoral system actually gives all a voice and... Read more > Winter 2013

To stop Iran, all options must (really) be on the table

By Emily B. Landau
 The international community must now play hardball with Iran. Only escalating sanctions and a credible military threat can... Read more > Winter 2013

Defining antisemitism down

By David Hirsh
 When the UCU rejected the EUMC Working Definition of antisemitism which states that some kinds of criticism of... Read more > Winter 2013

Shifting world, shifting priorities

By Toby Greene
 The global economic crisis and the Arab Spring have impacted but not transformed the Britain-Israel relationship. Toby Greene... Read more > Winter 2013

Let’s get real in presenting Israel

By Mike Prashker
 The story we tell about Israel should take its cue from Danny Boyle’s glorious but messy London opening... Read more > Winter 2013

Israel’s new strategic environment

By Asher Susser
 Israel used to fear the potential of Arab power. Now it must be wary of the fallout from... Read more > Winter 2013

Israel’s Arab citizens

By Alice Wood
 Integrating Arab citizens into the Israeli private sector is good for Israel’s Arab citizens, good for Israel’s economy... Read more > Winter 2013

The IDF 2.0: Alan Johnson interviews Amos Harel

By Amos Harel
 A fast-changing society, a disturbing new regional security environment and radical new ideas in military philosophy: are we... Read more > Winter 2013

The Two Jerusalems: a review essay

By Noam Leshem
 There are two Jerusalems: the celestial yerushalayim shel mala and the earthly yerushalayim shel mata. These three books... Read more > Winter 2013

Book Review: Spies Against Armageddon

By Ephraim Kahana
 Inside Israel’s secret wars 22 years after the release of their best seller The Imperfect Spies, Yossi Melman and... Read more > Winter 2013

Book Review | Global Palestine

By Philip Spencer
 The central argument of this book is that the question of Palestine is fundamentally a global question, indeed... Read more > Winter 2013

Book Review: Israel and the European Left

By Ezra Mendelsohn
 Shindler offers a valuable account of the rise and rise of anti-Zionism within the European Left. At the... Read more > Winter 2013

Films of faith

By Yair Raveh
 2012 will be remembered as the year in which Israeli movies finally found God. It's not often a... Read more > Winter 2013

The Future of Liberal Zionism: An Interview with Michael Walzer

By Michael Walzer
 Michael Walzer is one of America’s foremost political thinkers. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study... Read more > Winter 2013

Helping Israel’s Arab citizens into high-tech

By Alan Johnson
 Tsofen is an Israeli non profit organization designed to help Israel’s Arab citizens enter the country’s high-tech industry.... Read more > Winter 2013

Head to head: Moshe Arens and Ami Ayalon discuss coordinated unilateralism

By Ami Ayalon and Moshe Arens
 Unilateral withdrawal from part of the West Bank was very much on the agenda following Israel’s withdrawal from the... Read more > Winter 2013

Thoughts of a National Liberal: an interview with Benny Begin

By Benny Begin
 First elected to the Knesset in 1988 as a Likud MK, Benny Begin is Minister without Portfolio in... Read more > Winter 2013

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