At the heart of today’s Big Read is a riddle.
We are living in a “wild moment” in human history, filled with questions—about AI, about artificial wombs, about drone wars—that are “so incredible they’re effectively spiritual.” And yet, at this exact point in time, “the world suddenly entered a vortex where, instead of engaging on these many phenomenally interesting and challenging topics, all anyone can talk about is. . . Zionism.” Why?
That’s the question our friend Alana Newhouse sets out to answer in a sweeping, provocative essay that was first published in Tablet magazine. Her argument is that the obsession with Zionism is about much more than Israel, and goes to the heart of a deeper crisis in the West—over nationhood, self-determination, modernity, and the future of free societies. We’re honored to share it with you today. —The Editors
How do people change?
Some change involves things that happen to us, which isn’t what interests me. I’m curious about what happens, individually and to societies, when people face an unhappy reality—however it came to be—and decide to change what looks, at least at that moment, to be their fate.
Fragmented data makes it hard to find patients who need urgent care. Qualified Health used Claude to screen 1M+ heart failure patients.
In his 2015 novel Submission, Michel Houellebecq sketches a portrait of a near-future France, in which an Islamic party allies with the Socialists to take over the country. The story follows a literature professor faced with a decision to convert to Islam for career advancement, as the country’s social and political landscape is transformed by sharia law. His own disillusionment is heightened by his Jewish girlfriend’s decision to escape the Islamization of France by moving to the Jewish state. He almost goes with her but then doesn’t, uttering the book’s now-famous line: “There is no Israel for me.”
I remember snagging on that sentiment the first time I read it. I could see why a disgruntled non-Jewish academic might hesitate to make aliyah, but to the extent that Houellebecq’s fictional portrayal contained a commentary on the real world, the conclusion felt wrong. There quite clearly is, or could be, an Israel for this person. It’s France, if it could just get off the course it’s on.
