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Israel is surrounded by an array of ever-changing threats. But what if its most serious challenge comes from within? There was once a national consensus in Israeli society: politics was split between left and right, but its people were broadly secular and liberal. Over the past decade, the country has fractured into tribes---disparate groups with little shared understanding of what it means to be a Zionist, let alone an Israeli. A once-unified population fights internecine battles---over religion and state, war and peace, race and identity---contesting the very notion of a Jewish and democratic state. . While this shift has profound implications for Israels relationship with the broadly liberal Jewish diaspora, the greatest consequences will be felt at home. Israels tribes increasingly lead separate lives; even the army, once a great melting-pot, is now a political and cultural battleground. Tamir Pardo, former head of Mossad, has warned of the risk of civil war. . Gregg Carlstrom maps this conflict, from cosmopolitan Tel Aviv to the hilltops of the West Bank, and asks a pressing question: will the Middle Easts strongest power survive its own internal contradictions?
About the Author
I'm a correspondent for The Times and The Economist, based in Tel Aviv. I also contribute to a number of other publications, including The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Politico, Foreign Affairs, New York and others. I was previously based in Cairo, and before that as a Doha-based reporter for Al Jazeera English, covering the region from Tunisia to Iraq. I was born in New York and graduated from Northwestern University.
