Fathom - For a deeper understanding of Israel, the region, and global antisemitism

A filmmaker, a feminist, an Israeli, a Bedouin, a Palestinian. A conversation with Rana Abu Fraiha

By Calev Ben-Dor
Rana Abu Fraiha was born in the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva before leaving with her family at... Read more > December 2021

The Afghanistan retreat: We may soon be recalling why we went there in the first place.

By Tzvi Fleischer
Tzvi Fleischer argues the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal does not mark the end of the global conflict launched on... Read more > December 2021

Thomas Mann’s Philo-Semitism and Colm Toibin’s Thomas Mann

By Shalom Goldman
In January 1934, the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior revoked the novelist Thomas Mann’s German citizenship, in... Read more > December 2021

A reply to David Davidi-Brown on the Israeli government's designation of six Palestinian NGOs

By Gerald M. Steinberg
Gerald M. Steinberg is the Director of NGO Monitor. Fathom published his supportive response to the Israel government’s... Read more > December 2021

Book Review | The Passport as Home: Comfort in Rootlessness

By Philip Spencer
The subtitle of this interesting memoir is ‘comfort in rootlessness’. This formulation is, as the author suggests, a... Read more > December 2021

It’s too soon to write the obituary of the anti-Iran alliance in the Middle East

By Jonathan Spyer
The claim that the pro-Western alliance in the region has collapsed in the wake of a US withdrawal... Read more > November 2021

The jibe ‘Progressive except for Palestine (PEP)’ is a cynical political strategy to exclude moderate progressives from debates on resolving...

By Philip Mendes
In this essay, Philip Mendes argues that the new buzzword for Palestinian nationalists, 'Progressive except for Palestine,' aimed... Read more > November 2021

Palestinian NGO Terror Links: Assessing the Implications of Israel's Designations (2)

By David Davidi-Brown
Fathom invited responses to the Israeli government’s decision to designate six Palestinian NGOs as prohibited terrorist fronts from... Read more > November 2021

‘Can’t You See He’s Fooled You All?’: An Open Letter to Peter Gabriel et al explaining why Israel is not...

By Alan Johnson
100 artists including Ken Loach, Mark Rylance and Susan Sarandon have signed an open letter indicting Israel as... Read more > November 2021

Book Review | War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East

By Efraim Halevy
Gershom Gorenberg, a historian and journalist, has spent years researching and writing this account of dramatic events in... Read more > November 2021

UK-Israel 2021 | Ambivalent Allies? Zionism, Israel and the Conservative Party from Balfour to Boris

By James Vaughan
James Vaughan is Lecturer in International History at the University of Aberystwyth. His current research focuses upon the... Read more > November 2021

Palestinian NGO Terror Links: Assessing the Implications of Israel’s Designations (1)

By Gerald M. Steinberg
Fathom invited responses to the Israeli government’s decision to designate six Palestinian NGOs as prohibited terrorist fronts from... Read more > November 2021

The Fourth Window, or the Wounds of Amos Oz

By Liam Hoare
Liam Hoare says The Fourth Window, a new documentary about Amos Oz by the Israeli filmmaker Yair Qedar,... Read more > November 2021

My Israeli Music | Lusil Blek

By Lusil Blek
Lusil Blek is an Israeli graphic designer. Her mother constantly reminds her that she started singing when she... Read more > November 2021

Book Review | Growing up Jewish in India: Synagogues, Customs and Communities from the Bene Israel to the Art of...

By Khinvraj Jangid
Growing up Jewish in India is a book about the Jews of India told from a variety of... Read more > October 2021

Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel After the May 2021 Unrest: A Survey by Sammy Smooha

By Sammy Smooha
In May 2021, for the first time in Israel, Arabs and Jews in the mixed cities of Haifa,... Read more > October 2021

Combatting gang crime and violence in Arab communities

By Michael Milshtein
Dr Michael Milshtein is head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern... Read more > October 2021

Rasmea Odeh: How an unrepentant Palestinian terrorist became a political hero of the anti-Zionist left

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson reviews Steven Lubet’s The Trials of Rasmea Odeh: How a Palestinian Guerilla Gained and Lost U.S. Citizenship.... Read more > October 2021

Book Review | Hidden Heroes: One Woman's Story of Resistance and Rescue in The Soviet Union

By Yisrael Medad
From 1962, when Matzot for Russia’s Jews for the upcoming Passover holiday were dumped on the pavement in... Read more > October 2021

The Abraham Accords One Year On | An interview with Dr Moran Zaga

By Moran Zaga
Dr Moran Zaga is a research fellow at the University of Haifa focused on the geopolitics of the Gulf.... Read more > October 2021

How Best to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism on the Left: An Exchange between Kathleen Hayes and Michael Walzer

By Kathleen Hayes Michael Walzer
Mosaic magazine ran four pieces in July 2021 focusing on the respective merits of the IHRA Definition of... Read more > October 2021

Opinion | Labour Party Conference 2021: 'Significant progress has been made on tackling antisemitism, but there is still a mountain...

By Luke Akehurst
I’ve spent most of the last week at the Labour Party’s Annual Conference, in my capacity as an... Read more > October 2021

Opinion | ‘Labour’s stance on Israel-Palestine is shifting back to the balanced, mature and constructive approach of the Blair-Brown years’:...

By Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin is the Director of Labour Friends of Israel. Six years ago, at his first conference as... Read more > October 2021

Autumn / 2020

The IHRA Definition, Institutional Antisemitism, and Wittgenstein

Book Review | Head of the Mossad: In Pursuit of a Safe and Secure Israel

Israel Without Sharon’s Coma: A Counterfactual History

‘The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.’ The tenacity of an anti-Zionist fable

Fathom Long Read | Adorno and Iran: Critical Theory and Islamic Antisemitism

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020): A Tribute

Opinion | Jews are asking for protection from their universities from antisemitism. David Feldman’s ‘All Lives Matter’ response is not...

Fathom Podcast | Will Saudi Arabia make peace with Israel?

Book Review | Since 1948: Israeli Literature in the Making

Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People | An interview with Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy

The Unique Voice of Ruth Gavison (1945-2020)

What Corbyn’s favourite sociologists Greg Philo and Mike Berry get wrong about contemporary antisemitism

Symposium: Biden and Israel | ‘Biden will not reprise the acrimony of Barack Obama’s dealings with Israel. He may prove...

Symposium: Biden and Israel | Don't expect to see the Obama/Kerry paradigm

Symposium: Biden and Israel | ‘There is simply too much damage to repair around the world. The Israelis and the...

Symposium: Biden and Israel | ‘The biggest challenge for US-Israeli relations will be Iran. The Biden team has been vague,...

Symposium: Biden and Israel | The Abraham Accords shattered a policy paralysis and a cycle of failed mediation and negotiations...

Diary from Ramat Gan | ‘The humanities classroom is one of the great achievements of Western civilisation’

Corbyn is one man. Left-Wing Antisemitism is a Tradition

Fathom Report | Institutionally Antisemitic: Contemporary Left Antisemitism and the Crisis in the British Labour Party

Rabin’s 1989 Peace Initiative – When The Security Hawk First Displayed His Dovish Peace Policy

The Poverty of 'Anti-Zionism' and the Renewal of Zionism

Diary from Tel Aviv | Thinking in Quarantine

CALL FOR PAPERS: Fathoming UK-Israel2021

Images of Israel in India

Rereadings | The Arthur Hertzberg / Hugh Trevor-Roper Controversy about Antisemitism

Diary from Tel Aviv | Among the Furious Tribes in Lockdown Israel

Peter Beinart’s Grotesque Utopia

Fathom eBook | Rescuing Israeli-Palestinian Peace: The Fathom Essays 2016-2020

The UAE-Israel Deal: Like a Bridge Over Troubled Sands

Communists for the Jewish State: British Communists and the Daily Worker in 1948

Opinions | What Bibi learned from Arik. And why it might still not be enough.

Fathom Book Reviews

Autumn / 2021

A filmmaker, a feminist, an Israeli, a Bedouin, a Palestinian. A conversation with Rana Abu Fraiha

The Afghanistan retreat: We may soon be recalling why we went there in the first place.

Thomas Mann’s Philo-Semitism and Colm Toibin’s Thomas Mann

A reply to David Davidi-Brown on the Israeli government's designation of six Palestinian NGOs

Book Review | The Passport as Home: Comfort in Rootlessness

It’s too soon to write the obituary of the anti-Iran alliance in the Middle East

The jibe ‘Progressive except for Palestine (PEP)’ is a cynical political strategy to exclude moderate progressives from debates on resolving...

Palestinian NGO Terror Links: Assessing the Implications of Israel's Designations (2)

‘Can’t You See He’s Fooled You All?’: An Open Letter to Peter Gabriel et al explaining why Israel is not...

Book Review | War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East

UK-Israel 2021 | Ambivalent Allies? Zionism, Israel and the Conservative Party from Balfour to Boris

Palestinian NGO Terror Links: Assessing the Implications of Israel’s Designations (1)

The Fourth Window, or the Wounds of Amos Oz

My Israeli Music | Lusil Blek

Book Review | Growing up Jewish in India: Synagogues, Customs and Communities from the Bene Israel to the Art of...

Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel After the May 2021 Unrest: A Survey by Sammy Smooha

Combatting gang crime and violence in Arab communities

Rasmea Odeh: How an unrepentant Palestinian terrorist became a political hero of the anti-Zionist left

Book Review | Hidden Heroes: One Woman's Story of Resistance and Rescue in The Soviet Union

The Abraham Accords One Year On | An interview with Dr Moran Zaga

How Best to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism on the Left: An Exchange between Kathleen Hayes and Michael Walzer

Opinion | Labour Party Conference 2021: 'Significant progress has been made on tackling antisemitism, but there is still a mountain...

Opinion | ‘Labour’s stance on Israel-Palestine is shifting back to the balanced, mature and constructive approach of the Blair-Brown years’:...

My Israeli Music: Keith Kahn-Harris on Israeli Metal, Punk and Noise

What does the withdrawal from Afghanistan mean for the US role in the Middle East?

Amazon Prime's Human Factor: American negotiators and the failure of the Oslo Peace Process

We Shall Be as A City on A Hill: Trump, ‘Progressive’ Antisemitism, and the Loss of American Jewish Exceptionalism

My Israeli Music: Aaron Kalman

Jean Améry as a Critic of the Anti-Israel Left

Book Review | More Than I Love My Life

My Israeli Music: DJ Antithesis

Summer / 2020

Fathom eBook | Essays on the British Mandate in Palestine, 1920-1948

‘Balancing the liberal and the national was the genetic code of the movement Jabotinsky and Begin founded’: Dan Meridor on...

Israel and Diaspora Jewry: Is the Coronavirus Crisis an opportunity to redesign the relationship?

Opinions | And the Walls Came Tumblin’ Down?

Mandate100 | The ‘Antisemite Ernest Bevin’ and the day Britain recognised the State of Israel

Mandate100 | Palestinians and the Partition Plan

Opinions | The Wisdom of Peter Beinart’s Grandmother

Opinions | How Not To Quote Ze’ev Jabotinsky: A Reply to Peter Beinart

'The unilateral application of Israeli sovereignty is necessary to move the peace process forward’: An Open Letter to Boris Johnson...

Dore Gold, Amos Gilead and Ghaith al-Omari: Three views on annexation / applying Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank

Mandate100 | ‘A dangerous people to quarrel with’: Lloyd George’s Secret Testimony to the Peel Commission Revealed

Opinions | What John McDonnell Still Does Not Understand

The Lie That Will Not Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion