Last year when I was in Israel, I fell in love with Israeli cats. My wife is a cat fancier, and wasn’t traveling with me, so I thought I would take pictures of every stray cat that crossed my path. I took a lot of pictures. There are a lot of stray cats in Israel and the West Bank. They were in every city we visited, particularly in the alleyways of shuks and old makets; on the beach in Jaffa, crossing busy thoroughfares in Tel Aviv, hanging out near butcher shops in Akko and Bethlehem. When we visited the Temple Mount, there were a group of cats, sublimely and insouciantly indifferent to the hubbub and tension around them, sunning themselves in front of the Dome of the Rock. In Hebron, the IDF didn’t seem to care that cats were passing from the Palestinian to Israeli-controlled parts of the city. They were always underfoot, and generally tolerated. read more

The Book of Samuel marks, according to Ben Gurion, a new era in the history of the Jewish people that he defines as “a period of national cohesiveness, independence and a growing desire for kingship.” As the architect of the state of Israel, that period described in the Book of Samuel was particularly close to his heart. He said that the beginning of the book was anchored in what has been known as the rule of the Judges, yet even then the people aspired to come together, to unify and to look for a king. This growing public sentiment was brought up to Samuel who was a prophet and judge at that time; Samuel strongly rejected it, “it was wrong in Samuel’s eyes that they said, ‘give us a king to judge us.”* read more

This letter is about facts, action and hope. The fact is that we in the Israeli Left have become irrelevant in both domestic and foreign policy; decision-making is completely dominated by the Right and far-Right parties. My goal in writing this letter, however, is not to spread pessimism and certainly not to surrender, but to advocate action and hope.

Let me begin with what seems self-evident but needs a reminder-the only thing that matters in a democracy like ours is winning elections and we in the Left are losing them faster in each cycle. Meretz, our signature political party, has barely made it in recent elections; we squeezed in, thankfully getting the mandatory five seats in the Knesset. I have enormous respect for Zehava Galon, but I do the math, 5 out of 120 does not make a political dent. If we continue on this path all our commitments to democracy, peace and social justice will at best be completely marginalized and irrelevant. read more

Last year, I spent a day in Hebron. When we arrived at our destination, at an apartment rented by the Christian Peacekeepers Team, a woman from the flat next door offered us a cup of tea. She told us that for many years now, her front door had been welded shut by Israeli authorities, to prevent her exiting or entering from Shuhada Street, a street with several Jewish settlements. A man in his 30s told us how his wife’s family was prevented from using their land, since Israeli authorities had for several years declared it a potential archeological site, though he claimed that this was spurious claim. A while later, when we stood on the roof of the building, an Israeli soldier told us to get down. When we made our way to the center of the Old City, seeing all the ways Israel has hemmed in and restricted access to the Palestinian area of the city. To get to the tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, we had to pass through several IDF checkpoints, and we saw various barriers, in the street in front of the tomb, indicating that Jews should keep to one side of the street, Palestinians to the other. read more