In his remarkable and engrossing new novel, Michael Chabon (“The Yiddish Policemen’s Union”) describes the hero’s sister as “Like a salmon – that aquatic Zionist, forever dreaming of its fatal home – Naomi used up her strength and energy in struggle.”

I write this week from Jerusalem, and I write reluctantly. Arguments and snippets of arguments swirl about, the most ominous prediction is barely spoken before a shrug of resignation follows and then the specifics, the right leaders are lacking, the national will is lacking, adequate security is lacking. This journalist presents his delightfully utopian views as informed analysis, that journalist repeats tired formulas from an earlier time. I have given up trying to tease a coherent consensus out of all this. So I shall write of the dilemmas.
Read on…