“In the Middle East,” the Israeli general and politician Ehud Barak once said, “a pessimist is simply an optimist with experience.” Barak would know. He was Israel’s prime minister in 2000, a year ...

It’s so often said that it’s become a cliché in modern politics: Israel has been the Jewish homeland for 3,000 years or more. Modern Israel, they say, is heir to the ancient kingdom of David and ...