The Times of Israel https://www.timesofisrael.com/writers/matti-friedman/ News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:41:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://static-cdn.toi-media.com/www/uploads/2018/11/toi_icon_512-200x200.png Matti Friedman | The Times of Israel https://www.timesofisrael.com/writers/matti-friedman/ 32 32 Matti Friedman: As Israel plays king of the castle in Lebanon, what’s its endgame? https://www.timesofisrael.com/matti-friedman-as-israel-plays-king-of-the-castle-in-lebanon-whats-its-endgame/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:44:47 +0000 https://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=3835153&preview=true&preview_id=3835153 In a week in which the country marks the fallen in the first Lebanon War and announces the recapture of Beaufort Castle, the journalist and author draws on the past to understand the present

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]]> Matti Friedman: Israel’s forever wars in Lebanon https://www.timesofisrael.com/matti-friedman-israels-forever-wars-in-lebanon/ Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:20:35 +0000 https://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=3781330&preview=true&preview_id=3781330 Before turning to yet another conflict with Hezbollah, the author dives into his newest book, 'Out of the Sky,' on the real pre-state heroes who parachuted into Nazi Europe to save Jews

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]]> Diaspora Jews: Time to take a stand https://www.timesofisrael.com/diaspora-jews-time-to-take-a-stand/ Sun, 20 Aug 2023 15:18:57 +0000 https://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=3075126 Why world Jewry should support Israel, but not its current government, and ways to do so - beginning with a live webinar with us on September 4, 2023

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]]> An open letter to Israel’s friends in North America https://www.timesofisrael.com/an-open-letter-to-israels-friends-in-north-america/ Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:48:39 +0000 https://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=2941643 Diaspora Jews have both the right and the responsibility to speak out against a government that is undermining our society’s cohesion and its democratic ethos

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]]> An Israeli sensor is helping the Middle East save its dates https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/opinion/israel-uae-peace-dates-technology.html Thu, 11 Feb 2021 02:12:17 +0000 https://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=2486172 Israel's new normalization deals were founded on a common Iranian foe, New York Times reports, but are also helping nations of the region unite against threats from a tiny weevil

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]]> How Lebanon humbled, but didn’t break, Israelis https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-lebanon-humbled-but-didnt-break-israelis/ Tue, 12 Jul 2016 10:23:46 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=1420337 On the 10th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War -- another chapter in Israel's long, painful, and unfinished conflict in Lebanon -- an excerpt from the new book 'Pumpkinflowers' examines the impact of decades in Lebanon on the Israeli psyche

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]]> What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/?single_page=true Mon, 01 Dec 2014 14:17:05 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=1099933 Matti Friedman writes in The Atlantic that the news tells us less about Israel than about the people writing the news

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]]> It’s the words that bind https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-words-that-bind/ Wed, 22 Jan 2014 12:51:06 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=840230 A deep connection to Israel can be formed only by an intimacy with the real life of the real people of this surprising country

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]]> How Edgar Bronfman changed my life (without meeting me) https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-edgar-bronfman-changed-my-life-without-meeting-me/ Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:17:22 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com?p=796650&preview_id=796650 I spent six weeks in Israel on a high school program he founded to ensure kids like me gained access to our complex Jewish world. Six defining weeks

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]]> A journey of faith, from Germany to Jerusalem https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-journey-of-faith-from-germany-to-jerusalem/ Tue, 24 Sep 2013 11:08:10 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=686062 What the battle for the bridge at Arnhem in 1944, a Red Army prison camp and a vegetable garden have to do with the thousands of evangelical Christians flooding Jerusalem this week

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]]> Israel Museum (briefly) returns painting seized by Nazis https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-museum-returns-painting-seized-by-nazis/ Tue, 28 May 2013 13:01:35 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=526022 1923 Impressionist work by Max Liebermann restored to the Jewish family that owned it before WWII, then repurchased by the museum

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]]> News of Dead Sea Scrolls for sale highlights complex legal status https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-of-dead-sea-scrolls-for-sale-highlights-complex-legal-status/ Tue, 28 May 2013 11:26:52 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=525812 Israel might want the treasured fragments, but there is no obvious legal barrier to selling them on the private antiquities market, officials say

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]]> 9th century, meet 21st: Supercomputer revolutionizes Cairo Geniza research https://www.timesofisrael.com/9th-century-meet-21st-supercomputer-revolutionizes-cairo-geniza-research/ Mon, 27 May 2013 13:38:09 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=524478 When complete on June 25, a computation project in Tel Aviv will have matched thousands of fragments from the famed collection

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]]> Did ancient beams discarded in Old City come from first and second temples? https://www.timesofisrael.com/did-ancient-beams-discarded-in-old-city-come-from-first-and-second-temples/ Wed, 22 May 2013 14:14:59 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=515498 A collection of neglected wooden beams from the Al-Aqsa mosque offer a glimpse at ancient Jerusalem -- and possibly at the biblical temples themselves

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]]> Houses, fences and fruit trees: A decade of watching settlements grow https://www.timesofisrael.com/houses-fences-and-fruit-trees-a-decade-of-watching-settlements-grow/ Mon, 20 May 2013 16:19:46 +0000 http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=503846 A trip through the West Bank with Dror Etkes, who tracks how Israel's settlements are altering the physical, political and human landscape in one of the world's most complicated pieces of land

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