Odds are that China and Russia will prove to be long-term US rivals. However, it may just as well be that their alliance will prove to be more tactical than strategic, with the China-Russia relationship resembling US-Chinese ties: cooperation in an environment of divergence rather than convergence.

Boys from an alternative agricultural high school tend Bat Shlomo Vineyards, with winning results for the student farmers and the finished product. At 15, Shilo Eliash was thoroughly urban. Growing up in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv, he thought of agriculture – if he thought of it at all – as a menial job for foreign workers. Yet when he heard about a new alternative high school for religious boys dedicated to educational, personal and spiritual development through a connection with the land, he persuaded his parents to let him try the boarding school far from home near the Jordan River.

The growing process of public and political polarization in the United States impacts on support for Israel, which for many years was in the bipartisan political consensus. Joined by awakening waves of anti-Semitism, support for Israel, now identified most strongly with the Republican party, is becoming a controversial issue. These developments have weighty implications for Israel.