In the past few months, a particularly censorious and intolerant segment of the left has grown in influence and visibility, using its clout to drive journalists from their jobs, to cancel book contracts, and to harass private individuals. To many astute observers, there are pronounced similarities between this ideology—nicknamed the “Great Awokening” by its critics—and religious fervor. Matti Friedman explains how he first noticed many aspects of this fervor over a decade ago, while working as an Associated Press reporter in Israel. Moreover, he writes, “one of the most obvious signs that religion is in play, . . . is the way this ideology has focused and amplified the condemnation of Jews.”

From March to May, a series of small-scale terrorist attacks claimed the lives of some twenty Israelis, and raised fears that jihadist murder would again become a fact of everyday life in the Jewish state. Hillel Frisch details how a swift campaign waged by the IDF and Shin Bet, employing deliberate and discriminate force, succeeded in restoring the peace: