While the state of Israel has no written constitution, it does have a declaration of independence. The text went through numerous revisions as the founders of the Jewish state debated when to declare independence, what the new country would be called, whether or not its borders should be specified, and whether God should be mentioned in the declaration. (As a compromise on the last point, it included the ambiguous phrase “Rock of Israel.”) In a newly released online course, the historian and Mosaic contributor Martin Kramer tells this remarkable story. Click on the link below to register for the course, or watch the preview here.

Drawing on recent surveys of Palestinian public opinion in both Gaza and the West Bank, David Pollock notes the gap between the opinions generally attributed to Palestinians and what they actually tell pollsters: