Israel is a small country. At its widest, it is only 60 miles. Missiles can easily blanket the country. Millions of Israelis are sadly accustomed to going into the safe rooms of their homes to weather missile attacks. The weekend assaults, however, introduce a new level of danger. Israel will feel compelled to act and protect its people, but also its future.
Everything You Need to Know About Israel
American Jewish Committee (AJC) works to set the record straight on Israel, calling out fact from fiction and standing up to those seeking to tear down and discriminate against the region’s only democratic nation and world’s only Jewish state.
AJC works every day, in the United States and around the world, to advocate for Israel through global diplomacy, political advocacy, coalition building, and strategic communications.
The resources below include facts and key insights into Israel-related topics, including the U.S.-Israel relationship, the Abraham Accords, Israel-diaspora relations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a two state solution, Israeli democracy, the UN’s anti-Israel bias, Israeli Arabs, the connection between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, Hamas, Hezbollah, Gaza, the West Bank, Palestinians, and more.
To find answers to your questions about Israel use the search bar below and check boxes on the left to view articles, videos, podcasts, columns, eBooks, and more. Don’t see an answer to your question about Israel? Click here to let us know.
After Hamas Attack, Israel Will Protect Its People and Its Future
Hezbollah's Dangerous Provocations
Near the end of this month, the UN Security Council will convene to renew the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon for another year. But UNIFIL's mandate to confirm the implementation of Council resolutions regarding Lebanon will remain unfulfilled unless the Council takes the necessary measures to uphold its resolutions.
It’s Time to Admit Israel to the US Visa Waiver Program
President Joe Biden is within arm’s reach of fulfilling his 2021 public pledge to help Israel join the United States Visa Waiver Program, an achievement American friends of the Jewish state are poised to celebrate.
The EU Needs to Designate Hezbollah as a Terrorist Organization
Hezbollah is not a normal domestic player that can be reasoned with, moderated, or somehow stirred toward more responsible statecraft through just the right amount of “dialogue.”
UN Climate Conference Highlights Israel’s Centrality to Solving Regional and Global Challenges
Encounters between Israeli and other Arab government representatives, even from countries that do not yet have relations with Israel, are plentiful. Venues like COP27 provide opportunities for countries in the Middle East and around the world to transcend conflict and work together to shared challenges and advanced common interests. Israel sent the second-largest delegation of the 192 countries represented at the gathering, and the country’s expertise in climate, water, and agriculture technology was on full display.
What Thomas Friedman Gets Wrong About Israel And Democracy
I read Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column, “The Israel We Knew Is Gone,” once, twice and a third time, repeatedly pinching myself for a reality check. In his piece, Mr. Friedman described the incoming Israeli coalition government as “the far-far-Right coalition.” It is a coalition, he argues, that threatens minority rights, regional stability, and even the very underpinning of Israeli democracy.
From one of America’s leading columnists, who has lived in Israel and visited numerous times over four decades, a myopic end-of-days view was presented in his widely read piece.
From one of America’s leading columnists, who has lived in Israel and visited numerous times over four decades, a myopic end-of-days view was presented in his widely read piece.
The Abraham Accords Inspired a Daring New Path for the Middle East
After decades of disconnection, denial, and distrust, two years of normalized and remarkably warm relations between Israel and two Arab Gulf states have shown how ready the Middle East was — and is — for fundamental change.
Biden’s Middle East Visit: An Alternative View
President Biden recently made his first visit to the Middle East as president. It included two days in Israel, along with separate meetings with Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Bethlehem and two days in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia leg was politically controversial in the US primarily because of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 as well as criticism of the Saudi role in the war in Yemen. The president’s visit to Israel was a welcome opportunity to show support for a beleaguered ally, but it broke little new ground.
Israel: A Nation Reborn
Read this powerful essay by AJC CEO David Harris (1990-2022) on the history and meaning of Israel’s remarkable journey.
1967 Six Day War: Why It Matters
Fifty-five years ago this month, the Six Day War broke out. Without an understanding of what happened in the past, it’s impossible to grasp where we are today — and where we are has profound relevance for the region and the world.
Millennial Jews Are Choosing Between Israel And Social Acceptance
A new American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey revealed that 53% of US Jews ages 25-40 feel connected to Israel. For those who do not, there are two camps. First are those who have disengaged over disagreements with Israel’s policies. Second are those who fear social ostracization driven by both blatant and casual antisemitism, which is being fueled by anti-Israel sentiments among their peers. Our survey indicates that millennial US Jews may be willing to suppress their Zionism, or even their Jewishness, to remain in good social standing, and we must be cognizant of the long-term toll this will take on this key demographic. No Jew, no person, should have to hide who they are and what they believe.
5 Things You Should Know about Israel’s Support for Ukraine
Here are five things you should know about Israel’s support for Ukraine while ensuring it can keep Russia’s troops on its northern border at bay.
Ukraine and the Meaning of Israel in 2022
There are as many as 300,000 Jews living in Ukraine today. Whatever happens in the weeks and months ahead, they know they don’t have to face the prospect of homelessness. And that’s because, thankfully, Israel is a reality.
Refugees, Rights And Peace In The Middle East
AJC CEO David Harris, responding to a Wall Street Journal essay by Israeli historian Benny Morris, points out that the mission of UNRWA, set up in 1949, made no reference to refugee resettlement, and its definition of a Palestinian refugee included future generations without any time limit. Question is why Unrwa is not under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Amnesty International Claim That Israel Is An Apartheid State Is Recklessly Ill-Informed
The fundamental problem with the Amnesty International report is that it is disconnected from reality. Israel has nothing to do with apartheid, and apartheid has nothing to do with Israel.
Don't Damage American Jewish Ties To Israel During COVID-19
The power of visits to Israel to foster deeper attachment between American Jews and the Jewish state is well-known. 73% of American Jews who have been to Israel reported that their visit strengthened their connection to Israel, the AJC survey found. Israel and the organized American Jewish community need to think creatively and in partnership about how to recapture at least some of these lost opportunities during the pandemic.
The Key To Engaging Alumni
When we incorporate alumni into our leadership councils and caucuses and invite them into our local interreligious dialogues or communities of conscience, they speak out loudly against antisemitism and in favor of Israel’s right to defend itself.
The Middle East Has A Terrorist Club
Hamas was one of the first to congratulate the Taliban. “The demise of the American occupation and its allies proves that the resistance of the peoples, foremost of which is our struggling Palestinian people, will achieve victory,” Hamas stated the day Kabul fell to the Afghani terrorist organization. Sixteen years ago, Israel’s transfer of Gaza to the PA set the stage for establishing, through negotiations, a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Now, it’s tragically clearer than ever that peace, a possible two-state deal, will remain elusive as long as Hamas rules.
The Deep Roots Of The Abraham Accords
The announcement on Aug. 13, 2020 that the United Arab Emirates and Israel had agreed to move toward full diplomatic relations surprised much of the world. What culminated last summer had deep roots. My American Jewish Committee colleagues and I, traveling regularly to Gulf capitals since 1994, observed signs of fresh thinking in the region early on—and did our part to encourage it.
Can The UN Finally Cease Its Relentless Anti-Israel Bias?
In an unprecedented initiative, spearheaded by the Transatlantic Friends of Israel, 312 cross-party lawmakers from the European Parliament and national legislatures from EU member states, the U.K., Switzerland, Norway, the U.S., Canada and Israel have urged EU member states and fellow democracies to end the systematic discrimination against Israel at the UN. A Europe that wants to stand for democracy, human rights and the rules-based international order can no longer be complicit in this cynical game, which treats Israel by separate rules and in so doing undermines the UN's very own integrity and efficacy.
Featured Content:
- What Hamas is Hiding
- AJC's Tough Questions Series
- Timeline: Key Events In The Israel-Arab And Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Tough Questions About Gaza Answered
- Setting the Record Straight on Hezbollah: Full Report
- 10 Basic Facts About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- What You Need To Know About Israel’s Judicial Reforms
- The Abraham Accords, Explained
- Israel: A Nation Reborn
- 5 Things You Need to Know About Israel’s Iron Dome Defense System
- 8 Ways Some Anti-Israel Protests Have Spread Antisemitism
- 15 Israel-related Whoppers
- Tough Questions About Gaza Answered
