Latest from Gershom Gorenberg
Facing Elections, the Netanyahu Government Is Scared — and Reckless
The current Israeli government is the most extreme in the country’s history, and also one of its most durable. But polling numbers consistently show that Netanyahu’s coalition might not win the Oct. 27 election. Fear of losing is driving a frenzy of settlement activity in the West Bank.
The Espionage That Won — and Almost Lost — the War at El Alamein
Churchill described the final triumph at El Alamein as the "end of the beginning" of WWII, with Montgomery and Rommel as its mythic figures. But piecing together long-lost secret evidence, we can see that a strange espionage affair led to both the battle and its outcome.
Houseboats on the Nile Once Gave Refuge to German Spies
The houseboats got in the way of development, say Egyptian authorities. But demolishing them erases a remnant of Cairo's history. At the least, the government should have picked one houseboat to preserve as a museum to the legend of German spies Johannes Eppler and Heinrich Sandstede.