On Sunday, the New York Times published a long article titled “Israel, ‘Start-up Nation,’ Groans under Strains of Growth and Neglect,” lamenting the Jewish state’s congested roads, overcrowded hospitals, and various social and economic problems—not to mention political deadlock. While there is truth to specific points in the article, Jonathan Tobin writes that, taken as a whole, it misses the forest for the trees. Indeed, it may say more about the pathologies of the Times than about those of its subject:

A recent article in an Israeli political journal argued that anyone who wishes to revive Israel’s moribund left must stay true to its secular heritage and “take a stand against both religion and religious people.” But to Gershon Hacohen this claim rests on a profound misunderstanding. While it is true that David Ben-Gurion and other early leaders of the Zionist left were secular insofar as they were agnostic and did not observe halakhah, their ideology was deeply enmeshed with the Hebrew Bible and Jewish traditions: