Shlomo Avineri
A Normal Israel?
Zionism has long based its claim to sovereignty on the universal right to national self-determination, and the phrase “like all other nations” has been incorporated into Israel’s Declaration of Independence, yet the goal of “normalization” has proven to be much more complicated than most early Zionists had thought.
“Where They Have Burned Books, They Will End Up Burning People”
The surprising source for Heine’s prophetic remark that “where they have burned books, they will end up burning people” is a play about the fate of Muslims in Christian Spain.
Max, Moritz, and Marx
When the Soviet official asked me about the second book I was carrying, I said rather nonchalantly that this was my Hebrew translation of Karl Marx’s Early Writings, which I was going to give to my hosts.
Peace, Plan B
Secretary of State John Kerry's attempt to get Israel and the Palestinians to a final status agreement was never going to work. What will?
Emancipation and Its Discontents
How a small, marginal community of Moravian Jews grappled with the challenges modernization and secularization brought to European Jewry.
Kissinger, Kant, and the Syrians in Lebanon
A nugget of philosophical diplomacy.
Rereading Herzl’s Old-New Land
A bad novel, but an important and prescient book.
Karl Marx, the Jews of Jerusalem, and UNESCO
Some revolutionary quotations from Marx and the People's Republic of China.
Thinking About Revolution and Democracy in the Middle East: A Symposium
Since January of this year, revolution has spread across North Africa and the Middle East with such velocity that predicting exactly what will happen next is probably a fool's errand. In this issue, we have asked seven writers to return to their bookshelves and tell us what books, authors, and arguments they find helpful in thinking through the causes and implications of these surprising events.
Prague Summer: The Altneuschul, Pan Am, and Herbert Marcuse
A mysterious memoir of planes, Marx, and minyans.
What the U.S. Can and Can’t Do in the Middle East
Why the realists are being unrealistic about American power in the Middle East.