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Assembled by Ken Stein, Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel and the Center for Israel Education, kenstein@israeled.org  Or Anabi, “The Democratic Characteristics of [Israeli] voters, Israel Democracy Institute, August 1, 2022, https://en.idi.org.il/articles/39409  Ibrahim Awad, “Arab Nationalism, Regionalism, and Regional Integration,” The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Winter 2022, https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/arab-nationalism-regionalism-and-regional-integration/  Maysam Bazaer, “What […]

The focus of Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s first speech at the UN was a political weather report of Israel’s relations with Arab neighbors. He lauded Arab states for embracing Israel, hoped that Israel could move toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians, and blistered the hate spewing from Hamas and Iran; Israel he said, would not tolerate Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Las principales motivaciones para la evolución de los judíos para elegir el sionismo incluyeron su incapacidad para lograr la igualdad cívica con sus vecinos no judíos y el aumento de los brotes de antisemitismo desenfrenado. Este relato de la miserable situación económica de los judíos en Europa del Este fue otro ímpetu para que los judíos cambiaran su condición económica, política y social a través de la inmigración.

Major motivations for some Jews to choose Zionism included their failure to gain civic equality with their non-Jewish neighbors, and increasing outbreaks of rampant anti-Semitism. This account of the miserable economic situation of Jews in eastern Europe was another impetus for Jews to change their economic, political, and social condition through immigration.

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.

Esbozando un asentamiento árabe-israelí, The Brookings Report pide la retirada israelí a “las fronteras anteriores a la guerra de junio” y una “amplia autonomía palestina”. Pide un enfoque integral para resolver el conflicto en lugar de negociaciones bilaterales. La Administración Carter acepta plenamente el informe por su política que no gusta a los gobiernos de Rabin y Begin porque promueve un resultado de negociación que hace hincapié en una retirada casi total.

In a 30-minute video drawn from a session July 24, 2022, at the 21st annual CIE/ISMI Enrichment Workshop on Modern Israel, four veteran Israel educators define Israel education, differentiate it from Israel advocacy, discuss how educators can do it better, and preview online, multilingual learning units in development through Israel’s Ministry of Education.

Three European journalists provide their first hand accounts of the First Zionist Congress and reporting of the delegates attending.

Max Nordau obtuvo un título en medicina y, al igual que su amigo Theodore Herzl, se convirtió en un sionista devoto. Asistió al primer Congreso Sionista en Basilea, Suiza en agosto de 1897; pronunciando un apasionado discurso sobre la condición general de los judíos en Europa. El compromiso de Nordau con la organización sionista en sus primeros años indujo a muchos intelectuales judíos a seguir su ejemplo.

Hermann Eilts played a pivotal role in representing the U.S. to Egypt and vice versa in the vital 1973-1980 period when Egypt embraced Washington and turned away from Moscow, and made peace with Israel. Eilts knew Egyptian President Sadat as well as any American official in the period. He provides rich detail and vivid insights into Sadat’s often mercurial decision-making.

From 1898 to 1948, Zionism evolved from an idea to a concrete reality: the actual establishment of the Jewish state, Israel. When Herzl wrote his idea for The Jewish State, Jews had little political power, and almost no financial resources with which to bring the Zionist idea to fruition. Jews had remained steadfast in their communal commitment to preserve their identity.

From the biblical covenants, Jews bound themselves to the belief in one G-d, an unbreakable tie to the Land of Israel. From its inception, Jewish identity was wrapped around the mutual commitments between G-d and the people.

Assembled by Ken Stein, Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel and the Center for Israel Education, kenstein@israeled.org  Vic Alhadeff, “25 years after Maccabiah Bridge Collapse: ‘It has left a gaping hole’,” Plus61j Media, July 12, 2022, https://plus61j.net.au/featured/25-years-after-maccabiah-bridge-collapse-it-has-left-a-gaping-hole/  Ron Ben Yishai, “Biden’s strategic goals in his Mideast tour are in the Gulf,” Y-Net […]

From the vantage points of Amman and Damascus in the 1970s and 1980s, Theros heard the sharp political opinions deeply felt about the United States, and the profound anger voiced by Arafat, Jordan’s King Hussein and Syria’s President Assad for each other.

Kenneth W. Stein, “One Hundred Years of Social Change: The Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem,” in Laurence Silberstein, (ed.) New Perspectives on Israeli History: The Early Years of the State, New York University Press, 1991, pp. 57-81. On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181.  It called for the partition […]

El JNF estimó que se podrían comprar hasta 250.000 dunams (un dunam = un cuarto de acre) si hubiera fondos disponibles a pesar de la oposición árabe a las ventas y un fuerte aumento de los precios. Para entonces, los judíos poseían 1,6 millones de dunams de tierra, y más de la mitad de Palestina no pertenecía a nadie. El detalle en estas actas del JNF revela los altos niveles de planificación geoestratégica en el período posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

On President Biden’s trip to Israel, he and Prime Minister Lapid affirmed the long term US-Israel Strategic relationship. The US committed itself never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and to work with other powers to curb Iran’s destabilizing influences in the region. Washington also committed itself to strengthening and broadening the Abraham Accords.

El vicepresidente Joe Biden le dice enfáticamente a un grupo rabínico en Atlanta: “sin ambigüedades, si fuera israelí, si fuera judío, no contrataría mi seguridad con nadie, ni siquiera con un amigo leal, leal como Estados Unidos.”

La clara evaluación de Agronsky de los disturbios de 1936-1939 proporciona una descripción gráfica de la devastación
causada a la economía rural de Palestina y a la mayoría de la población árabe.

Notwithstanding the signing of the Abraham Accords (1920) and the growing prominence of the cooperation between Israel and the Arab Gulf states, including on security matters, the road toward its establishment increasingly rests with American involvement or leadership. Will this be a Biden priority when he visits the region over the summer?

The Center for Israel Education presents an opportunity for students to win prizes and recognition by thinking deeply about Israel as it approaches its 75th birthday and submitting their creative representations of Israel’s challenges, successes and visions for the future.

Jordanian Prime Minister Ziad Rifai lucidly explains Jordan’s role (inclusion and exclusion) in regional politics from prior to the 1973 October War to the late 1980s. His insights of Kissinger’s diplomacy and Arafat’s unfounded fear of being absorbed by Jordan are as worthy as they are insightful.

Unknown to the Carter administration and one month before it issued the US-Soviet Declaration to convene an international Middle East Peace Conference, Prime Minister Begin tells the cabinet that he learned from the Rumanian president that Sadat wishes to have Israeli and Egyptian representatives meet in secret talks. That bi-lateral Dayan -Tuhami meeting takes place on September 16. Begin refers to advanced drafts of proposed treaties between Israel and each Arab state; he presents details about Rumanian Jewish immigration to Israel.

Begin summarizes in great detail the contents and the political implications of the recently signed Camp David Accords. He reiterated Israel’s continued presence in Jerusalem, per its June 1967 Law, and clarified the terms used in the agreements.

El plan, concebido por el ministro de Trabajo Yigal Alón, fue presentado al entonces primer ministro Levi Eshkol el 26 de julio de 1967, inmediatamente después de la Guerra de los Seis Días.

As a long time confidant of Menachem Begin and involved in the Herut Party, Eliyahu Ben-Elissar was Israel’s first Ambassador to Egypt. He was a staunch supporter of keeping the area of the West Bank – Judea and Samaria under Israeli control. Later he became Israel’s ambassador to France and then the United States.

Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid Party, graciously thanked his predecessor, Naftali Bennett for his service. As Prime Minister at least until a month or so after the scheduled November 1, Knesset elections, Lapid emphasized the value of Israel’s inclusive democratic principles. He affirmed a commitment to keep Israel a majority Jewish state, and with that support for a strong economy. While stressing Israel’s security and defense needs including those from “Gaza to Iran,” he spoke hopefully of solidifying Israel’s regional security presence based on the 2020 Abraham Accords.

Zionism and Israel: From the Tanakh to 1948 explores the foundations of the centrality of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people and how the relationship between the people and the land evolved over time. (Young Adults and Adult Education)