Israel’s Forgotten Founding Father and His Continuing Relevance

Signing the Declaration of Independence, May 14, 1948, with Moshe Shertok second from right; David Ben-Gurion on far left. Photo credit: Shershel Frank / Government Press Office.

Israel’s Declaration of Independence, The History and Political Theory of the Nation’s Founding Moment,by Neil Rogachevsky and Dov Zigler, Cambridge University Press, 2023 Declaring Israel’s Independence,by Martin Kramer, www.martinkramer.com, 2018. “Who wrote Israel’s Declaration of Independence?” I recently asked a class of Israeli undergraduates. “An assistant to Ben-Gurion,” offered one. “A Jewish lawyer,” quipped another. It […]

A Case for Annexing the West Bank

Book cover

One Jewish State, The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, by David Friedman. Humanix Books, 2024. In late October of 1948, the young state of Israel launched an offensive against the seven Arab armies that had invaded it five months earlier. The Israelis attacked the Egyptian army (including Sudanese, Saudi and Muslim Brotherhood […]

Learning from the Democratic and Authoritarian Leaders of the Recent Past

The Titans of the Twentieth Century: How They Made History and the History They Made by Michael Mandelbaum. Oxford University Press, 2024 Michael Mandelbaum, the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, has written numerous books on international affairs. A recent  work, The Four Ages of American Foreign […]

A New Approach to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict<span class="book-review-title-italic">Israel Victory: How Zionists Win Acceptance and Palestinians Get Liberated</span> <span class="book-review-author">by Daniel Pipes</span>

In the 76 years since the founding of the modern state of Israel, the conflict with its Arab neighbors has consumed an enormous amount of the attention of national leaders, international organizations, diplomats, academics, and journalists. This conflict, which changed after the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of 1979 from one between and among sovereign states to a […]

Israel’s Democracy and the Prophets of Doom <span class="book-review-title-italic">The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel, Promise Unfulfilled</span> <span class="book-review-author"> by Dahlia Scheindlin</span>

Book cover: The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel, Promise Unfulfilled by Dahlia Scheindlin

The story is told of an American journalist who went to Israel for a three-day visit. When asked on the second day what she was writing, she replied, ‘a book with the title: “Israel, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”’ Dahlia Scheindlin is the opposite of that journalist. For 25 years, she has lived and worked in […]