Israel

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• 4/17/2022
  

  Does Israel's Right Cultivate a Permanent Enemy to Justify a Permanent Occupation?

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  The vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians have been born since the occupation began. The current Israeli government seems content to exploit violent outbreaks like those of recent weeks to ensure that no one seriously imagines alternatives.

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• SOURCE: American Association of University Professors
  4/1/2022
  

  AAUP ID's Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom: Redefinitions of Antisemitism and Racism

  A recent AAUP report connects two politicized areas of inquiry – the history of racism in America and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – as the principal targets of right-wing efforts to censor reseach and teaching. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/2/2022
  

  Yad Vashem Hopes to Shield Oligarch and Major Donor Roman Abramovich from Sanctions

  “Mr. Abramovich has contributed to worthy causes for more than a decade,” [Yad Vashem chair Dani] Dayan said. “As far as I know, Mr. Abramovich doesn’t have any links to Mr. Putin.”

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• 2/20/2022
  

  Martin Indyk Writes the Palestinians Out of the History of Kissinger's Middle East Diplomacy

  by James R. Stocker

  Martin Indyk’s new work offers a vivid portrait of the former Secretary of State’s Arab-Israeli diplomacy, but he completely misses one of the most important parts of this policy – the Palestinians.

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• 2/6/2022
  

  Attacking Iran would be a Catastrophic Mistake for Israel

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  Regardless of a success or failure to reach a new agreement with Iran, Israel must not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and must work closely with the US to develop a joint strategy to curb Iran’s ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and potentially end the conflict with Iran on a more permanent basis.

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• SOURCE: Forward
  1/22/2022
  

  Israeli Documentary Works to Break Silence over 1948 Israeli-Arab Violence

  Director Alon Schwartz examines the events in the town of Tantura, where an Israeli militia is alleged to have killed 200 Arab residents. Oral history interviews with surviving members of the militia are key, but controversial, pieces of evidence.

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• SOURCE: Haaretz
  12/12/2021
  

  Haaretz Editorial: Israel Must Acknowledge War Crimes in 1948 Fight for Independence

  "It is time to acknowledge the truth, and first to publish the report by the first attorney general, Yaakov-Shimshon Shapira, on the massacres of the dark autumn of 1948... and to hold a penetrating public discussion of their implications today."

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• SOURCE: TIME
  11/3/2021
  

  How Christian Archaeologists Fed Today's Strife in Jerusalem

  by Andrew Lawler

  The incursions of 19th century Christian archaeologists onto Jerusalem's historic acropolis created a sense of seige on the part of Palestinian Muslims, which is echoed today in ongoing conflict over the city's religious sites. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Review of Books
  7/4/2021
  

  History Is a Story that Satisfies Power: A Conversation with Joshua Cohen (Author of "The Netanyahus")

  Joshua Cohen's novel fictionalizes the American academic career of Benzion Netanyahu, whose American raised sons became huge figures in Israeli military and political history.

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• SOURCE: GroundUp
  June 8, 2021
  

  "It’s Apartheid," Say Former Israeli Ambassadors to South Africa

  by Ilan Baruch and Alon Liel

  Two former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa this week declared their view that Israel's occupation of the West Bank, now 55 years on, is a form of apartheid. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  6/8/2021
  

  UK Education System Struggles to Prepare for Exams as Israel-Palestine Conflict Scares Publishers

  Publishers have withdrawn materials needed for prep for the British exams in middle east history because of political complaints of bias both against Israel and the Palestinians. 

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• SOURCE: Times of Israel
  6/3/2021
  

  Solomon's Peace Accord

  by David Marks

  Can Israelis and Palestinians imagine and implement a Solomonic peace? 

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• SOURCE: Eurozine
  6/3/2021
  

  The Unbearable Easiness of Killing

  by Arie M. Dubnov

  "As a colleague justly commented, it is only helpful to call a situation ‘complicated’ if one is committed to unfolding the package, willing to examine its contents and prepared to be surprised by what one finds hidden inside."

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• 5/30/2021
  

  The Settler Colonialist Frame Helps Clarify What's at Stake in the Middle East for Israelis, Palestinians, and Peace

  by Jeff Kolnick

  Looking at the recent resurgence of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas as part of a project of settler colonialism clarifies the nature of the conflict, and suggests that the immediate cessation of eviction of Palestinians is essential for peace. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/24/2021
  

  Republicans are Far More Radical than Democrats on Israel

  by Max Boot

  Post columnist Max Boot surveys the bipartisan field of US policy toward Israel and concludes that the absolute support for the Israeli right from the Republicans, driven by the importance of evangelical voters, is wholly unprecedented. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/24/2021
  

  Israel’s Problems Are Not Like America’s

  by Matti Friedman

  American supporters and critics have tended to view Israel through a lens shaped by American political concerns. 

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• 5/23/2021
  

  For Israel and the Palestinians, Reconciliation Must Precede a Peace Process

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  If the recent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas holds, many may be tempted to push for renewing a negotiated peace process. This is skipping the vital and difficult work of reconciliation that is necessary to a just peace.

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• 5/23/2021
  

  Jerusalem: A Divided and Invented City

  by James A.S. Sunderland

  Both Hamas and the Israeli right base their claims to Jerusalem on understandings of the city as shaped by the orientalist and segregationist values of British governors during the Mandate period, and not on the city's longer heterogenous and multicultural history. Peace activists look to that history as an example of coexistence. 

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  5/20/2021
  

  In Israel, the Violent Legacy of 1948

  by Benny Morris

  "The chaos in the towns of Lydda, Ramle, Haifa, Umm al-Fahm and Acre is a dim echo of the civil war between Palestine’s Jewish and Arab communities that engulfed the country during the first months of the 1948 war."

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/18/2021
  

  This is a War Israel Can’t Win

  by Max Boot

  Post columnist Max Boot argues that the current cycle of attacks and reprisals are symbolic political gestures, and that Israel should declare that it's made its point and resume the work of political normalization with its Arab neighbors and political concessions with the Palestinian Authority that marginalize Hamas.