israel/palestine

Rolling with the atheists in the UK; rich men, camels, and needle’s eyes; Jews, Christians, and Gaza; the Obamas on Sunday mornings…all this and more on the religion writer’s beat as the year begins.

In an excerpt from a new book Dan Fleshler, an American Jewish activist from “the pro-Israel left,” explains the reluctance of Jewish liberals to criticize Israel on the human rights front, even when they share the rest of the world’s objections to Israeli behavior.

A Jewish professor is under fire for comparing the suffering of Jews in WWII to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Do these comparisons serve any purpose?

Seven Jewish Children, which tells the story of the recent Israeli war in Gaza, stirs up discomfort among some Jews, and support from others.

An Israeli reporter documents the ways in which Israel’s military intelligence has spread disinformation going back to the failure of Camp David and the beginning of the second intifada in 2000.

Why did Bush not do more for peace during his failed presidency? Because someone is always lobbing a rocket or detonating a bomb, and this invalidates any and every gesture toward peace, in his simple view.

Responses to the taking of innocent life vary according to whose innocent life has been taken.

Political economist Bernard Avishai thinks that Israel’s best hope for peace and a bright future is to embrace European-style secular democracy, integrating its Arab citizens into a business-driven globalized economy.