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1948


Menachem Begin: A New Life Menachem Begin: A New Life
Friday, May 3, 2013 by Asaf Romirowsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Ensuring that another Holocaust would never take place was Menachem Begin's paramount concern, even when he was Prime Minister of Israel, pursuing Yasir Arafat in his Beirut bunker.
The New Rosh Hashanah The New Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 by Elli Fischer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The Jewish New Year is characterized by an uneasy combination of stock-taking and solemn celebration.  Yom Ha’atzma’ut, as the birthday of the Jewish state, is beginning to acquire a similar character.
The Challenge of Sovereignty The Challenge of Sovereignty
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 by Michael B. Oren | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

On the eve of Israel's independence, David Ben-Gurion sat alone, questioning whether a people so long accustomed to being the victims of sovereign power could take responsibility for themselves.
On Silence On Silence
Monday, April 15, 2013 by Anita Shapira | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Eschewing Jewish expressions of mourning, Israel's founding generations shaped a national ethos of silence and self-restraint, which found expression in the words of poet David Shimoni: “Don’t mourn, don’t cry/ at a time like this./ Don’t lower your head,/ Work! Work!”
Which Land Is Our Land? Which Land Is Our Land?
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 by The Editors | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

After David Ben-Gurion urged young American Jews to make aliyah, the American Jewish Committee responded by resolving to "forcefully discourage Israeli propaganda for immigration from America."
Editors' Picks
Lions of Israel , Toldot Yisrael. 65 years ago this month, 35 Haganah soldiers died trying to bring supplies to kibbutzim in the besieged Etzion Bloc.  A new documentary tells their story from eyewitness accounts. (Video)
Prophetic Democracy Warren Zev Harvey, Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Equality of all Israel’s citizens "is not a grudging compromise that Judaism has made with modern secular ideologies, but derives from within Judaism—from the vision of the Prophets."
The Real Enemy Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, Arab News. “What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care, and the infrastructures instead of wars?”