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Benjamin Kerstein

Benjamin Kerstein is a writer, editor and novelist, and a fellow at the Z3 Institute. His latest work is Self Defense: A Jewish Manifesto (2025).

If the Jews do not defend themselves, second-class citizenship, and far worse, will become the norm.
Pro-Palestinian and other radical activists use emotional blackmail to force vulnerable people into submission and sometimes suicide.
Perhaps the only true Jewish pride comes not from simply being Jewish, but from gratitude and resolution.
The Israel-haters may not like it, but everyone, at some point, was a settler.
We are not a people of plaster saints, and no one has the right to demand otherwise.
Netanyahu, Lapid and Gantz could form a stable Zionist government right now, if only they didn’t hate each other.
Betrayal is always a possibility, no matter which side of the partisan divide the Jews are on.
To see the Jews as more than human is no more realistic than viewing us as less than human.
For centuries, the Jews have existed on what Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu called “desperate ground,” but perhaps something more is possible.