Jewish votes and British foreign policy: The 1930 Whitechapel by-election

By Ronnie Fraser
At the Whitechapel and St. George’s by-election on 3 December 1930 Jewish voters directly influenced British policy on... Read more > January 2018

The Netanyahu Years: an interview with Ben Caspit

By Ben Caspit
In this exclusive interview, Fathom deputy editor Calev Ben-Dor sits down with Ben Caspit, a senior columnist for... Read more > Winter 2017

Why is there no Museum of Contemporary Israeli History?

By Liam Hoare
Israeli museums, argues Liam Hoare, are a terrain of political struggle over history and memory. ‘Until these arguments... Read more > Winter 2017

BICOM-JN Conference 2017 | Speech by Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry

By Emily Thornberry
This speech was delivered by the Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry at the BICOM-Jewish News Conference, held in... Read more > Autumn 2017

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

‘The door won’t always remain open’: David Makovsky on the ‘Settlements and Solutions’ project

By David Makovsky
Fathom hosted a private briefing with David Makovsky, the Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director... Read more > Autumn 2017

‘Trump is continuing Obama’s retreat from the world’: William Kristol on US foreign policy

By William Kristol
William Kristol is the founder and editor at large of the influential US political magazine The Weekly Standard.... Read more > Autumn 2017

‘Whatever happens in the region must come from the region’: Sir John Jenkins on Islamism, Modernity and the Middle East

By Sir John Jenkins
Sir John Jenkins is a former UK Ambassador to Syria (2007-9), Libya (2011) and Saudi Arabia (2012-5). In... Read more > Autumn 2017

The Palestinian reconciliation agreement – context, consequences and open questions

By Michael Herzog
On 1 November, the Hamas movement began the process of handing over the three Gaza border crossings to... Read more > Autumn 2017

A Proposal for a Federal Republic of Israel

By Arieh Hess and Emanuel Shahaf
The Federation Movement advocates a new political approach to peace in which Israeli law is applied to the... Read more > Autumn 2017

The Suez Crisis and the Jews of Egypt

By Lyn Julius
‘There are few greater injustices than to say about something that happened, that it did not happen’ wrote... Read more > Autumn 2017

Fathom 18 | Editorial

By Fathom Editors
Fathom 18 is a bumper issue offering 30 pieces on four broad topics: the Middle East after ISIS,... Read more > Autumn 2017

Fathom eBook | Balfour 100: The Fathom Essays

By Fathom Editors
Fathom has published a new eBook to mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which you can... Read more > Autumn 2017

Fathom Forum | Reciprocal Radicalisation Hotbeds: how Islamist and far-Right extremism feed off each other

By Julia Ebner
The following remarks were made to a Fathom Forum in London on 3 October 2017. Ebner is a... Read more > Autumn 2017

Balfour 100 | Christian Zionism and the Balfour Declaration

By Gershon Shafir
Gershon Shafir argues that British Christian Zionism pre-dated practical Jewish Zionism and helped to ensure that, by the... Read more > Autumn 2017

Balfour 100 | 'Weizmann corralled the British government behind the Zionist movement': an interview with Jonathan Schneer

By Jonathan Schneer
Jonathan Schneer’s book The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict was praised by Simon Sebag Montefiore... Read more > Autumn 2017

After ISIS Symposium: Can ISIS really be defeated without legitimate local governance? | Kyle Orton

By Kyle Orton
Editorial Introduction to the Symposium: In this symposium, six experts – Kyle Orton, Aymenn al-Tamimi, Craig Whiteside, David... Read more > Autumn 2017

After ISIS Symposium: Where will ISIS regroup? | Ely Karmon

By Ely Karmon
Editorial Introduction to the Symposium: In this symposium, six experts – Kyle Orton, Aymenn al-Tamimi, Craig Whiteside, David... Read more > Autumn 2017

After ISIS Symposium: Will ISIS now target Egypt? | Michael Barak

By Michael Barak
Editorial Introduction to the Symposium: In this symposium, six experts – Kyle Orton, Aymenn al-Tamimi, Craig Whiteside, David... Read more > Autumn 2017

After ISIS Symposium: Why ISIS will survive the loss of its 'Islamic State' | Aymenn al-Tamimi

By Aymenn al-Tamimi
Editorial Introduction to the Symposium: In this symposium, six experts – Kyle Orton, Aymenn al-Tamimi, Craig Whiteside, David... Read more > Autumn 2017

After ISIS Symposium: Will the counter-insurgency tactics used to defeat ISIS help it recruit new fighters? | Craig Whiteside

By Craig Whiteside
Editorial Introduction to the Symposium: In this symposium, six experts – Kyle Orton, Aymenn al-Tamimi, Craig Whiteside, David... Read more > Autumn 2017

After ISIS Symposium: What is the scale of the threat to the UK from returning Jihadis? | David Wells

By David Wells
Editorial Introduction to the Symposium: In this symposium, six experts – Kyle Orton, Aymenn al-Tamimi, Craig Whiteside, David... Read more > Autumn 2017

BDS and DSA: the American Left loses its way

By Jo-Ann Mort
Dissent editorial board member Jo-Ann Mort, a cofounder of the Democratic Socialists of America and former vice-chair (and... Read more > Autumn 2017

Book Review | The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire

By Bruce Maddy-Weitzman
A book about the League of Nations, let alone one of its little known subsections, the Permanent Mandates... Read more > Autumn 2017

Book Review | The Endless Quest for Israeli-Palestinian Peace: A Reflection from No Man’s Land

By Lauren Mellinger
In his new memoir The Endless Quest for Israeli-Palestinian Peace: A Reflection from No Man’s Land former UN... Read more > Autumn 2017

Book Review | We Were the Future: A Memoir of the Kibbutz

By Liam Hoare
Of all the aspects and institutions of kibbutz life, the children’s house is one that in particular continues... Read more > Autumn 2017

Book Review | The Left in Disarray

By Colin Shindler
Most of the time, the key terms of the anti-capitalist Left have no clear meaning, they express and... Read more > Autumn 2017

Book Review | The End of Jewish Modernity

By Philip Spencer
This is a sadly disappointing book. At one level, it is yet another example of a widespread failure... Read more > Autumn 2017

No Room for Small Dreams: How the Start-up Nation can help create the Start-Up Region

By Chemi Peres
Chemi Peres is the chairman of the Peres Centre for Peace and Innovation, founded by his father Shimon... Read more > Autumn 2017

Israel's diplomatic relations reconsidered

By Michael Koplow
There is a fundamental assumption undergirding the argument that people like me make about Israel needing to come... Read more > Autumn 2017

Southern Syria: How to stop the Iranian plan for regional dominance

By Michael Herzog
Michael Herzog served as head of the IDF’s Strategic Planning Division and chief of staff to Israel’s minister... Read more > Autumn 2017

Fathom Forum | ‘City on a Hilltop’? Sara Hirschhorn on the clash between liberal values and settler realities

By Sara Hirschhorn
Fathom was delighted to welcome Dr Sara Hirschhorn to a Fathom Forum in London to discuss her recent... Read more > Autumn 2017

The Israeli visa law and other own goals in the BDS wars

By Gerald M. Steinberg
It’s time to press reset on Israel’s confused response to the genuine threat of BDS and demonisation. A... Read more > Autumn 2017

Fathom 17 | Editorial

By Fathom Editors
Fathom 17 is a special issue to mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. We have three... Read more > Summer 2017

Balfour 100 | The world of our founders: being Jewish in Palestine after Balfour

By Donna Robinson Divine
Donna Robinson Divine argues that the Zionist nation-building story, while inspiring, does not reflect the trials, pains and... Read more > Summer 2017

Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in West Germany in the 1970s: Lessons for Today

By Martin Jander
In this provocative analysis of discourse about Israel in West Germany in the 1970s, Martin Jander claims that... Read more > Summer 2017

A Deeply Rooted Anti-Zionism: Reflections from South Africa

By Milton Shain
While the degree of support for radical anti-Zionism in South Africa is often wildly exaggerated – the government... Read more > Summer 2017

The Left and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The path to righteous hatred

By Jamie Palmer
In this timely and eloquent essay, Jamie Palmer explores the impact on the politics of the Left of... Read more > Summer 2017

Book Review | All the Rivers

By Liam Hoare
It is hard to know how to talk about Dorit Rabinyan’s third novel, All the Rivers, an elegant,... Read more > Summer 2017

The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas: an interview with Grant Rumley and Amir Tibon

By Grant Rumley and Amir Tibon
Fathom Assistant Editor Samuel Nurding sat down with Grant Rumley and Amir Tibon to discuss their new book... Read more > Summer 2017

Book Review | Colonialism and the Jews

By John Strawson
Jews, like other peoples, have been much affected by the history of colonialism and empire. The Babylonian exile... Read more > Summer 2017

Trump is in danger of pulling a reverse Obama

By Ilan Goldenberg
A month ago after returning from a trip to Israel, I wrote that we may be on the... Read more > Summer 2017

A future for Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding

By BICOM
BICOM and Fathom have published a new research report, A future for Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding. It has been written... Read more > Summer 2017

Book Review | The Shell

By Kyle Orton
In Syria, the West has been keen not to repeat the mistakes of Iraq — defined as being... Read more > Summer 2017

Balfour 100 | ‘Mack’: Aaron Aaronsohn, the NILI intelligence network and the Balfour Declaration

By Efraim Halevy
NILI – an acronym for the biblical Hebrew phrase, Netzakh Yisrael Lo Yeshaker, meaning ‘The Eternal One of... Read more > Summer 2017

Balfour 100 | Repairing the World: why Britain should now recognise the State of Palestine

By Elias Zananiri
Elias Zananiri, Vice-Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Committee for Interaction with the Israeli Society, argues that... Read more > Summer 2017

Balfour 100 | We need to talk about the Balfour Declaration

By Toby Greene
2017 is the hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the British government’s letter of support for the establishment... Read more > Summer 2017

Balfour 100 | British policy in Palestine 1917–1925

By James Sorene
Despite issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and subsequently obtaining the Mandate for Palestine from the League of... Read more > Summer 2017

Balfour 100 | Before Balfour: The Labour Party’s War Aims memorandum

By Ronnie Fraser
Ronnie Fraser tells the little-known story of the British Labour Party’s support for Zionism. Three months before the... Read more > Summer 2017

Balfour 100 | Chaim Weizmann, the Guardian and the Balfour Declaration

By Azriel Bermant
The British Prime Minister David Lloyd George believed that ChaimWeizmann would become ‘the one name that will be... Read more > Summer 2017

Book Review | Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman

By Neill Lochery
I must warn the reader at the start of this review of a couple of personal points that... Read more > Summer 2017

Book Review | Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation

By Cary Nelson
Kingdom of Olives And Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, is a... Read more > Summer 2017

Fathom 16 | Editorial

By Fathom Editors
On its 50th anniversary, this special issue of Fathom maps the causes, courses and consequences of a watershed... Read more > Spring 2017

Einat Wilf: Constructive ambiguity has not worked. Peace needs constructive specificity

By Einat Wilf
Einat Wilf is one of the most creative Israeli thinkers on the peace process. In this talk to... Read more > Summer 2017

1967 | How the Six-Day War is still transforming Israel

By Donna Robinson Divine
For most Israelis, the military victory of 1967 rescued the country from an existential threat. But for some,... Read more > Spring 2017

Fathom Forum | Professor Sammy Smooha: ‘Israeli Democracy in Comparative Perspective’

By Sammy Smooha
Sammy Smooha is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Haifa, and winner of the 2008 Israel... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | 'A deal with the region should go through Ramallah’: an interview with Nidal Foqaha

By Nidal Foqaha
Nidal Foqaha is Director-General of the Palestinian Peace Coalition-Geneva Initiative in Ramallah. He served as an advisor at... Read more > Summer 2017

1967 | ‘The Palestinians won’t pay the price of peace, which is recognition’: an interview with Michael Oren

By Michael Oren
Michael Oren is a former Israeli ambassador to the US and currently serves as Deputy Minister for Diplomacy... Read more > Summer 2017

1967 | How Nasser’s vendetta against America led to the Six-Day War

By Gabriel Glickman
For 50 years historians have debated the question of what motivated Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s disastrous drift... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | The international media and the Six-Day War

By Meron Medzini
Professor Meron Medzini served as the Director of Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) in Jerusalem during the Six-Day... Read more > Summer 2017

1967 | As long as the Arab world views Israel as a temporary aberration to be conquered, Israel will stand...

By Einat Wilf
To bring a permanent end to the Israeli military occupation of much of the territory acquired during the... Read more > Spring 2017

‘The situation in Gaza is much worse than prior to the war in 2014’: an interview with Giora Eiland

By Giora Eiland
Giora Eiland served in the IDF for 33 years, rising to Major General. He left the IDF in... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | Internalising defeat – the Six-Day War and the Arab world: an interview with Kanan Makiya

By Kanan Makiya
Kanan Makiya is known for two seminal books - Republic of Fear, which called attention to the cruel... Read more > Spring 2017

Abbas in Washington: dancing in place or moving forward?

By Daniel B. Shapiro
Writing exclusively for Fathom, Daniel B. Shapiro, former Ambassador of the United States of America to the State... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | Why more and more Israeli Jews think the settlements are in Israel

By Oded Haklai
Oded Haklai reports on research suggesting that for the generations of Israeli Jews born after 1967, the pre-1967... Read more > Spring 2017

Book Review | A Political Theory for the Jewish People

By Nahshon Perez
A Political Theory for the Jewish People is a fascinating book, offering a rich and nuanced discussion of... Read more > Spring 2017

Ken Livingstone and the myth of Zionist ‘collaboration’ with the Nazis

By Paul Bogdanor
In this meticulous rebuttal of the former Mayor of London’s charge that ‘you had right up until the... Read more > Spring 2017

Book Review | North Korea and the Middle East

By Jack May
At a recent conference Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman identified North Korea as the greatest threat to global... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | The wisdom of Resolution 242

By Toby Greene
The logic of UN Resolution 242 – that this is a conflict of two sides with rights and... Read more > Spring 2017

Book review | Israel and Palestine Alternative Perspectives on Statehood

By John Strawson
It is extraordinary that 70 years after the UN partition resolution we are still discussing the future of... Read more > Spring 2017

New thinking on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: towards a hybrid approach

By BICOM
The peace process is currently at an impasse. Bringing the parties together for another intensive effort at reaching... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | Don’t believe the hype: the settlers have not made the two-state solution unachievable

By Orni Petruschka and Gilead Sher
After 50 years of Israeli control over the West Bank, increasing numbers believe that a ‘two states for... Read more > Spring 2017

On Chaim Gans on the Jewish Diaspora

By Michael Walzer
Fathom has invited a series of writers to respond to Chaim Gans’s A Political Theory for the Jewish... Read more > Spring 2017

Response to Michael Walzer’s ‘On Chaim Gans on the Jewish Diaspora’

By Chaim Gans
Writing in Fathom Michael Walzer responded to the discussion of diaspora Jews in Chaim Gans’s book A Political... Read more > Spring 2017

‘I did not leave the Likud, the Likud left me’: an interview with Moshe Ya’alon

By Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe Ya'alon is a former Chief of Staff for the IDF and served under the Netanyahu government for... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | Remembering the Six-Day War

By Michael Walzer
One of America’s foremost political thinkers, Michael Walzer wrote his seminal book Just and Unjust Wars in 1977.... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | The Six-Day War and Israeli society: an interview with Yossi Klein Halevi

By Yossi Klein Halevi
Yossi Klein Halevi is the author of the acclaimed book Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | Nasser’s Antisemitic War Against Israel

By Matthias Kuntzel
Matthias Kuntzel is the author of the award-winning book Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | The Global Left and the Six-Day War

By Jeffrey Herf
Jeffrey Herf is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park,... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | Natan Alterman or Amos Oz? The Six-Day War and Israeli Literature

By Liam Hoare
Israeli writers were split by the Six-Day War. On one side was the poet Natan Alterman, whose Movement... Read more > Spring 2017

1967 | The Six-Day War was a watershed in Middle Eastern history

By Asher Susser
The Arab defeat in 1967 shattered the image of pan-Arabism as a vehicle of Arab modernisation. The Islamists... Read more > Spring 2017

Book Review | The Master Plan: ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Jihadi Strategy for Final Victory

By Kyle Orton
Brian Fishman's The Master Plan provides a comprehensive history of the Islamic State’s (IS) strategic evolution, covering the... Read more > Spring 2017

Book Review | The Resistible Rise of Benjamin Netanyahu

By Colin Shindler
Admiration and respect are not words usually attached to the persona of Benjamin Netanyahu by either friend or... Read more > Spring 2017

State and religion in Israel: An interview with Elazar Stern

By Elazar Stern
Elazar Stern is an Israeli politician and former soldier. He served as a Major General in the IDF... Read more > Spring 2017

Fathom Forum | Jeffrey Herf: Undeclared Wars with Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left 1967-81

By Jeffrey Herf
Jeffrey Herf is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Maryland. His books include Nazi Propaganda for... Read more > Spring 2017

Fathom 15 | Editorial

By Fathom Editors
The 19th century American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was not slow to offer pieces of advice. Many ended... Read more > Winter 2016

Balfour 100 | We need to talk about the Balfour Declaration

By Toby Greene
2017 is the hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the British government’s letter of support for the establishment... Read more > Summer 2017

How to change reality in Gaza and shape the evolution of Hamas: an interview with Grisha Yakubovich

By Grisha Yakubovich
Col. (res) Grisha Yakubovich spent the majority of his 30 years in the IDF in the Coordinator of... Read more > Winter 2016

What Trump should do with the Iran deal

By Emily B. Landau
Dr. Emily B. Landau is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in... Read more > Winter 2016

Everyday Binationality in Jaffa: an interview with Daniel Monterescu

By Daniel Monterescu
Daniel Monterescu is the author of Jaffa Shared and Shattered: Contrived Coexistence in Israel / Palestine.[1] An anthropologist... Read more > Winter 2016

‘Cooperation between rivals’: a new paradigm for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian system (2006-2016)

By Doron Matza
Doron Matza proposes a new critical paradigm to understand the relationship between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships: ‘cooperation... Read more > Winter 2016

Justifying Israel: An interview with Chaim Gans

By Chaim Gans
Chaim Gans is a political philosopher and Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University. He is the author... Read more > Winter 2016

The BDS Disinformation Campaign in the Modern Language Association

By Cary Nelson
In this comprehensive essay, Cary Nelson, former president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and co-editor... Read more > Winter 2016

Mamlakhtiyut, peace and the dangerous rise of populism: In memory of Shimon Peres

By Amir Peretz
Amir Peretz is a Member of Knesset (Labor Party), former defence minister and former minister for the protection... Read more > Winter 2016

Debating Israel’s Identity

By Ruth Gavison
Ruth Gavison is Professor Emerita, holding the Haim H. Cohn Chair of Human Rights, in the Faculty of... Read more > Winter 2016

Trump and the Middle East: Prospects and Tasks

By BICOM
At the 2016 BICOM-Jewish News Policy Conference, ‘UK-Israel Shared Strategic Challenges’, a panel of Middle East experts discussed... Read more > Winter 2016

Mosul: after ISIS, what next?

By Seth Frantzman
Mosul has suffered three jihadist takeovers since 2004. In a detailed mapping of the conflict and its actors,... Read more > Winter 2016

Book Review | Tragic Encounters and Ordinary Ethics: Palestine-Israel in British Universities

By Keith Kahn-Harris
The publication of this book could hardly be better timed. The disturbance at a Friends of Israel Society... Read more > Winter 2016

Book Review | Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By Luke Akehurst
I tried to read Dreams Deferred in the conventional style, cover to cover. Bad idea. The book isn’t... Read more > Winter 2016

Book Review | Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle East

By David Lowe
In 2013, shortly after his nomination for US Defence Secretary, then Senator Chuck Hagel purchased three dozen copies... Read more > Winter 2016

Book review | A Horse Walks Into a Bar

By Liam Hoare
A Horse Walks Into a Bar, an opening line to many a haggard joke, is not necessarily what... Read more > Winter 2016

Fathom Forum with Dr. Dalia Fadila: 'Q Schools: Educating for equality in Israel’

By Dalia Fadila
This September Fathom hosted Dr. Dalia Fadila, faculty member of the International School for Leadership and Diplomacy at... Read more > Autumn 2016