Yom Ha'atzmaut

Ben-Gurion saw the IDF as a modern instantiation of Joshua’s military might. The Israeli writer and politician S. Yizhar, in contrast, asserted that we should discard Joshua because of the violence and wholesale slaughter recounted in the book. Contemporary Israeli teachers grapple with the question of how to teach students such a core story of Jewish history that is fraught with moral problems.

When the State of Israel was established, the leading figures in religious Zionism had to justify Israel’s right to conscript soldiers using Jewish legal sources.

With a Close Look at Its Biblical Sources

Defending the right of Jews to the land, the Declaration of Independence invokes their connection going back to biblical times. But does this declaration conform to biblical thought?