Last July, our interview with Yehudah Mirsky allowed us to announce the launch of a new featured section for the magazine, focusing on issues related to religious Zionism and messianism. The more Israel persists in its war on Gaza—and this week’s events have once again demonstrated that, for Netanyahu’s government, the goal of eliminating Hamas takes precedence over peace negotiations—the more these issues are likely to become decisive. For the refusal to end the war makes it possible to avoid having to take a political stance; it consists of settling into a temporality where only the present exists, but which always seems to be on the verge of a major upheaval. Netanyahu promises “final victory” to mask his indecision, but this indecision plays into the hands of the messianists, giving them a gift of hope and fueling their fantasies, sometimes even allowing them to act on them… This week, with the insight of sociologists who have met with them, Perle Nicolle-Hasid and Sylvaine Bulle show us what the dreams of the messianists “really” look like, and where they could lead if they were given free rein to bring about “redemption.” But they also introduce a fundamental problem: the ambivalence that affects the messianic relationship with the Zionist state in its modern form, which is both a means of realizing the dream and a limitation to its realization.
This summer, President Macron and Prime Minister Netanyahu exchanged letters. What did they contain? Beyond cordialities and…
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While messianism undoubtedly represents the most serious internal threat to Israel's future, it nevertheless comes in many forms. Perle Nicolle-Hasid and Sylvaine Bulle examine its various currents here, starting with a fundamental divergence: the question of the relationship to realized Zionism, i.e., to the state. But whether it is the realists seeking to make the state a tool of messianism, or the purists detaching themselves from it to live according to ancestral Israel, the present of redemption overwhelms the horizon of Zionism.
Among the political soap operas of the summer, the exchange of letters between Benjamin Netanyahu and Emmanuel Macron replayed the classic scene of a dialogue of the deaf. Beyond the pantomime spectacle, who can really say what the subject of their correspondence was? Gérard Bensussan attempts to decipher the reasons behind a misunderstanding that is particularly symptomatic of the current political situation.
How can we explain Israel's relentless pursuit of this seemingly endless war in Gaza? Danny Trom offers an analysis based on one symptom: the proliferation, since October 7, of kinot, poetic lamentations that are unique to the tradition of exile. Israeli lamentation is thus expressed in the language of exile and powerlessness, even though it now accompanies the war of a state through which Jews have acquired unprecedented power—and therefore a new responsibility. Danny Trom invites us to reflect on this internal tension within this paradox...
Throughout the summer, K. has brought you a weekly feature compiling five articles previously published in the magazine. To conclude this series and mark the start of the new season, we bring you some of the great interviews featured in the magazine this year: with David Nirenberg, Anna Zawadzka, Ruth Beckermann, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Steven J. Zipperstein.
This summer, K. invites you to rediscover, in each of its weekly issues, a feature consisting of five articles previously published in the magazine. This week, our “K.ritique” feature serves both…
This summer, K. invites you to rediscover, in each of its weekly issues, a feature consisting of five articles previously published in the magazine. This week with articles by Valeria Solanstein,…
À l’appel des familles d’otages et d’une large partie de la société civile, une grève générale aura lieu le 17 août pour dénoncer une stratégie militaire à Gaza perçue comme une impasse et une aggravation des conséquences de la guerre, tant pour les civils palestiniens que pour les captifs et combattants israéliens. Première mobilisation d’ampleur depuis la crise de la réforme judiciaire en 2023, elle cristallise la fracture politique israélienne. Bruno Karsenti y voit le rappel d’une question cardinale : celle du principe fondateur de l’État juif et de l’avenir même du projet sioniste.
This summer, K. invites you to rediscover, in each of its weekly issues, a feature consisting of five articles previously published in the magazine. This week with five pieces by…
This summer, K. invites you to rediscover, in each of its weekly issues, a feature consisting of five articles previously published in the magazine. This week: five reports, with articles by Joseph Roche, Anshel Pfeffer, Yeshaya Dalsace, Benny Ziffer, and an interview with Ber Kotlerman by Macha Fogel.
This summer, K. invites you to rediscover, in each of its weekly issues, a feature comprising five previously published articles from the magazine. This week, we have put together a…
Historian Deborah Lipstadt was the special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism under the Biden administration. In this interview, she shares her perception of the debates rocking the United States on this issue, between fears that Trump will exploit the fight against antisemitism and the progressive camp’s refusal to clean house.
This summer, K. invites you to rediscover a selection of five articles that have already appeared in the magazine. To kick things off, we have chosen the most read articles since the beginning of 2025: a diverse selection, but one that reflects the concerns of our readers. With texts by Benjamin Wexler, Jonathan Safran Foer, Stéphane Bou and interviews with Eva Illouz and Etgar Keret.
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Thanks to the Paris office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation for their cooperation in the design of the magazine’s website.