Response ·
Why the Israeli Declaration of Independence Is So Popular
By Martin KramerIn part it is because Israelis have a higher regard for the people who wrote it than for the politicians they now elect to office.
Martin Kramer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence
Latest Mosaic Content for Martin Kramer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence
Response ·
Why the Declaration of Independence is Not, and Should Not Be, Israel’s Constitution: Two Views
By Eugene Kontorovich, Yonatan GreenIsrael’s declaration was never intended to function as domestic law. There's no reason it should have been transformed into the quasi-constitution it is today.
Monthly Essay ·
How Israel’s Declaration of Independence Became Its Constitution
By Martin KramerIsrael's founders made little of the declaration at the time. It took decades of work by figures of widely different political stripes to make it the towering document it is today.
Observation ·
Whose Rights Did Israel Recognize in 1948?
By Martin KramerIn all but one of the instances in which "rights" appear in the Israeli declaration, they refer to a collective right, not an individual one.
Observation ·
Did the UN Create Israel?
By Martin KramerOn May 14, 1948, Israel’s founders wanted to emphasize to the world that while the Jewish people had been born in the Land of Israel, its state was the adopted child of the United Nations.
Observation ·
Did Israel’s Founders Declare a Secular State?
By Martin KramerGoing by the usual telling of the founding, religious and secular Jews clashed over whether Israel's declaration should evoke God's covenantal promise. How accurate is that account?
Observation ·
Why Israel Is Called Israel and Not Judea
By Martin KramerThe name Israel came by a process of elimination, because there wasn’t time to come up with anything better.
Observation ·
Three Weeks in May: How the Israeli Declaration of Independence Came Together
By Martin KramerThe declaration came together so hurriedly that if the drafters had argued for even a few hours more it would have read much differently.
Observation ·
The Most Significant Document Composed by Jews since Antiquity
By Martin KramerThe beginning of a new series investigating how the Israeli Declaration of Independence came about, and what the text reveals about the country it brought into being.
