After Six Months of War, the Israeli Middle Struggles to Find Its Voice

Reflecting on the condition of Israel six months into the war, Micah Goodman discusses the psychological effects of the ongoing horrors on Israelis as well as Israeli relations with the Palestinians and with the Middle East as a whole. But the main topic of his conversation with Amanda Borschel-Dan is the country’s social and political divisions. Mosaic has recently covered these divisions from two very different angles: our interview with Yehoshua Pfeffer about haredi enlistment in the IDF and Rafi DeMogge’s article about the demographic makeup of the soldiers who have lost their lives in the war. It’s worth considering all three items together. In Goodman’s view, Israelis have much more in common than the political map suggests. (Audio, 46 minutes.)