Spies Like Them By Daniella Greenbaum Davis Isaac Shoshan was born in Aleppo in the early 1920s. The son of a janitor, he grew up poor, living in a small space with several other families, eating mostly flatbreads cooked with the help of cow dung. His mother died when he was a child, and he did not know his birth …
Book tour dates, March 2019
I’ll be heading out soon to the U.S. and Canada to promote Spies of No Country. Here are the upcoming events open to the public. I’d be happy to see you there! Fri. March 1, Phoenix, AZ. Brandeis Book and Author Event 2019, Westin Kierland Resort & Spa. Book sale and signing open to public from 9 a.m., followed by …
“There Is No Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” (New York Times, Jan. 16, 2019)
JERUSALEM — If you are reading this, you’ve most likely seen much about “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” in the pages of this newspaper and of every other important newspaper in the West. That phrase contains a few important assumptions. That the conflict is between two actors, Israelis and Palestinians. That it could be resolved by those two actors, and particularly by …
“Espions de Nulle Part: L’avant Mossad”
Spies of No Country comes out today in France, published by Editions Liana Levi, and translated by Anne Rabinovitch. Pictured on the cover is the great Yakuba Cohen, one of the four spies at the center of the story…
What Happens When a Holocaust Memorial Plays Host to Autocrats (New York Times, Dec. 8, 2018)
Yad Vashem is both a memorial of a genocide, and a tool of Israeli realpolitik. By Matti Friedman, New York Times Op-Ed Section JERUSALEM — The quiet campus of Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial and museum, sits atop a wooded hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem, removed from the rush of the city. It can feel like a secluded shrine, …
A Train Ride Back to the Old Israel (New York Times, Oct. 17, 2018)
It takes four times as long as the new high-speed rail. I take it anyway. JERUSALEM — Last month, the first section of a new high-speed rail line opened in Israel. When it’s fully operational a few months from now, passengers will board fire-engine-red carriages in Tel Aviv and be whisked on electrified track over the country’s longest bridge, then …
The First Palestinian in Jerusalem’s City Hall? (New York Times, Aug. 10, 2018)
Ramadan Dabash doesn’t care if you call him a collaborator. JERUSALEM — Western observers interested in Jerusalem can be forgiven for thinking the most politically significant building in this city is a low limestone edifice featuring American flags and Marines — the embassy opened in May by the Trump administration to international fanfare and criticism. But anyone attentive to the …
“The Ties That Bind Jerusalem,” The Globe and Mail
Published Dec. 15, 2017 The Ties That Bind Jerusalem Different religions have their own holy sites in Jerusalem, the city where I’ve spent my entire adult life. The place I believe to be among the most important, however, is a grubby swath of garages, welding shops and furniture stores known as the Talpiot industrial zone. The zone is sacred to …