:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62359627/GettyImages_1052757074.0.jpg)
If you want to learn more about the rising power of settlers and the settlement movement inside Israel, David Remnick wrote an excellent piece in the New Yorker.
A solid introduction to the pro-Palestinian community, and particularly its internal divides, is Ben Smith’s profile of the fraught personal relationship between two leading advocates for Palestinian rights. Ali Abunimah, perhaps the most prominent advocate of both BDS and the one-state solution, and Hussein Ibish, a leading Arab supporter of the two-state solution, used to be close friends. Smith’s account of their bitter split says a lot about the various arguments on both sides of the internal pro-Palestinian divide — and how, in the case of Israel/Palestine, how the political always becomes personal.
If you want to learn about the close and sometimes vexed relationship between American Jews and Israel, Peter Beinart’s ”The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment” is one of the most influential — and controversial — essays on the topic in recent memory. It doesn’t take too long to read; after you’re done, read Jason Zengerle’s breakdown of the heated, surprising debate Beinart inspired.
If you’re interested in how demographics are forcing Israel to either leave the West Bank or abandon its dual Jewish/democratic identity, Israeli demographer Sergio DellaPergola, breaks the issue down clearly here.
If you want to understand why the Israeli right is skeptical of peace with Palestinians, eminent Israeli historian Benny Morris’s piece on Palestinian ”rejectionism” is as clear an articulation as you could hope for.
f you want to understand why Palestinians are skeptical of the two-state solution, read Columbia University historian Rashid Khalidi’s take on the current state of the conflict.
