Ira Chernus

The positive reception of Budrus in the U.S. says a lot about the political climate today. The right-wing “pro-Israel” movement is going through a tough time. It has always built its public appeal on one simple narrative: Israel wants peace, but it must fight to ward off implacable violence from its enemies. Anything Israel does is justified because it’s in self-defense.

An exclusive Religion Dispatches interview with the late historian of religions Mircea Eliade, conducted (by seance?) via Ira Chernus:

If the fear of a broken society is, at its deepest level, the fear of a broken foundation myth—a loss of the sense of secure identity that once came from simply living on American soil—then no party is to blame for it and no party can fix it.