Gershom Gorenberg
Author "War of Shadows" & "The Accidental Empire"
Contributing Writer, The Atlantic
Also gershomg.bsky.social
Lecture contact info at tinyurl.com/ggersh
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Articles by Gershom Gorenberg
Facing Elections, the Netanyahu Government Is Scared — and Reckless
In May 1992, I went on a real estate tour of suburban West Bank settlements. I had no intention of buying, and neither did my ostensible shopping companion, who was in fact the photographer from the Israeli news magazine where I worked. The tour was part of the government-sponsored “Operation Populate Judea and Samaria,” which referred to the biblical name of the territory known by most of the world as the West Bank.
The Israeli Activists Aiding Palestinian Victims of Settler Violence
The Palestinian farmers and their children came on foot up the terraced hillside near the town of Halhul in the high country of the West Bank, carrying shears to prune their grapevines. With them came Israeli activists from Bnei Avraham (The Children of Abraham), a religious peace group.
The Same War, on a Loop
In Israel these days, unless your apartment has a blast-resistant room, it’s best to go to bed in something that you’re comfortable wearing in a bomb shelter. Your phone is likely to wake you with the clatter of an alert for incoming missiles: First comes a text message that says to be near a protected area. Several minutes later, a second screech brings a message to take cover.
While No One’s Looking, Netanyahu Tightens His Grip on the West Bank
Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking steps to extend control over the West Bank, violating international agreements and risking further conflict. Netanyahu's domestic and foreign policy decisions are driven by personal survival and power, aligning with far-right parties to maintain support ahead of upcoming elections.
While No One's Looking, Netanyahu Tightens His Grip on the West Bank
The upcoming election is a greater hurdle: Unreliable as polls may be, they consistently show Netanyahu's coalition losing to a disparate bloc of opposition parties. Many right-wing voters, it appears, see Netanyahu as corrupt, or as evading responsibility for the catastrophic Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, or both. In a multiparty system, their options include right-wing parties opposed to Netanyahu personally.
Netanyahu Wants a Never-Go-to-Jail Card
Presidential pardons are in fashion in the United States, even for people who haven’t yet been found guilty of a crime. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a well-known Americanophile. Now he, too, wants a preconviction pardon, a never-go-to-jail card. On Sunday, his lawyers submitted his request, stressing that freeing Netanyahu from his marathon corruption trial would be purely for the public good.
Be Glad the Hostages Are Home. Be Worried About the Rest.
I happened to be on the floor at last year’s Democratic convention when Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, spoke about their ordeal. There were press reports that they were a little nervous about the reception they were going to receive, given the hostile sentiment toward Benjamin Netanyahu’s war in Gaza among rank-and-file Democrats. Some on the right were saying they were going to be booed, or at best greeted with indifference.
The Reason Not to Boycott Israeli Films Original
Listen1.0x 0:009:57 Listen to more stories on the Noa app. A lost boy walks slowly through Tel Aviv’s central bus station. Two soldiers pass him, and he turns away to avoid being noticed. Yet there’s nothing noticeable about him—brown hair, blue eyes, a chin just beginning to widen into adolescence—except the mix of fear and determination that shows when the camera zooms in on his face. He asks a passerby, perhaps too quietly to be heard, “Do you speak Arabic?,” but the man rushes by.
Palestinian Hunger Must Have a Place in Israeli Protest
Generate Key Takeaways In the center of the front line of the marchers who filled the width of King George Street in downtown Jerusalem, two young men stretched a banner between them that read, “Starvation is a war crime.” Behind them, in the stifling night heat, came the drummers and the megaphone-bearers who provided lyrics for the drums’ thundering: Security is not achieved On the corpses of children! The crowd chanted responsively.
Palestinian Hunger Must Have a Place in Israeli Protest
Near sunset, protesters flooded a boulevard and marched past the Defense Ministry to the wide square in front of Habima Theater, a spot synonymous with protest against the Netanyahu government. Inside the square, the crowd was so dense I could barely move. Drone photos show the overflow spilling out into surrounding streets. Organizers estimated the numbers at 50,000 to nearly 100,000 - or close to 1 percent of the country's population.
The Jubilation in Israel Is Premature
In Israel, the war is over, and not over at all. In the two weeks since the cease-fire with Iran, praise for the Israeli military has been nearly unanimous within the country. Opposition politicians spoke of “clear” and “stunning” accomplishments by the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad intelligence agency. That some Iranian missiles evaded Israel’s defenses has largely faded from the news. Operationally, the Israeli campaign was indeed impressive.
Questions From the Bomb Shelter Original
Some dreams do come true. At night, I dream of the rising screech of sirens across Jerusalem, of running to a bomb shelter, of thinking wildly about my grown children elsewhere in Israel dashing through dark streets for safety as missiles whoosh overhead. I dream of distant booms that I hope are interceptions and not direct hits on apartment buildings.
The Two Extremists Driving Israel’s Policy Original
Listen1.0x 0:0017:46 They are the leading extremists in the most right-wing government in Israel’s history: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir are both West Bank settlers. They ran together on the same ticket in Israel’s most recent election, gaining more votes than ever before for the far right. They both want Israel to reoccupy all of Gaza, to renew Israeli settlement there, and to “encourage” Palestinians to emigrate.
How to Say No to a Would-Be Autocrat
If any doubts remain that Benjamin Netanyahu aims to transform Israel into an authoritarian state, where the prime minister is above the law and dissent is presumed subversive, an eight-page affidavit submitted to the country’s supreme court this week should dispel them. Written by Ronen Bar, the embattled former head of the Shin Bet security agency, the document is testimony from the pinnacle of Israeli power.
Israel Plunges Into Darkness Original
After 19 months of war in Gaza, the Israeli government has decided to march deeper into the quagmire. Israel has announced its intention to take and retain a significant part of the Gaza Strip. Call-up orders are going out to tens of thousands of already exhausted reservists. The battered, hungry population of Gaza is to be forced into an even smaller part of the narrow enclave. The lives of the remaining Israeli hostages are in greater danger than ever.
How to Say No to a Would-Be Autocrat Original
If any doubts remain that Benjamin Netanyahu aims to transform Israel into an authoritarian state, where the prime minister is above the law and dissent is presumed subversive, an eight-page affidavit submitted to the country’s supreme court this week should dispel them. Written by Ronen Bar, the embattled former head of the Shin Bet security agency, the document is testimony from the pinnacle of Israeli power.
Netanyahu Takes Desperate Measures Original
In a little more than a week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has reignited the war in Gaza, dismissed the head of Israel’s internal security agency, and moved to fire its highest legal official—all while pushing toward a political takeover of the judicial branch.
Netanyahu Doesn’t Want the Truth to Come Out Original
If there’s one thing most Israelis agree on after nearly a year and a half of war, it’s the need for a deep, impartial investigation into the catastrophe of October 7—laying bare what went wrong that day, beforehand, and possibly after. The demand for such an inquiry has escalated, voiced in equal measure by gaunt ex-hostages and the outgoing, guilt-ridden, military chief of staff. And if there is one thing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want, it is such an investigation.
The Hostage I Knew
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The Hostage I Knew Original
Oded Lifshitz came home to Israel, 503 days after his abduction to Gaza, in a coffin. His return does not bring closure. For many of us in Israel, rather, it is the occasion of anguish and fury. And it is a call for us to contemplate the demand on the living made by the dead. Oded’s coffin entered Israel on Thursday with three others.
A Gaza Deal Closed, but No Closure
Israel and Hamas have reached a hostage-release and cease-fire agreement, offering a measure of relief and hope to the region. But the deal brings no certain closure to the catastrophic Gaza war. It does not guarantee an end to the fighting, a full release of the Israeli hostages, or a lasting political solution for Gaza. Source link
A Gaza Deal Closed, but No Closure
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A Gaza Deal Closed, but No Closure
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A Gaza Deal Closed, but No Closure Original
Israel and Hamas have reached a hostage-release and cease-fire agreement, offering a measure of relief and hope to the region. But the deal brings no certain closure to the catastrophic Gaza war. It does not guarantee an end to the fighting, a full release of the Israeli hostages, or a lasting political solution for Gaza. For Israelis, joy at the return of some of the hostages is tempered by trepidation about the fate of the rest.
The Cost of Lawlessness on the West Bank Original
It was a normal morning during the autumn olive harvest. On a hillside northeast of Ramallah, on November 8, a group of roughly 15 or 20 Palestinians from the village of Deir Jarir were picking dark olives, the most important agricultural product in the occupied West Bank, from low, young trees.
The Leak Scandal Roiling Israel Original
The scandal rocking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle began with a headline in giant type announcing Hamas’s “horrifying” plans for Israeli hostages, and an exclusive story about a document “said to be” from the computer of the organization's then-leader, Yahya Sinwar. The headline appeared in German but precisely fit Netanyahu's domestic needs. The date was September 6.
Why Netanyahu Fired His Defense Minister
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Why Netanyahu Fired His Defense Minister
On Tuesday evening, a political earthquake shook Israel: In the midst of war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed his defense minister, Yoav Gallant. The quake was inevitable, even if the timing was not. The coalition that keeps Netanyahu in power is built astride a political fault line. On one side are the ultra-Orthodox parties that have served as reliable partners for Netanyahu’s Likud party for decades.
Lebanon Is Not a Solution for Gaza
Despite the thunder of the bombs in Lebanon; despite the stunning assassination of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah; despite the suddenly renewed image of omniscient Israeli intelligence and a boost in domestic popularity for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the war in Gaza has not ended. Hamas still holds 101 Israeli hostages, dead or barely alive. Gaza is devastated—nine out of 10 of its people displaced, by one estimate.
Netanyahu’s Other War
When Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, the most bitter political conflict in the country’s history suddenly seemed to be on hold—as if an unseen finger had pushed a pause button with everyone’s mouths still open in a shout. “Judicial reform is not on the agenda,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at a press conference on October 28, referring to his government’s program to eviscerate the supreme court and give the executive unconstrained power.
Hamas Murdered Them. Benjamin Netanyahu Abandoned Them. Original
“Bring Hersh home now,” say big white letters on a red banner, hanging on a building on my Jerusalem street. It’s one of many banners in my neighborhood, where Hersh Goldberg-Polin grew up. I walk down the street two hours after the early morning news flash that Hersh and five other Israeli hostages were murdered by their Hamas captors in a tunnel under Gaza. I am trying to remember how to breathe, and how to weep, how not to be numb. Hersh has come home. In a body bag.
Israel’s Disaster Foretold
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Israel’s Disaster Foretold
You can’t say Israel wasn’t warned. On June 19, 1967, a week after the Six-Day War, the Israeli cabinet met to discuss the future of the territories that Israel had just occupied. One proposal was to permanently keep the West Bank and give its Palestinian residents local autonomy—but not citizenship. Justice Minister Yaakov Shimshon Shapira responded that in “an era of decolonization,” the idea was absurd.
The Man Who Tried to Save Israel From Itself
“The Hague’s Hypocrisy,” roared the headline in one of Israel’s mass-circulation dailies. “The Hague’s Disgrace,” blared the competing paper. Outrage was the most obvious public response in Israel when the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that he’d seek arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity.
The Man Who Tried to Save Israel From Itself - Foreign Policy
“The Hague’s Hypocrisy,” roared the headline in one of Israel’s mass-circulation dailies. “The Hague’s Disgrace,” blared the competing paper. Outrage was the most obvious public response in Israel when the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that he’d seek arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity.
Why Biden and Bibi Are Tangling, and Why Biden Could Win Original
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu aren’t getting along—and they want to make sure the world knows it. President Biden went on MSNBC to tell an interviewer that Israel’s prime minister “is hurting Israel more than helping.” Via Politico, Netanyahu answered first with faux incomprehension that he didn’t know “exactly what the president meant,” then angrily declared that Israelis wouldn’t let anyone “ram down our throats a Palestinian state.” In fact, what Biden wants is clear.
Opinion | When Government Leaves a Void
On the sixteenth day of the war, I found hope in an underground parking garage. I needed it, because the government of Israel—Benjamin Netanyahu’s government—was hopelessly dysfunctional. On one side of the immense garage, cars and trucks arrived with donations of food and clothes, shoes and furniture, and more. On the other side, drivers picked up deliveries to take to the north and south of Israel and to hotels where evacuees were staying.
Here’s the Horror Hamas Left in Its Wake at One Kibbutz
The blue vase rests on a white lace doily on an antique end table, in the corner of the small living room. The roses droop. Embroidered throw pillows lie on the gray overstuffed love seat, which matches the couch. There are two recliners. An oval coffee table stands on a rug ornately patterned in burgundy arabesques. White and gray striped curtains are drawn back from the windows. One window is shattered where a bullet struck.
Netanyahu provocó una catástrofe y debe retirarse del cargo
“¿Cómo ha podido ocurrir esto?”, nos preguntábamos unos a otros, vecinos en pijama reunidos de repente en la escalera no del todo segura de nuestro edificio de departamentos en Jerusalén. Acababa de sonar la primera sirena antiaérea de la nueva guerra. Era temprano en una mañana festiva; no había oído ninguna noticia. Con voz nerviosa, un hombre del otro lado del pasillo nos habló de la invasión de Hamás a Israel que acababa de comenzar.
Netanyahu Must Go
transcript Netanyahu Must Go The responsibility Israel's prime minister bears for Oct. 7. This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. gershom gorenberg Since the beginning of the war, Israelis have been asking themselves, how did this happen?
Opinion | Netanyahu Must Go
transcript transcript Netanyahu Must Go The responsibility Israel’s prime minister bears for Oct. 7. 2023-10-25T05:03:11-04:00 This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. gershom gorenberg Since the beginning of the war, Israelis have been asking themselves, how did this happen?
Opinion | Netanyahu Must Go
Opinion|Netanyahu Must Go https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/opinion/netanyahu-israel-gaza.html Oct. 25, 2023 The responsibility Israel’s prime minister bears for Oct. 7. Oct. 25, 2023, 5:03 a.m. ET Since Hamas’s horrific attacks, Israelis have been asking themselves how such an atrocity could have happened. In this audio essay, Gershom Gorenberg says the better question is: How did Israel’s leaders — specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — let it happen?
Netanyahu ha de plegar
6 min El primer ministre israelià Benjamin Netanyahu conversa amb el seu ministre de Defensa, Yoav Gallant, durant la visita del president nord-americà Joe Biden. “Com ha pogut passar una cosa així?”, ens preguntàvem uns veïns als altres, reunits de sobte en pijama al peu de l’escala no gaire segura del nostre edifici d’apartaments a Jerusalem. Acabava de sonar la primera sirena antiaèria de la nova guerra. Era primera hora del matí d’un dia festiu; jo no havia sentit les notícies.
How West Bank Settlements Led to the Conflict in Gaza
JERUSALEM – The pilgrimage took place on the night of October 4. A long line of buses entered the city of Nablus in the West Bank. They carried Jewish worshippers to Joseph’s Tomb, a contested holy site whose attraction—especially for religious West Bank settlers—is precisely that it is located inside the Palestinian city. To protect the pilgrimage, the Israeli army sent three battalions of soldiers—a significant military operation.
Netanyahu Led Us to Catastrophe. He Must Go.
"How could this happen?" we asked one another, neighbors in pajamas suddenly gathered in the not quite safety of the stairwell of our Jerusalem apartment building. Our first air-raid siren of the new war had just sounded. It was early on a holiday morning; I'd heard no news. In a jittery loud voice, a man from across the hall told us about the Hamas invasion of Israel that had just begun. That moment repeats on a loop in my mind - when I wake up at night and when the sirens repeat.
Opinion | Netanyahu Led Us to Catastrophe. He Must Go.
Opinion|Netanyahu Led Us to Catastrophe. He Must Go. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/opinion/netanyahu-israel-gaza.html Guest Essay Mr. Gorenberg is an Israeli journalist and historian who wrote from Jerusalem. Sign up for Your Places: Global Update. All the latest news for any part of the world you select. “How could this happen?” we asked one another, neighbors in pajamas suddenly gathered in the not quite safety of the stairwell of our Jerusalem apartment building.
Opinion | Netanyahu Led Us to Catastrophe. He Must Go.
Guest Essay Mr. Gorenberg is an Israeli journalist and historian who wrote from Jerusalem. “How could this happen?” we asked one another, neighbors in pajamas suddenly gathered in the not quite safety of the stairwell of our Jerusalem apartment building. Our first air-raid siren of the new war had just sounded. It was early on a holiday morning; I’d heard no news. In a jittery loud voice, a man from across the hall told us about the Hamas invasion of Israel that had just begun.
Opinion | Netanyahu Led Us to Catastrophe. He Must Go.
Opinion|Netanyahu Led Us to Catastrophe. He Must Go. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/opinion/netanyahu-israel-gaza.html Guest Essay Oct. 18, 2023, 1:00 a.m. ET Mr. Gorenberg is an Israeli journalist and historian who wrote from Jerusalem. Sign up for Your Places: Global Update. All the latest news for any part of the world you select. “How could this happen?” we asked one another, neighbors in pajamas suddenly gathered in the not quite safety of the stairwell of our Jerusalem apartment building.
The Strength of Israel’s Divided Democracy Protests - The New York Times
Guest Essay Protesters in Jerusalem on Saturday, July 22, 2023.Credit...Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press Mr. Gorenberg is an Israeli journalist and historian. His most recent book is “War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis From the Middle East.” Sign up for Your Places: Global Update. All the latest news for any part of the world you select.
Opinion | When Tyrants Overshoot
History will likely list 2023 as transformative in Israeli politics. More specifically, history might just remember this year as the one in which a powerful movement for strengthening liberal democracy was born in Israel. If so, January 4 should be recorded as that movement’s birthdate, and Justice Minister Yariv Levin as its father—though he intended to give birth to something else entirely. History loves irony, and cares little for intentions.
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