Since the birth of the state of Israel in 1948, Israel and stories about the Middle East have been on the cover of Time more than any other international subject except the Cold War. During that time, we've done some 68 covers on the Middle East, encompassing Israel and the unending cycle of Arab-Israeli problems. As the struggle has intensified between Israel and Gaza, a sad cliche about the Middle East once again seems true-that the more things change, the more they tragically stay the same. In our 1948 cover story on the Israeli victory and its hero, David Ben-Gurion, we wrote that it was "time to stop pondering the settled question of whether there would be a Jewish state, time to start asking what kind of nation Israel was." That is the question we are again asking this week as we ponder not only Israel's endgame with Gaza but also what the future holds for the Jewish state. Tim McGirk, our Jerusalem bureau chief, poses the toughest questions facing Israel: Is a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine still possible? Will Israel's, hostile neighbors ever acknowledge and adapt to its existence? These are the issues that Israel and the world must reckon with.
展开▼
