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

Bar Kochba and Us: The Israeli Debate during Tisha Be’Av

By Calev Ben-Dor
Calev Ben-Dor argues that the fight raging today between Israeli politicians about how to interpret the meaning of... Read more > July 2021

Fathom Long Read | The Progressive Saviour Complex: Quakers, American Jews and Israel

By Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky
Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky are senior non-resident scholars at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, and co-authors... Read more > July 2021

Iran under President Raisi: What should the region and the West expect? | An interview with Henry Rome

By Henry Rome
On 13 July, Fathom’s deputy editor Samuel Nurding sat down with the Eurasia Group’s Henry Rome to discuss... Read more > July 2021

Rereadings | The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership by Yehuda Avner

By Liam Hoare
‘The ultimate insider’s account’ wrote George Gruen on the release of Yehuda Avner’s book The Prime Ministers in... Read more > July 2021

Criticism of Israel is not Antisemitic. But ‘Anti-Zionism’ is. This is why

By Russell A. Shalev
Russell Shalev argues that human rights movements cannot adequately address anti-Jewish discrimination, harassment or violence without recognising the... Read more > July 2021

Anshel Pfeffer and Antisemitism: A Reply by Ben Cohen

By Ben Cohen
Ben Cohen is the author of Some Of My Best Friends: A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism. He... Read more > July 2021

‘Choosing comrades’: Solidarity in the Middle East and Labour’s foreign policy

By Gary Kent
In this essay, Gary Kent argues that the British Labour Party should seek to amplify the voices of... Read more > July 2021

Opinion | Liberal Zionists fight for liberalism in Israel, and Zionism abroad

By Paul Gross
Before immigrating to Israel from the UK in 2007 Paul Gross worked for the British government on religious... Read more > July 2021

The erasure from historical memory of Israeli statehood offers and Palestinian rejections is badly distorting today’s debate about Middle East...

By Salo Aizenberg
The erasure from our historical memory of Israeli attempts to achieve peace by agreeing to Palestinian statehood, and... Read more > July 2021

Fathom Long Read | Valentina Azarova: A Controversy Assessed

By Cary Nelson
Debate rages about the possible appointment of Valentina Azarova to the position of Director of the Toronto Law... Read more > July 2021

UK-Israel 2021 | Mandate: The Palestine Crucible 1919-1939

By Colin Shindler
Three years ago, a retired British army officer, Ian Westerman, wrote an article in Ha'aretz, entitled 'What did... Read more > July 2021

Incoming! Watch out, Peter Beinart is Fighting the Good Fight (again)

By Joshua A. Brook
Peter Beinart backed the US invasion of Iraq. He called it ‘the Good Fight’ and wrote a 2006... Read more > July 2021

UK-Israel 2021 | The Flourishing of UK-Israel Academic Networks

By John Levy
John Levy, Director of the Academic Study Group on Israel and the Middle East (ASG) explains how his... Read more > July 2021

Antisemitism and the Left: A Memoir

By Kathleen Hayes
'I swam in a sea of antisemitism for years and didn’t notice the water was filthy,’ writes Kathleen... Read more > July 2021

Book Review | Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future

By Justin Bronk
Drone Wars is an ambitious attempt to provide a narrative framework for the development, combat usage and future... Read more > July 2021

Against Solutionism, Against Nowism: For ‘the Longer, Shorter Path’ | An interview with Moshe Ya'alon

By Moshe Ya'alon
Former Israeli Minister of Defence Lieutenant General (Ret.) Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya'alon was born in Kiryat Haim in 1950... Read more > June 2021

Opinion | Iran now controls three borders with Israel. Hamas’s missile war was a foretaste of what Tehran intends next

By Kyle Orton
Israel has been thwarting Iran’s global terrorist operations but has been less successful closer to home. The IRGC... Read more > June 2021

‘The Monash Soviet’ and Israel: A case study of how the Australian campus far left lost its way after the...

By Philip Mendes
For a half century, for good and for ill, Western universities have been incubating world views which go... Read more > June 2021

My Israeli Music: Hamutal Gouri

By Hamutal Gouri
Hamutal Gouri is the former executive director of the Dafna Fund, a feminist fund working to promote women's organisations in Israel. She... Read more > June 2021

The Three Best Books on Antisemitism, recommended by Dave Rich

By Dave Rich
Fathom is inviting experts to select their three favourite books about a subject. The series began with Sara... Read more > June 2021

Book Review | Not in Kansas Anymore: Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities

By Eve Garrard
Academic freedom is the liberty which academics have, within the confines of the law, to question and test... Read more > June 2021

Gazan Futures | After Operation Guardians of the Wall

By Amos Yadlin
Amos Yadlin discusses the recent asymmetric conflict between Israel and Hamas, providing five insights about the operation and... Read more > June 2021

Gazan Futures | Five ways to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and facilitate its return to Gaza

By Celine Touboul
Celine Touboul is the co-Executive Director of the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF), an Israeli policy-planning think-tank. Celine leads... Read more > June 2021

Gazan Futures | Prospects of a long-term armistice or hudna with Hamas

By Ehud Yaari
Ehud Yaari is an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. He is the author of eight books on the... Read more > June 2021

Naftali Bennett and Israel’s (divided) National Religious Community: A Guide for the Perplexed

By Calev Ben-Dor
The new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a ‘religious-Zionist’. But what does that mean and why has... Read more > June 2021

My Israeli Music: Michael Wegier

By Michael Wegier
In a new Fathom series, we invite guests to select their favourite Israeli music and tell us a little about... Read more > June 2021

Opinion | The UK and EU should recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — and Palestine

By Liam Hoare
In April 1949, what was then the New Statesman and Nation — at the time aligned with the... Read more > June 2021

Britain and Israel in 1948: A note in response to Ronnie Fraser

By Natan Aridan
In March 2021 Fathom published ‘The Rockiest of Starts: Anglo-Israeli Relations 1948-1950’ by Natan Aridan, editor of Israel... Read more > June 2021

2017 Fathom Interview with Naftali Bennett

By Naftali Bennett
‘Forming a Palestinian state along the lines that many readers of Fathom believe is the way forward would... Read more > Winter 2017

Peter Beinart and Palestinian Refugee ‘Return’: A Critique

By Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf
Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf are the authors of The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the... Read more > June 2021

The Danger of Greater Israel

By Michael Walzer
In this urgent essay, written before the new Israeli coalition government was agreed, but with great relevance to... Read more > June 2021

Opinion | A desire to remove Netanyahu has created a coalition stretching from Naftali Bennett to Mansor Abbas. Can it...

By Calev Ben-Dor
The (four-time) failure of the right wing and ultra-Orthodox parties to garner 61 seats, the steady erosion of... Read more > June 2021

How to Defeat Hamas

By Toby Greene
Toby Greene argues that military tools are not enough. What’s needed is a long-term vision for sustainable political... Read more > June 2021

Book Review| The CIA War in Kurdistan: The Untold Story of the Northern Front in the Iraq War

By Paul Iddon
Sam Faddis's recent account of his time as a CIA operations officer in Iraq in the run-up to... Read more > June 2021

Still Standing, but Shaky: Jordan at 100

By Asher Susser
Asher Susser is Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University (TAU). On the occasion of Jordan’s... Read more > May 2021

‘Calling a truce with left-wing antisemitism’: The Case Against the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism

By John Hyman and Anthony Julius
University College London’s governing Council voted in November 2019 to adopt the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) Working... Read more > May 2021

UK-Israel 2021 | When Britain almost declared war on Israel

By Ronnie Fraser
At the beginning of January 1949, eight months after Britain had withdrawn from Palestine, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin... Read more > May 2021

I hope that UCL faculty and staff will defend IHRA, as I would do were I with them

By Michael Walzer
Michael Walzer is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and editor emeritus... Read more > May 2021

Fathom Long Read | Antisemitism and the IHRA at University College London

By Cary Nelson
For twenty years Cary Nelson was part of the elected leadership of the American Association of University Professors,... Read more > May 2021

Read it again. Read better. Dave Rich on Derek Penslar’s serial misrepresentations of the IHRA

By Dave Rich
Dave Rich is Head of Policy at the Community Security Trust. He argues that Derek Penslar’s criticisms of... Read more > May 2021

Cultivating Israel Hatred in the University: The role of the T-Group Classroom

By Channa Newman and Thomas Mullane
The Basic Skills Training Group, or simply ‘T-group', was popularised in the 1950s as a humanistic therapeutic approach... Read more > May 2021

UK-Israel2021 | The Roots of the ‘Al Aqsa is in Danger’ Myth: Alfred Mond and a Speech Distorted

By Yisrael Medad
In 1921 British politician Alfred Mond, visiting Palestine, said ‘our sanctuary, our Temple, we will construct as an... Read more > May 2021

The UK and US can help build an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. The time is now.

By John Lyndon
This journal has long argued that people-to-people peacemaking programmes on a grand scale are essential to advance the... Read more > April 2021

Once Again on the Jerusalem Declaration: A Rejoinder to Derek Penslar and Michael Walzer

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson’s responds to replies by Derek Penslar and Michael Walzer to his Fathom article ‘Accommodating the New... Read more > April 2021

IHRA and JDA: Examining Definitions of Antisemitism in 2021

By Jeffrey Herf
Jeffrey Herf is Distinguished University Professor, Department of History, University of Maryland College Park. His latest book, Israel’s... Read more > April 2021

‘A Remarkably Aggressive Naïveté’: A Response to Derek Penslar and Michael Walzer

By Richard Landes
Richard Landes argues that the claim made by the signatories of the Jerusalem Declaration that – in the... Read more > April 2021

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism may inadvertently give cover to antisemites

By Gerald Izenberg
Gerald N. Izenberg is Prof. Emeritus of History at Washington University in St. Louis. He argues that the... Read more > April 2021

Diary from London | Adam Ognall, Chief Executive, New Israel Fund UK

By Adam Ognall
After ten years in post, Adam Ognall is stepping down as CEO of the New Israel Fund UK... Read more > April 2021

Palestinian Elections: As In 2006, A Dangerous Idea

By Elliott Abrams
Elliott Abrams is Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was Deputy... Read more > April 2021

Why I Signed the Jerusalem Declaration: A Response to Cary Nelson

By Derek Penslar
Derek Penslar is William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University and Resident Faculty at the... Read more > April 2021

The Jerusalem Declaration: A Response to Cary Nelson

By Michael Walzer
Michael Walzer is Professor Emeritus of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. For many... Read more > April 2021

Book Review | The Star and the Scepter: A Diplomatic History of Israel

By David Rodman
The State of Israel has existed for a little over 70 years. A medium power by global standards,... Read more > April 2021

President Biden's Middle East Policy

By Yossi Kuperwasser
Yossi Kuperwasser argues that President Biden's Middle East policy reflects the tension between his understanding that the region... Read more > April 2021

Fathom Long Read | Accommodating the New Antisemitism: a Critique of ‘The Jerusalem Declaration’

By Cary Nelson
Download and print a PDF version here.  In this comprehensive critique Cary Nelson argues that the recent ‘Jerusalem... Read more > April 2021

Book Review | Stories from Palestine: Narratives of Resilience

By Zeina M. Barakat
To be entrusted with someone’s narrative is a privilege. To grant such access … is an act of... Read more > April 2021

Three best books on Zionism, recommended by Gil Troy

By Gil Troy
Fathom is inviting experts to select their three favourite books about a subject. The series began with Sara... Read more > April 2021

Mansour Abbas: Islamist Kingmaker of Israeli politics

By Calev Ben-Dor
Arab political parties have become central players in Israeli politics. But how has a young dentist turned politician... Read more > March 2021

Opinion | Israel voted for change, but that’s only the beginning of the story

By Toby Greene
During Benjamin Netanyahu’s first premiership in the late 1990s, his crisis-driven leadership style led British Ambassador David Manning... Read more > March 2021

UK-Israel2021 | The Rockiest of Starts: Anglo-Israeli Relations 1948-1950

By Natan Aridan
Natan Aridan is Lecturer in Israel Studies and researcher at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of... Read more > March 2021

Book Review | The Wondering Jew

By Robin Moss
In the spring and summer of 2017, Micah Goodman caused something of a publishing sensation with Milkud 67,... Read more > March 2021

Israel's political system is broken. Here is how to fix it.

By Yohanan Plesner
As Israelis head to the polls for the fourth time in two years, Yohanan Plesner, President of the... Read more > March 2021

What should Biden do next on Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Iran? A review essay by Yair Hirschfeld

By Yair Hirschfeld
Professor Yair Hirschfeld was a key architect of the Oslo Accords in 1993. In this review essay he assesses the policy... Read more > February 2021

Castles in the Air? The American Return to the UN Human Rights Council

By Gerald M. Steinberg
The Biden administration has decided to return to the UN Human Rights Council in order to reform it... Read more > February 2021

Why you should read the two Israeli novels on the New York Times list of 100 notable books of 2020

By Liam Hoare
Two Israeli novels — The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid and The Tunnel by A.B. Yehoshua — made... Read more > February 2021

Fathom eBook | In Defence of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism

By Fathom Editors
Fathom has published a new eBook about the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which you can DOWNLOAD HERE. In... Read more > February 2021

Why the 2010 Equality Act does not make the IHRA definition of antisemitism redundant

By Lesley Klaff and Derek Spitz
David Feldman and others have argued against the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism by universities on... Read more > February 2021

UK-Israel 2021 | How Israel military tech (and doctrine) will make the UK better at fighting the hybrid warfare of...

By Seth Frantzman
Technology is radically transforming the battlefield, revolutionising doctrines of warfighting and counter-terrorism. ‘Hybrid warfare’ is the new reality.... Read more > January 2021

Existential conflicts cannot be solved: a new framework for resolving the Israeli–Palestinian dispute

By Bren Carlill
'The Challenges of Resolving the Israeli–Palestinian Dispute: An Impossible Peace?' is published this month by Palgrave Macmillan. In... Read more > January 2021

It was the new phenomenon of Israel-focused antisemitism that required the new definition. David Hirsh responds to a recent ‘call...

By David Hirsh
40 UK-based Israeli academics, broadly from the anti-Zionist left, have issued a ‘call to reject’ the IHRA Working... Read more > January 2021

BICOM Forecast Paper: The Middle East in 2021

By BICOM
BICOM’s sixth annual forecast is a guide for policy makers and opinion formers to issues and events that will... Read more > January 2021

UK-Israel 2021 | An interview with UK Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan  

By Neil Wigan OBE
BICOM’s Director Richard Pater spoke to UK Ambassador Neil Wigan shortly before the turn of the year about... Read more > January 2021

The IHRA: A Reply to the Guardian Letter signed by Sir Stephen Sedley et al.

By Dave Rich
On 7 January 2021 The Guardian published a letter from eight lawyers who claimed that the IHRA definition... Read more > January 2021

Rereadings | Yisrael Medad on the poetry of Uri Tzvi Greenberg

By Yisrael Medad
Yisrael Medad spent many hours with the poet and Revisionist Zionist Uri Tzvi Greenberg (1896-1981) at Greenberg’s Ramat... Read more > January 2021

The Three Best Books on Settlements, recommended by Sara Hirschhorn

By Sara Hirschhorn
Welcome to a new Fathom series in which experts select their three favourite books about a subject. To... Read more > January 2021