Recent Blogs

• Word on the Street: The Nation-State Bill

  This month, the Netanyahu government passed major legislation designed to minimize the rights of minorities and undercut the country’s status as a “state for all its citizens.”

• Israel Rolls Out Red Carpet for Hungarian Leader

  Israel is giving a fulsome welcome to visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who used an anti-Semitic poster campaign to win his last election and has made hatred of immigrants a centerpiece of his platform.

• The Two-Way Street: Some Thoughts for the Upcoming 9th of Av

  Despite what some government officials might claim, we are Israel’s truest friends, not the fawning evangelicals. We, the troublesome, critical, questioning relatives from across the sea, are the ones who love you best. Listen to what we have to say -- before it is too late.

• Israelis Warn of Threats to their Democracy

Israeli Army Lifts Restrictions for Gaza Border Communities After Quiet Night, Haaretz

“All security restrictions have been withdrawn from the Gaza border communities after a situation assessment by the Israeli army, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit on Friday. Earlier on Friday, following a quiet night in the Gaza border communities, Israel’s Home Front Command issued new instructions to residents. Summer day camps have been allowed inside shelters, and the Ashkelon-Sderot train returned to regular activity. Following an escalation in hostilities between Israel and Gaza beginning on Wednesday, a foreign diplomat told Haaretz that Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire late Thursday. According to the diplomat, the cease-fire is not part of a wider agreement being negotiated between the two parties.”

Israel’s Nationality Law lays ground for West Bank annexation, Al-Monitor

Ron Skolnik writes, “The new Basic Law does not explicitly mention an annexation of ‘the Land of Israel,’ and when, in its third Basic Principle, it grants the Jewish people an exclusive right to national self-determination, it does so within the context of the “State of Israel” alone. Yet in right-wing Israel, the line between “Land” and “State” is frequently blurred and easily crossed. The 2011 Law Preventing Harm to the State of Israel by Means of Boycott, for example, legislated under a previous Netanyahu government, established a definition of the “State of Israel” that includes any “area under [Israel’s] control” — in other words, that encompasses the occupied territories beyond Israel’s recognized borders….And a proposed amendment submitted by the liberal Meretz Party that would have prevented the new law from being applied to territories beyond Israel’s current sovereign boundaries was roundly and tellingly defeated, 63 to 31.”