Issue #9

December 2013
The Tower Magazine

We Really Need to Talk About Corruption

Forget about whether it's a good idea. JONATHAN SCHANZER asks if it's even possible to build a Palestinian state on profiteering, violent turf wars, and widespread hatred of elected officials. If not, then we have a very big problem.

continue reading >> Counterfeit money found in the Muqata, 2002. Photo: Israel Defense Forces / flickr

Lihi Lapid, Leaning a Different Way

The novelist, photographer, and wife of Israel's finance minister has a tough message for modern women: Don't believe in fairy tales, and know whom you can trust. BETH KISSILEFF interviews the author of 'Woman of Valor.'

continue reading >> Lihi Lapid. Photo: Vardi Kahana / The Tower

Dare We Say It? The Mullahs Must Go

Not so long ago, people on both sides of America's political divide saw democratic revolution as a serious basis for US policy in Iran. What happened? MICHAEL LEDEEN calls for reopening that conversation in the wake of the Geneva debacle.

continue reading >> Protesters marching on Tehran’s Azadi Tower during Iran’s Green Revolution, June 15, 2009. Photo: Hamed Saber / Wikimedia

Jabotinsky’s Lost Moment: June, 1940

Of all the early Zionists, nobody saw the coming Holocaust as clearly as Vladimir Jabotinsky. RICK RICHMAN explores the resonance he had with Americans, the army he almost built, and how his untimely death may have changed history.

continue reading >> Jabotinsky by Yitzhak Danziger. Photo: tamoryair/wikimedia

Oslo Proved Something About Peace, All Right

Twenty years after the dramatic handshake on the White House lawn that heralded the Oslo Accords, peacemakers are still insisting that you lose nothing by trying. As BENJAMIN KERSTEIN shows, they haven't learned a thing.

continue reading >> Secretary_Kerry_and_Deputy_Special_Envoy_Lowenstein_Fly_From_Amman_to_Ramallah CROPP{ED

PHOTOS: Worlds Beneath the Sacred Waters

Off the coast of the Israeli port city of Ashdod, a whole new kind of fishery has emerged, where Mediterranean sharks swim with whole schools of tuna and sea bream. AVIRAM VALDMAN went there with his camera—and a whole lot of guts.

continue reading >> IMG_3055