Newsweek 05/18/2018

IN APRIL, AS HER FAMILY IN CENTRAL ISRAEL prepared to celebrate Independence Day, Rachel Ohal was preparing for what she calls “every Israeli’s dream.” The next morning, she awoke in her home in Los Angeles and drove to a ceremony to become an American citizen. She is one of at least 1 million Israelis residing in the United States. And if Israel—home to 8.8 million people—doesn’t change course, many more may soon join her. Israel celebrates its 70th birthday in May with the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Yet the country is grappling with an existential crisis—one that doesn’t involve Iranian nukes or Palestinian protests. Spurred by the high cost of living, low salaries, and political and demographic trends, Israelis are leaving the country in droves, trying to build…

IN THE SPRING OF 2016, AS Donald Trump cruised to the Republican presidential nomination, he convened an elite crowd in a Washington, D.C., ballroom to announce a new proposal that would, as he put it, “shake the rust off America’s foreign policy.” Backed by American flags, he eviscerated decades of GOP orthodoxy—specifically the nation building of George W. Bush in Iraq—and pledged to enact a “coherent foreign policy” that would shun distant conflicts and put “America first.” Trump pledged to find “talented experts with approaches and practical ideas, rather than surrounding myself with those who have perfect résumés but very little to brag about except responsibility for a long history of failed policies and continued losses at war. We have to look to new people.” But now, as President Trump faces…

AS THE PRE-DAWN TWILIGHT CREPT OVER AN Afghan mountainside, an Air Force commando named Jay huddled in the snow, listening to a distressed voice crackle over his radio, then fade away. Moments later, he says, the voice came again, breaking through the static in little more than an anguished whisper: “This is Mako Three Zero Charlie.... This is Mako Three Zero Charlie….” The same six words, over and over, each time dissipating before Jay could hear anything else. Jay was part of a reconnaissance team operating behind enemy lines, and he immediately recognized the call sign and voice. They belonged to his counterpart on another team: Air Force Technical Sergeant John Chapman. From his hidden perch, Jay responded again and again on his powerful satellite-capable radio. He received no reply. The…

BREXIT HEADQUARTERS in London is a poky Westminster townhouse a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament. Its location is fitting because the only person who has an actual office in the building is Nigel Farage, a man who has made throwing stones—at British Parliament, at so-called globalists and at the European Union—his life’s work. Yet Farage, the Brexit activist turned TV and radio personality, is hardly ever there. As a European member of Parliament, he spends at least two days a week in Brussels or Strasbourg—which, he concedes, can be a little awkward nowadays—as well as in the U.S., where he attends conferences, gives speeches and has abuse hurled at him as he walks down New York’s Fifth Avenue. To be fair, that abuse happened only once, Farage says, and…

“If a woman has two children, her earnings would be, on average, 8 percent less than women who don’t have them.” SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH made history in April when she became the first sitting senator to give birth. And her daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, has already made history as the first infant allowed on the Senate floor, after a rule change pushed for by Duck-worth. But although Duckworth has been hailed as a hero for working mothers, the similarities go only so far. As a senator, Duckworth’s salary is set by statute, leaving her immune to what’s known as the “motherhood penalty.” For most working mothers, children bring more than a change in routine; they also bring a change in income. When a woman becomes a mother for the first time, her…

Concrete evidence about the consequences for mothers who opt out of the workforce to raise children has been hard to come by. Kate Weisshaar, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, aims to change that. In a recent study, published in American Sociological Review, she scrutinized how employers respond to résumés from stay-at-home parents, uncovering surprising penalties. “When opt-out applicants are prevented from re-entering the labor market,” Weisshaar writes in her paper, “employers reinforce standards that exclude parents from full participation in work.” Here are some of her key findings. “Among high-earning couples, women have a smaller motherhood penalty, and fathers are getting a bigger bonus. [Among] lower-earning couples, moms are getting a larger penalty, and dads aren’t getting any bonus. Women who can least afford it…