rehavam zeevi

Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20th century. (Library of Congress)

Remembering the history Israel swept aside in 1948

In the late 19th century, travelers on the long road from Jaffa to Jerusalem could stop at a rest station to relax and have a cup of (overpriced) coffee. This past, and the story of Jerusalem opening itself to the world, has been lost in the Zionist retelling of history. By Yonathan Mizrachi There is…

By Haokets April 21, 2017

Palestinians disembark at the South Tel Aviv station after riding the train from Gaza City on the first day of its operation, November 1, 1972. (Moshe Milner/GPO)

PHOTOS: When you could ride a train from Gaza City to Tel Aviv

The rail line, which is almost unimaginable today considering the blockade and permit regime, ran for just under a year — until the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It’s been nearly 45 years since you could hop on a train in Gaza City and ride all the way to Tel Aviv, a situation…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 20, 2017

A soldier from the Nahal Infantry Brigade at the end of a training exercise in the Negev, Israel, February 16, 2015. (Evan Lang & Adi James Brown, IDF Spokesperson's Unit/CC 2.0)

The problem with Israel’s heroism addiction

The flip side of Israel’s need for heroes created in uniform, weapon in hand, is the urge to preserve the ideals associated with them and to shield them from criticism — the ramifications of which have become disturbingly clear in the case of Elor Azaria. “A nation without heroes is a house without doors.” So says the…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland January 13, 2017

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File photo of masked Israeli soldiers in Hebron. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Israelis only understand force — and it makes them angrier, polls show

New polls find that a majority of Jewish Israelis support the ‘voluntary transfer’ of West Bank Palestinians, a majority want to strip East Jerusalem Palestinians of Israeli residency. It’s true that most peace efforts followed war and violence — but not because the Israeli public wants them. Even in times of crisis, a brave leader can…

By Dahlia Scheindlin October 29, 2015

The Egyptian revolution (as seen from a hotel room in Eilat)

A simple weekend vacation in the south had some more meaning as the region was changing around us The magic of it all I happened to be in Eilat this weekend for a deserved rest as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was spending his last hours in Cairo. I was watching Fox News (that’s all they…

By Ami Kaufman February 12, 2011

Yedioth Aharonoth front page, 8 October.

Between the Lines (8 Oct): On the loyalty oath and racism

The Headlines: The Dollar declines, Israeli politics sink even lower > The dollar has sharply declined throughout the world. In Israel, the national bank has been trying to stop this development (which would hurt exports and economic growth) by buying huge amounts of foreign currency. Predictably, it is failing to exclude Israel from the global…

By Roi Maor October 8, 2010

An artist visualizes Israel as a non-democratic state (I)

For her senior project in visual communications at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT), artist Sivan Hurvitz exhibited a series of illustrations called “Turn right at the end: the future of a country that gave up on democracy.” In her strikingly realistic, detailed illustrations – six in all – Sivan imagines “an apocalyptic, harshly exaggerated,…

By Lisa Goldman September 10, 2010