In The Jewish War, the historian Josephus Flavius attributes the Jews’ defeat by the Romans and the destruction of Jerusalem to the internal conflicts among the Jews, both outside and especially inside, Jerusalem. Then, as now, the Jewish people were divided between the Land of Israel and the Diaspora, and the domestic disagreement had an impact on the entire Jewish…

Recently a report about religion in public life, which examined religious coercion and the limits on freedom of religion worldwide, was published in the US. On a number of parameters, Israel was placed in unsavory company, somewhere between Iran and Afghanistan. So are we Iran? Not really. The report builds "dry" parameters that are applied to different countries in an…

The appalling turn of phrase recently used by Israel’s Minister of Education Rabbi Peretz to describe Jewish assimilation as a “second Holocaust,” once again brings to the fore the question of Jewish identity from a moral and systemic perspective, in all its complexity. Unlike other issues of “religion and state,” this one concerns not only those who live in Israel,…

On the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, we will read the Book of Ruth, reminding us once again of the significant difference between conversion then and today: Speedy conversion seems to have been the norm in the days of Ruth, the woman who would become the grandmother of the ultimate King of Israel – King David – and by contrast –…

The most conspicuous characteristic of Israel as the Jewish nation-state is the Law of Return, which permits not only Jews to enter the country, but also non-Jews who are related to them by specified family ties. As a result, of the more than a million Aliya-eligible persons who have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union, about a third…

During the recent election campaign, the differentiation of left-wing versus right-wing did not concern the occupied territories. Rather, the focus was on an even more acute question: What kind of democracy exists in Israel, and what are its fundamental values? The clear victory by the right is an indication of the answer chosen by most Israeli citizens: Israel is a…

In today’s Israel, so heavily under the influence of identity politics, is there still a need for a religious Zionist party, which, even as it extols the virtues of placing country above party and ideology—remains very much a sectoral phenomenon? The ultra-Orthodox and the Arabs seek to disengage from Israeli society and maintain their separate identities (religious and national, separately).…

The last few months have clearly demonstrated that achieving democracy is a painful process. We’re nearing the finish line, exhausted and aching. We’ve bared our claws, shamelessly vilified our opponents, made outrageous assertions, and not shied away from telling brazen lies. We made promises we knew we couldn’t keep and did precisely the opposite of what we promised. We squeezed…

According to the polls, the religious-Zionists and ultra-Orthodox will hold a disproportionate number of seats in the next Knesset, as compared to their share of the adult population, which is estimated at 21%. There is nothing new about the fact that the religious and ultra-Orthodox parties—Torah Judaism, the Union of Right-Wing Parties, and Shas—are on the road to winning about…