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Jun 12, 2022, 5:57 PM

When Tactics Overwhelm Values

On Saturday night, Meretz supporters protested outside the home of MK Rinawie Zoabi because of her refusal to vote for the extension of the bill that applies Israeli law to settlers in Judea and Samaria. It was a surreal...

Apr 6, 2022, 12:38 PM

Idit Silman, what are you afraid of?

MK Idit Silman speaks with MK Mansour Abbas at the Knesset on October 11, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

It's soft coercion, to be sure, but it is counterproductive; Judaism and the Jewish character of the State of Israel will suffer for it

Feb 3, 2022, 8:28 PM

‘Is Israel an apartheid state?’ is not the right question

Palestinians shows their identity cards to members of Israeli forces as they make their way through a checkpoint to attend the first Friday prayers of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, in Bethlehem in the West Bank. April 16, 2021. (Wisam Hashlamoun/FLASH90)

When we ask whether the country treats its Arab population fairly, the answer is not so simple

Mar 7, 2021, 1:33 PM

You Do Not Vote Yair Lapid…? A Poem about Change

Zev-I-Am: Will you vote for Yesh Atid? Undecided Voter: I do not want Yair Lapid; I will not vote for Yesh Atid. Zev-I-Am: Small businesses with benefits; Prime Ministers with term limits. Undecided Voter: I back small business benefits; I stand for...

Jan 26, 2021, 11:20 AM

The Haredi COVID Riot in Context

Many are still reeling from the violence against enforcement of the COVID restrictions in the Haredi sector earlier this week. The problem is serious, but the COVID rioting is a symptom, not the malady itself. At its core, we...

Jan 14, 2021, 3:27 PM

Political Mergers for Knesset Runs on the Right and Left

Israeli political parties are confusing. They also work in trends, sometimes merging and sometimes splitting. In the bigger picture, Israel has basically three axes for parties: religious, political, and ethnic. How much any given party leans in one direction...

Aug 6, 2020, 11:34 AM

Randomness of the Beirut Explosion

If someone had said to me a month ago that Beirut would be hit with the worst explosion in its history, I would have guessed (in descending order): Civil war broke out between Lebanon’s various militarized factions. Terrorism, perhaps...

Mar 11, 2020, 11:05 AM

Arab Parties and Their Place in the Israeli Government

Arab parties have always been in the Knesset. Moreover, representatives from these Arab parties have always served on committees and voted on laws like any other members of Knesset. Nevertheless, the Arab parties have never been part of the...

Mar 8, 2020, 11:34 AM

Spinning out of control

I am sure that most Israelis, like me, are sick of elections. Yet again, we have a result that is no result at all, just another stalemate. Since both the right and the left will try to form a...

Mar 3, 2020, 3:40 PM

A Post-Mortem of the 23rd Elections

The day after the 23rd Israeli elections, we do not yet know if we will have a government, but we know that the right wing won big. Moreover, much of that win is to the credit of Prime Minister...

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About Me

Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber is the senior editor of TheTorah.com and a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute's Kogod Center.

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