I don't think I'll ever get over looking up on the highway and seeing this glorious flag blowing in the wind. This particular one was enormous. Larger than my SUV. The hot wind was blowing so hard that it had enough power to open the entirety of the flag so that it was fully extended in the sky. For the novel I'm (please God) finishing this summer, I spent many years intensely studying different moments in Jewish history. Mostly challenging ones were our existence, and certainly, sovereignty...

I'm not just angry. I'm nauseous. This week, Susan Abulhawa, an anti-Israel activist with a long history of dehumanizing Jews, responded to criticism that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani had failed to appoint a single Jewish member to his 18-person judicial screening panel. This is not an isolated outburst. Abulhawa has repeatedly referred to Jews as "vampires," "demons," and "ghouls," celebrated the October 7 Hamas massacre, and previously collaborated with New York City First Lady Rama...

I’ve started asking a strange question in Israeli grocery stores. Who is all this food really for? In the entire time it took me to pick out my fruits and vegetables, an older man stood by the cherry table. Going through each bundle of cherries, picking through the stems, choosing the very best fruit for his little basket. He brought them up to eye level and studied them, wiping the dust from each one, checking carefully for bruises and blemishes. When he finished, he looked up at me and took...