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Jerold S. Auerbach

Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of 12 books, including Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel (1896-2016) and Israel 1896-2016, selected for Mosaic by Ruth Wisse and Martin Kramer as a “Best Book for 2019.”

It was in Hebron where David became king of Israel, ruling for seven years before relocating his throne in Jerusalem.
Author Daniel Gordis traces and explores “the more central causes of the complex, fraught, love-filled, hate-filled relationship” between American Jews and Zionists” before and since the birth of Israel.
For the Columbia University professor, Palestinians are the Native Americans of the Middle East. He imagines “parallels” between “the resistance of Native Americans to their dispossession and that of the Palestinians.” But his futile search for parallels exposes the spurious nature of his claim.
For assimilated Jews of a liberal persuasion who are as critical of Israel as Sanders, his election doubtlessly would be cause for celebration.
In Hebron, the kindness and cordiality that she effusively displayed towards West Bank Palestinians quickly vanishes as she focuses on the Jewish Quarter.
If implemented, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan will reaffirm the right of Jews to continue to inhabit a substantial portion of their biblical homeland, which is what Zionism is all about.
In 19th-century guidebooks, Christian holy sites received considerably more attention—and devotion—than the sacred places of Jews and Muslims. And revealingly, none of the authors referred to Arabs as “Palestinians.”
Whether Zionism retains any connection to the ancient sources and sites of Jewish history is entwined with the future of the Hebron Jewish community.
Before 1948, “Palestine” had been the preferred term of Jewish identification.