Israel

Stephanie Van Hook

Israel on the Brink as Ultra-Orthodox Exemption from Military Service is Set to End

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – On March 29, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to stop subsidizing the academies and yeshivas (seminaries), whose students have been exempted from military service since Israel’s founding. This move, brought by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, was prompted by the expiration of prior government actions to maintain […]

Iran

With Its Deterrence Strategy Weakened, Iran Faces Pressure To Hit Israel

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Kian Sharifi | – ( Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty ) – Iran’s strategy of deterrence against Israel has suffered greatly since the outbreak of the Gaza war — particularly after the brazen attack on its consulate in the Syrian capital on April 1. Eighteen members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), including […]

Featured

Could the Israeli Supreme Court’s decree that ultra-Orthodox be Conscripted bring Down Netanyahu?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports on the conscription crisis that may cause the Netanyahu government to fall and tear Israeli society apart. The Israeli Supreme Court issued the ruling on Thursday evening, which freezes — as of April — the funds for ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools, the students of which […]

Israel

The US Administration’s Hypocrisy and Israel’s Cockiness

Gilbert Achcar

( Middle East Monitor ) – It is truly astonishing that Washington abstained in voting on the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on Monday, although the resolution is consistent with the US position that rejects the call for a permanent ceasefire, as it only calls for “an immediate ceasefire for the month of […]

Far Right

Israel’s ‘Iron Wall:’ A Brief History of the Ideology Guiding Benjamin Netanyahu

The Conversation

By Eran Kaplan, San Francisco State University | – (The Conversation) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that Israel’s military will soon launch an invasion of Rafah, the city in the southern Gaza Strip. More than 1 million Palestinians, now on the verge of famine, have sought refuge there from their bombed-out cities farther […]

Anti-Zionism

In Zionist Academia there is No Room for Dissent

Lior Sternfeld

By Sonia Boulos and Lior Sternfeld | – Madrid and State College, Pa. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In a statement from March 12, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced the suspension of Professor Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, an internationally renowned Palestinian scholar and a faculty member in the Law School and School of Social […]

Hizbullah

Will Current Israeli-Lebanese Fighting derail Historic Land Border Agreement?

The Conversation

By Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College | – In October 2022, Lebanon and Israel signed a maritime border agreement brokered by the U.S., a move interpreted as the beginning of normalizing relations between two countries technically at war. The next step would have been the settlement of the long-running land border dispute. But then came the […]

Haredim

Israel’s Army Exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox: A Jewish State divided over the Jewish Religion

The Conversation

By Michael Brenner, American University | – Just when you think nothing can surprise you anymore in Israeli politics, someone always comes along with a new twist. This time it was Yitzhak Yosef, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis. In response to debates over whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be required to serve in the military, […]