Tel Aviv Review

It is difficult to think of anything that has failed as often as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Nathan Thrall of the International Crisis Group argues in his book, “The Only Language they Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine,” that nice negotiations and incentives will never be enough for the stiff-necked people on either side of the Green Line. He claims that only force – either tough diplomatic pressure or actual physical violence – has ever generated real concessions. Thrall discusses why he has reached that conclusion and its implications for reaching a peace accord someday.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dorit Rabinyan's third novel about a stormy love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man became a bestseller when Israel's Education Minister banned it from high school required reading lists. What was so threatening about it to the Minister, or to Israel in general? Was she advocating assimilation, humanizing and individualizing the other, or just writing about two young people in love? One of Israel's top novelists discusses her controversial book "All The Rivers," and the autobiographical experiences behind it.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dorit Rabinyan's third novel about a stormy love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man became a bestseller when Israel's Education Minister banned it from high school required reading lists. What was so threatening about it to the Minister, or to Israel in general? Was she advocating assimilation, humanizing and individualizing the other, or just writing about two young people in love? One of Israel's top novelists discusses her controversial book "All The Rivers," and the autobiographical experiences behind it.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

At the close of the 50th year since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza and applied military rule over the people residing there, Gershon Shafir publishes a new book that not only documents the occupation in all its facets, but also how Israelis and Palestinians experience it. The former group lives as subjects of a colonial system, in Shafir's view, while the latter, he argues, lives in their own state - one he terms "denialism."

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

At the close of the 50th year since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza and applied military rule over the people residing there, Gershon Shafir publishes a new book that not only documents the occupation in all its facets, but also how Israelis and Palestinians experience it. The former group lives as subjects of a colonial system, in Shafir's view, while the latter, he argues, lives in their own state - one he terms "denialism."

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

The giddy hopes of the Arab uprisings in 2011 have given way to resurgent authoritarian leadership in some states, while others are bleeding to death. These are not auspicious prospects for liberal democracy. But within each country lies a complex set of forces at work that differ from Tunisia to Morocco, or Egypt to Syria. In their collection "Arab Politics beyond the Uprisings: Experiments in an Era of Resurgent Authoritarianism," co-editors Thanassis Cambanis and Michael Wahid Hanna curate 20 articles considering constitutions and corporations, as well as cartoons, youth, women, football, and more. Michael Hanna explains what they learned.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

The giddy hopes of the Arab uprisings in 2011 have given way to resurgent authoritarian leadership in some states, while others are bleeding to death. These are not auspicious prospects for liberal democracy. But within each country lies a complex set of forces at work that differ from Tunisia to Morocco, or Egypt to Syria. In their collection "Arab Politics beyond the Uprisings: Experiments in an Era of Resurgent Authoritarianism," co-editors Thanassis Cambanis and Michael Wahid Hanna curate 20 articles considering constitutions and corporations, as well as cartoons, youth, women, football, and more. Michael Hanna explains what they learned.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Shulem Deen was raised in an ultra-orthodox sect, the Skverers, considered too extreme even for other Hasidic Jews. He grew up speaking Yiddish in the middle of New York, married in his teens and had five children. Then everything began to change. His book All Who Go Do Not Return is a tell-all of both of the extreme insularity of Hasidic life, and the journey of his soul from the Skverers to the secular world he lives in today. It is a path of great discovery, and tremendous sacrifice.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Shulem Deen was raised in an ultra-orthodox sect, the Skverers, considered too extreme even for other Hasidic Jews. He grew up speaking Yiddish in the middle of New York, married in his teens and had five children. Then everything began to change. His book All Who Go Do Not Return is a tell-all of both of the extreme insularity of Hasidic life, and the journey of his soul from the Skverers to the secular world he lives in today. It is a path of great discovery, and tremendous sacrifice.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel. 

Dr. Omar Dajani, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Global Center for Business and Development at the University of the Pacific in California, analyzes Israel's ongoing seizure of the West Bank from a legal perspective: Has the occupation morphed into a de facto annexation?

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.