Sitemap - 2024 - Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis
"No national trait is biological," says Amotz Asa-El. So why have the Jews fought 12 civil wars?
"On the seventeenth of Tammuz, the walls were breached"
"Ani lo yachol yoter," he said. “I cannot go on.”
"I honestly don't know how you are all still standing ..."
"Maybe Copernicus never knew what love is"
There's a home-front, too, and small Israeli businesses are getting some much needed help
Turns out, a war can have a playlist
An Israeli Perspective on American Jews at this moment—hard choices, stark realities
From "Phew, we might just avoid war in the north" to "We need to go to war, and right away"
Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth
An army increasingly under scrutiny, but still filled with extraordinary people
"Share your vision for the future of this region"—an assignment none of us could complete
In today's Israel, there's no such thing as "just another Graduation"
Israel has high birth rates, right? And that's great, right? Think again!
"For me, the hardest thing is holding onto hope"
You actually can go home again—but in cases like this, it's a heartbreaking return.
Who was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and why is he still so iconic a century later?
From Israel's worst day ever, to one of its most glorious
Does Israel have a social contract? And if it does, who owes what to whom?
"If Lebanon captures this area, I'll live on the other side of the border"
"Is this the State of Israel, or is this the Shtetl of Israel?"
"Inclusivity, not exclusivity, is the new pathway to genuine Israeliness"
"The Jews are Coming" looks back, while Samer Sinijlawi looks forward.
"Israel is at the beginning of a dangerous period that requires a new road map"
"The Story of Road 1 Tells Us How We'll Eventually Recall the Challenges of Today"
We're Bedouins. When someone comes into our home, we protect them. Period.
"The video and the shoal"—more fallout from that video of the female kidnapped soldiers.
"It's true, everyone here looks normal, but this is a kibbutz of superheroes."
"Three generations of rot. Is the academy in the west beyond repair?"
Ron Arad is back in the news, because his wife has a warning for the hostages' families
October 7th was "the first time that a Jewish army has stopped a pogrom"
"What gives you hope for this country?" One answers the Holocaust, one says a baby just born
A patchwork quilt of grief and loss
"Now it's our generation. Now it's our turn."
To celebrate, or not to celebrate: that has become the national question
"Believe me, the army doesn't care if your son gets killed."
When there became here, and then became now
What's worth fighting for, or against? Young Israelis and those in the West could not disagree more.
Before the war, we'd planned a post on this new, happier side of drones.
"I saw the American progressive movement ... as an ally. That was a mistake."
"Every day that passes, we're creating more Hamas fighters, because we're giving them no future."
From IFTI's archives, March 21, 2021: "What if there's never going to be peace?"
"If they're at the beach, the war is over. And if the war is over, let's admit the war is over."
One video, less than forty seconds long, has thrown a country back into agony.
"I still believe that our problems do not start and end with our external enemies"
"Because in each generation, they rise up against us to destroy us."
"Home alone" ... never has Israel, in such deep danger, been so leaderless
A country prepares for .... Shabbat? Or .... ?
Six months ago, we did not imagine that this was where we could be
The losing battle against delegitimization just took a mortal hit, some Israelis believe
"Even if you have family kidnapped in Gaza, I'm not going to let you burn this country down."
"We are the families of the winter of '23"
"There's no recess in captivity"
"There is no other democracy where the national archive reports to the seat of power."
"Please, Lord, watch over him... When, my boy, will you return to me?"
"A month ago, she asked me if Omri is still her father. That's the question that finished me."
"We apologize for being kidnapped." It ought to be made up for Purim, but it's not.
What's the "Jewish" in "Jewish and Democratic"?
The "Bring Them Home" protests heat up, but there's another group that's not coming home
"Brigadier General Dan Goldfus should be fired, but not in our world"
Striking in its beauty, the Dead Sea is actually drying up and disappearing
"The dumbing down of Israeli politics has erased its Jewish wisdom"
How will histories of Israel portray 2023? As the beginning of the end, or the start of Israel 2.0?
"Letter of life, sign of life"
The "shrunken hearts" we're learning to live with
"The next elections are going to be make or break for the future of Israel."
"Tomorrow it will be over"—a song that captures Israel's mood, and long history of loss, perfectly.
I was wrong when I said that the police would never water-cannon the families of hostages
"With great sorrow, we've chosen to leave"
With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein, "How do you solve a problem like ... Gaza?"
"He's going to fight for his reputation, he's going to fight to shift the narrative...."
"It doesn't smell of death anymore, so the birds have started to return."
"It feels like they've returned from a different planet"
Two Israeli plans to end the war by this spring now emerging
"We should never have sent in humanitarian aid. They want aid? Then let the hostages go."
Meet Captain 'B'—the first Israeli Arab woman in an IAF airborne unit
"They see hiring Hamas terrorists as a mark of diversity"
She was healthy and full of life when she was kidnapped, and this is what they did to her ...
Turns out that there IS life after death ... at least for tanks ...
Everywhere, all the time. ....
The Soul of Israel: Lost in Translation
"Transparent uniforms," they call them. The war that's being fought by the women at home.
"I was among those people who made the country weak, who hurt people."
When Natan Gross became Ma'ayan Gross—and continued to serve in her original combat unit
It's all in the shape of the Lamed: how to read the reservists' protest.
When a new Israel emerges, it will be thanks to people like this.
"It's as if Hamas attacked on October 7, but then disappeared"
A brief story of a fender-bender, and then: The most documented pogrom in Jewish history
The "Noa's" of Israel band together
"Building a life from what remains" — Israelis begin to look beyond the war
When the going gets tough, Israelis get funny
"I have spent nearly every one of the last 91 days inside a Merkava 3 tank with my IDF reserve unit"
"When it comes to the lives of those who are fighting with you ... you know what you need to do."
"I felt uncomfortable from the beginning because there is no such thing as destroying Hamas."
The "Black Sabbath" meets Israeli music
"This reality is no longer tolerable. ... It's time for your sons to enlist in the IDF."
When Jews become uncomfortable praying for Jews: "Two Rabbis, One Broken Heart"
"Values in Conflict—Negotiating the Impossible in the Israeli Hostage Crisis"
"Ethics of our Fathers" meets "Ethics of our Fighters." How we mesh the two.
2023 was without question the worst year in Israel's history