Oren Kessler

Author, “Palestine 1936”

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Jan 5, 2024, 11:15 PM

The first, forgotten ‘two-state solution’

Chaim Weizmann arriving to testify before the Peel Commission in Jerusalem, November 1936 (Library of Congress)

In 1937, more than a decade before Israel's birth, the British authorities governing Palestine proposed splitting the Holy Land in two. Had they succeeded, that entire Middle East conflict may have developed differently. Indeed, it might not have developed...

Dec 14, 2023, 9:32 AM

Arabs in Israel: More Israeli, more Palestinian

The Ziyadne siblings, Aisha and Bilal, with family at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba after being freed from Hamas captivity, December 1, 2023. (Courtesy)

As they integrate into a state defining itself as Jewish, the need to assert their own distinct identity assumes new urgency

Jun 29, 2015, 10:43 PM

New TV show highlights Egypt’s Jewish problem

A new television series is shaking up the lucrative Ramadan viewing season in Egypt. The program – titled “The Jewish Quarter” and set in the late 1940s and early 50s – departs from decades of Egyptian precedent by depicting...

Jun 6, 2015, 9:10 AM

The FIFA farce and the Palestinians

The scandal-ridden soccer organizations passed a resolution that politicizes sports and appeases incitement

Jun 5, 2015, 9:52 PM

Terrorism and tourism in Egypt

Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles killed two members of the tourist police Wednesday at Egypt’s iconic pyramids of Giza. Egypt has experienced hundreds of attacks since the 2011 downfall of President Hosni Mubarak, mostly against state infrastructure and personnel. An...

Jul 28, 2014, 12:05 PM

On terror tactics and ‘mutual restraint’

Israel this weekend accepted an extension to a UN-brokered 24-humanitarian ceasefire, which Hamas promptly rejected. Two weeks ago Israel accepted an Egyptian-mediated, US-backed ceasefire that would have ended the current operation completely. Then too, Hamas refused and continued firing...

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About Me

Oren Kessler is author of “Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict,” one of the Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Books of 2023

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