Gadi Taub

Outside Israel it is generally assumed that there is a consensus about what Zionism is. On this view the religious settlers are only an extreme version of the same Zionism, since settlers have added a religious ingredient to it. The assumption is, however, fundamentally misguided. Mainstream Zionism and the settlers’ religious Zionism are mutually exclusive, […]

We heard plenty of ‘I-told-you-so’s from the settlers during this war, and since. We heard a lot about settler patriotism as opposed to the Tel Avivian atrophy. It’s true that the settlers taught their sons and daughters the importance of personal dedication and sacrifice, and the results of this education clearly show. This is laudable. […]

One of the sad results of the atmosphere created by the war, is that right wing Member of Knesset, Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu party has picked up in the polls. Unlike the traditional hawkish right, Liberaman does not oppose a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Rather, on his own […]

Retired General Amos Lapidot, former commander of Israel’s Air Force, asked on Ynet (Hebrew, no translation yet) what the root is of Israel’s current trouble. “My answer,” he wrote, “is that the heart of the problem is the occupation and the settlement in the territories. The problem of the territories has been draining Israel’s energy […]

Here’s one news source that would never disapoint you. The Onion. Best sataire around. Try this for starters: War-Torn Middle East Seeks Solace In Religion.

One of the most turbulent public debates in Israel right now is about the lack of military preparedness. The IDF assumed future battlefields would be high-tech affairs, where the principle burden would fall on the Air Force. The conception was proven wrong. Reserve infantry soldiers knew it before the rest of us did, before we […]

If there was one hilarious slogan throughout this whole sad debacle in Lebanon this was it: SHARON, WAKE UP. OLMERT’S IN A COMA. I have no idea who deserves copyrights for it. It circulated around.

The war in Lebanon, like all wars, did not only close doors. It also opened possibilities. This time, had there been enough will on behalf of the international community, it would have been able to untie the knot of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and consolidate the front against terrorism. Unfortunately without Europe all this would not […]

Many were outraged by Ehud Olmert’s declaration, in the middle of the war, that this war was about his convergence plan. It may not have been pragmatic to say so, but it was nevertheless true. Had Israel won, had it been able to subdue the threat of missiles, we would have been on the way […]

This is probably one of the most dangerous junctures in Israel’s history. Not only because of the rising tide of Fundamentalism in the region, and the looming Iranian nuclear plan, which the international community is so sluggish in stopping. But also because the radical right in Israel, so badly defeated in the last elections, is […]