Dr. Eli Sperling, 75 canciones sionistas/israelíes para 75 años
La música israelí ofrece una poderosa perspectiva a través de la cual podemos comprender la evolución cultural y política del país, sirviendo como fuerza unificadora y reflejo de su diversa sociedad y compleja historia. Desde los inicios del período sionista hasta la fundación del estado, la música actuó como un factor de unión cultural hebreo y desempeñó un papel central en la configuración de lo que se convertiría en la identidad y cultura nacional israelí a través de canciones, melodías y danzas pioneras que celebraban el trabajo, el sacrificio y la conexión nacional judía con la tierra de Israel. Después de 1948, la música israelí sirvió como vehículo de expresión cultural, política, religiosa y social: celebrando los numerosos triunfos de Israel, reuniendo apoyo durante la guerra, conmemorando las pérdidas colectivas, definiendo el judaísmo en el estado judío, expresando protestas y mucho más.
#146 Contemporary Readings April 2025 – Including Israel-Hamas War
Assembled by Scott Abramson and Ken Stein, Center for Israel Education Aviram Bellaishe, “When Recognition Becomes Evasion: Europe’s Palestinian Statehood Campaign,” Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, April 29, 2025, https://jcpa.org/article/when-recognition-becomes-evasion-europes-palestinian-statehood-campaign/ Frannie Block and Maya Sulkin, “Qatar and China Are Pouring Billions Into Elite American Universities,” The Free Press, April 27, 2025, https://www.thefp.com/p/explosion-in-foreign-funding-for-american-universities?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email Shoshana […]
Israel’s Declaration of Independence
May 14, 1948: The Declaration recounts the Jewish connection to the land of Israel, the birth of Zionism, and recognition by the UN of a Jewish state’s legitimacy. It also promises that the state will be a democracy for all its citizens.
CIA Assessment of the Effects of Partitioning Palestine
November 28, 1947 Source: “The Consequences of the Partition in Palestine,” Central Intelligence Agency estimate, November 28, 1947, Washington, D.C. The CIA estimate of contemporary and coming issues was half-right and half-wrong. It was issued the day before the U.N. General Assembly vote on the partition of Palestine into two states with an economic union […]
Yigal Allon, Lessons from the War of Independence, 1952
With crisp analysis, Haganah Commander Yigal Allon, later a Prime Minister of Israel attributes Israel’s successes to multiple factors including the absence of a centralized Arab command, limited Arab military training, underestimating the potential fighting capabilities of local Arabs, and Israel’s success in integrating its citizens into the war effort.
US Government’s Position on the Future of Palestine
In March 1948, two months before Israel’s establishment, the US State Department sought to reverse the US vote in favor of partition for the creation of Arab and Jewish states in Palestine.
A Short History of Hamas
Ken Stein In the 1988 Hamas Charter and from remarks by it leaders and in other publications, they express hatred of Zionism, Israel and Jews. It is unmistakably clear that Hamas abhors Zionism, Israel and Jews in a sovereign state. Hamas opposes any kind of negotiations that recognizes Israel as a reality or requires cooperation […]
Ken Stein, The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 – A Short History of the Israel War of Independence
Otherwise known as Israel’s War of Independence, or, “the nakbah” or disaster to the Arab world because a Jewish state was established, the war was fought between the newly established Jewish state of Israel opposed by Palestinian irregulars, and armies from five Arab states. Official beginning of the war is usually given as May 14, 1948, the date Israel declared itself an independent Jewish state, but the war’s first of four phases began in November 1947. Lasting for two years, the war ended with armistice agreements signed in 1949 between Israel and four Arab states.
Quotations From Hamas Sources Expressing Hatred for Zionism, Israel and Jews, 1988-Present
Since its inception in 1988, Hamas has been crystal clear about its total opposition to Zionism and Israel. It opposes any kind of negotiations or agreements that recognize Israel as a reality, and its more extreme spokesmen regularly incite or celebrate the killing of Jews.
Dr. Eli Sperling, “75 Zionist/Israeli Songs for 75 Years”
Dr. Eli Sperling, April 15, 2025, for CIE © Israeli music offers a powerful lens through which we can understand the country’s cultural and political evolution, serving as both a unifying force and a reflection of its diverse society and complex history. From the early Zionist period until the founding of the state, music acted […]
The San Remo Conference Agreement: Assigned Borders for Post-War Middle Eastern Mandates
Britain, France, Italy, and Japan established the great power mandates for Syria and Lebanon (to France) and Palestine and Iraq (to Great Britain) after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. The League of Nations ratified the Mandates in 1922, giving the Mandates international legitimacy.
Dr. Susan Nashman Fraiman,”Against the Cannon: Voices of Diversity in Israeli Art (44:00)
In less than 45 minutes, Israeli educator Susan Nachman Fraiman presents a taste of the variety of voices in Israeli art that have emerged in the past 20 years: female, religious, Mizrahi, Ethiopian and Israeli-Palestinian, all of which are rich subjects in themselves. We examine a few examples of works from each of these sectors and try to understand the rich background from which they come. This video is from a session July 25, 2022, at the 21st annual CIE/ISMI Enrichment Workshop on Modern Israel.
The New Yishuv: An Introduction
The period of the New Yishuv lasted from the last 40 years of Ottoman rule in Palestine through the British Mandate until the establishment of Israel in 1948. It saw the growth of the Jewish community from 24,000 in 1882 to some 650,000 in May 1948, while the Arab population increased from 300,000 to approximately […]
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu Meet in Washington, April 2025
Meeting for the 2nd time in 80 days, the two leaders focused on the president’s announcement of a renewal of (indirect) Iran-U.S. talks, Hamas-Israel hostage negotiations, and the Gaza War. In light of Trump’s policy for all, he did not withdraw from a 17% tariff imposition on Israel. Trump praised Turkish President Erdogan for being “”the first person in 2,000 years to conquer Syria,” noting “that any problem that you (Israel) have with Turkey, I think I can solve.”
U.S.-Israel Free-Trade Agreement, 1985
Explicit intentions of the agreement were not only to strengthen bilateral relations during the Cold War, but to boost Israel’s struggling economy. For 30 years Israel has maintained an annual trade surplus with the United States.
Annotated Hamas Bibliography: In-Depth Assessments, Analyses, Objectives and Regional Implications
Among Palestinians, Hamas popularity soars, two state solution at lowest ebb, Rise in European Anti-semitism, and Michael Mihlstein’s insightful analysis an essential read.
June 2018: Amos Oz, “The Whole Reckoning Is Not Over Yet”
History remembers the following lecture (translated into English for the first time) not only as one of Amos Oz’s most celebrated, but also as his last. Regardless of whether he intended it as such, the lecture represents a summation of his insights on the subjects he had engaged with throughout a career that spanned a half-century.
Palestine Disturbances May 1921, (Haycraft Commission), Reports of Commission of Inquiry with Correspondence Relating Thereto Cmd 1520
In early May 1921, communal riots unfolded in Jaffa and at Jewish settlements along the coast. There were 96 deaths, equally between Arabs and Jews. This inquiry commission confirmed what another 20 official investigations into Palestine’s political realities would show until 1948, the two communities could not live together; attempts to promote communal coexistence could not overcome angry and geometrically increasing intolerance of the other. And importantly a very low Jewish and Arab interest of wanting to live with one another. From before WWI forward, both strongly preferred spatial, organizational, and political separatism.
#145 Contemporary Readings March 2025 – Including Israel-Hamas War
Assembled by Scott Abramson and Ken Stein, Center for Israel Education Salwa Alinat-Abed, “Politics of Faith: Discourse and Practice Among Women of the Islamic Movement in Israel,” Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, March 20, 2025, https://dayan.org/content/politics-faith-discourse-and-practice-among-women-islamic-movement-israel Calev Ben-Dor, “A Tale of Two ‘Marches’,” Fathom Journal, March 2025, https://fathomjournal.org/a-tale-of-two-marches/ Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis, […]
David Ben-Gurion’s “Vision and Redemption”
Ben-Gurion elegantly connects modern Israel from messianic redemption to Zionism, building the country through labor and immigration, with dual needs to remain actively linked to the Jewish diaspora and Jewish values through education.
Arab Leaders Meeting in Damascus
This document was secured at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem. Less than a year before Hitler invaded Poland, Arab leaders with an interest in Palestine are starkly disappointed that the the German government did not go to war against the Zionists in Palestine. The same leaders give the Zionist national builders high marks for their perseverance against terrorist bands in the Palestinian countryside. They worry that unless Arab states come to the Palestinians’ assistance, Palestine will be lost to the Zionists. A remarkable assessment for Palestinian Arab leaders and their supporters.
Iran and the Hamas-Israel War (5 videos)
Compiled by Aidan New Iran lies behind much of what Israel has battled since Hamas launched its brutal terrorist attack Oct. 7, 2023. By theology and ideology, Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction. By policy and practice, Iran is devoted to the use of proxies (its “axis of resistance”) to work toward that destruction and […]
Ali Jamenei, Líder Supremo de Irán, Sermón del viernes
El ayatolá Alí Jamenei se dirige a un grupo de veteranos y activistas de la yihad en Teherán el 25 de septiembre de 2024. (Crédito: leader.ir) 4 de octubre de 2024 Fuente: https://english.khamenei.ir/news/11146/Palestinian-and-Lebanese-Resistance-pushed-back-Zionist-regime El discurso del líder iraní, el ayatolá Alí Jamenei, es un resumen del odio de Irán hacia Israel y Estados Unidos, y […]
The Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty – Context and Implications
Ken Stein, March 26, 2025 Summary: Ripe conditions that prefaced the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli Treaty are almost totally absent in 2025 that might presage additional Arab-Israeli agreements. Why? Today, there is a an absence in political will, courage, and foresight of leaders to change the non-war status quo; dysfunctional structural weaknesses are present among all parties […]
Balfour Declaration
British Foreign Ministry promises to set up a Jewish National Home in Palestine with no harm to non-Jewish populations, or to Jews living elsewhere who might want to support a Jewish home.