A blog about art, politics and shared society in Israel

'There is no replacement for the truth'

I try not to think about Yitzhak Rabin -- too painful. But the 30th anniversary of his killing was an opportunity to recall certain key aspects of his…

Nov 6 • 

David B. Green

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Where are the heroes?

A society in which soldiers who torture prisoners are widely hailed as ‘heroes,’ and those who investigate them as traitors, is in deep moral distress…

Nov 3 • 

David B. Green

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September 2025

Is a better future even possible?

In their superb new book about the long history of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Hussein Agha and Robert Malley want to understand why they were…

Sep 26 • 

David B. Green

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‘A woman of distinctly Jewish type’

A chance visit to a Stockholm art exhibition introduced me to a 19th-century female Jewish painter with a 21st-century sensibility, but also served as a…

Sep 19 • 

David B. Green

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August 2025

'Zion's roads are in mourning...'

At a Tisha B'Av rally in Jerusalem, the audience was asked to hold two separate, arguably contradictory, thoughts in their minds simultaneously

Aug 4 • 

David B. Green

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July 2025

A non-reluctant pioneer

Alex Weingrod devoted a lifetime to understanding Israeli society. He did so by challenging the conventional wisdom, pursuing his career as an…

Jul 15 • 

David B. Green

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June 2025

An eighth front, a fifth column

Today, while Israel was still involved in hostilities in both Iran and Gaza, the Knesset took up the case for throwing Ayman Odeh "the terrorist" out of…

Jun 24 • 

David B. Green

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'What if the situation had been reversed?'

That's the question every Israeli needs to ask themself when a Jew kills an Arab because he's in the wrong neighborhood, and the authorities dillydally…

Jun 16 • 

David B. Green

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May 2025

‘Light is the cheapest building material’

That’s just one of the architectural insights we get from Yael Melamede’s film about her Israel Prize-winning mother Ada Karmi-Melamede. We also get…

May 20 • 

David B. Green

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Their 'three lines of history'

An April Holocaust tour of Poland gives rise to thoughts about the meaning of heroism, mutual responsibility and the value of choosing how one will die…

May 3 • 

David B. Green

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April 2025

'Excuse me if I’m disturbing your ethos'

Prof. Mustafa Kabha wants both Jews and Palestinians to know all there is to know about the history and geography of their shared homeland. And for Jews…

Apr 13 • 

David B. Green

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March 2025

'I was unprepared for the amount of hatred I witnessed in Hebron'

Lawrence Wright had turned in his semi-apocalyptic novel about a new Israeli-Palestinian war before October 7. Just don't call him a prophet

Mar 17 • 

David B. Green

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