Jerusalem Report

Israel's overlooked challenge: Environmental damage from two years of war - from the editor

As the war winds down, Israel faces a quieter crisis – environmental damage from Gaza to the Dead Sea, alongside long-neglected ecological failures now demanding urgent attention

|ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
Visitors walk across salt formations along the receding shoreline of the Dead Sea, a stark sign of the region’s growing environmental crisis.
Hikers trek past a cavernous sinkhole on the shores of the Dead Sea near Ein Gedi. PremiumPremium

Into the sinkholes: How the Dead Sea’s collapse became a tourist draw

How one of the region’s worst environmental disasters has become a popular tourist excursion

|ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
A man searches through piles of garbage in Gaza City.PremiumPremium

Buried under the rubble: Gaza buried under 60 million tons of toxic war debris

As Gazans struggle to recover from the war – trash, sewage, and toxic debris are creating an environmental catastrophe

|ByDANA BEN-SHIMON
An aerial view of the Kinneret. To the casual observer, the lake, also known as the Sea of Galilee, appears to be a rare environmental success story in an era of climate uncertainty. PremiumPremium

Israel’s freshwater balancing act: The Kinneret under strain

Intensive management has saved the Kinneret from crisis, but rising salinity and ecological change pose growing risks

|BySAM HALPERN

How a wounded IDF commander led under fire: 'If I don't fight, my soldiers won't survive'

“If I don’t respond, if I don’t fight, my soldiers won’t survive – and neither will I,” 22-year-old Lt. R. told The Jerusalem Report.

DECEMBER 2, 2025ByCHANI KAPLAN
Soldiers in the Search and Rescue Brigade complete a month of basic training, then a six-month advanced course qualifying them first as infantry and then in search and rescue.

IDF sees sharp rise in enlistment from Druze, Bedouins, and Arab Christians

Two years of war have seen a rise in military enlistment from Israel’s minority communities.

DECEMBER 2, 2025ByDANA BEN-SHIMON
A reported massacre of Druze civilians by Syrian army forces and allied militias in July 2025 prompted Druze from Israel to cross the border.

Haredi exemption has become Israel's greatest internal security threat - analysis

Allowing ultra-Orthodox Jews to refrain from sharing the burden of IDF service is unsustainable and existentially dangerous.

DECEMBER 2, 2025ByERIC R. MANDEL
Haredi protesters against the IDF draft demonstrate in Jerusalem on October 30, 2025.

Female IDF soldiers' trauma overlooked despite historic mobilization: 'We need to be seen'

Even though this war saw the largest mobilization of women since Israel’s creation, the emotional impact on female soldiers is disturbingly absent from the narrative.

DECEMBER 2, 2025ByJEHUDIT WEINBERGER BASHA
After months of serving in Lebanon and Gaza, combat medic Mika Oz said she began suffering hypervigilance and irritability.

Two women break barriers with $150 million Israeli defense fund

Protego Ventures is the only venture capital fund investing in Israeli defense tech that is led by two women.

DECEMBER 2, 2025ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
Lital Leshem and Lee Moser founded Protego, Israel’s first and largest defense-tech venture capital firms after October 7 to support a growing number of start-ups in the field.

A new era for The Jerusalem Report - from the editor

From women in combat to shifts in the haredi world, this issue is all about change – starting with us.

DECEMBER 1, 2025ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
'Women on the front.' Lital Leshem and Lee Moser raised $150 million to investment in Israeli defense tech.

Stopping the AI slop: Israel's new battle against deepfakes and digital deception

Anyone with a smartphone can use AI to create realistic-looking videos and images, a phenomenon that threatens to upend our perception of the world.

NOVEMBER 19, 2025ByMATTHEW KALMAN
During the war between Israel and Iran in June 2025, social media platforms were flooded with images and videos of widespread destruction in Tel Aviv. Most were fake.

The day before the day after in Gaza: What must happen before rebuilding can truly begin - opinion

After two years of war, there is a rare opportunity to effect genuine change.

NOVEMBER 19, 2025ByRUTH WASSERMAN LANDE
The most crucial step toward lasting reform in Gaza is ending indoctrination in schools, media, mosques, and politics throughout the Arab world.

The Palestinian dilemma: Why Hamas continues to fail the Palestinian people - opinion

Hamas has delivered sustained misery, failure, death, and devastation to the Palestinian people and their cause.

NOVEMBER 19, 2025ByAHMED FOUAD ALKHATIB
A girl sits on an iron structure at a makeshift camp in Gaza City on November 3, 2025. After two years of war and devastation, there is an opportunity for Palestinians and Israelis to find a path to peace.

‘Weaponized empathy’: Hamas exploits Western ignorance of war, military expert says - opinion

Challenging the global narrative on Israel and Gaza with firsthand experience and analysis.

NOVEMBER 19, 2025ByANDREW FOX
There have been incidents where the conduct of some soldiers has strayed outside the laws of armed conflict, but the IDF says it is investigating many hundreds of allegations against its troops.