The 2nd Annual Essay Contest for The Propagandist introduced us to some excellent works by our regular contributors as well as first-time pundits. Our readers were treated to critical analysis of issues as far-ranging as Turkey's democratic drift, the threat of jihadism in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden and the consequences of the Arab Spring.

(A quick apology to our contributors and readers in getting the results out. We know we're a few days late. Hopefully, the winner wasn't counting on the prize money to help make a mortgage payment over the weekend.)

Without further ado, the winning submission of the 2nd Annual Essay Contest for The Propagandist is (drumroll, please)...

• Better Jews. The Moral Vanity of Israel's Leftist Jewish Critics, by Adam Levick

Here's an excerpt:

This recurring tendency of Jews, such as Murane, to pay greater attention to their own moral performance than to the necessities of survival is a trait which Ruth Wisse characterizes as “moral solipsism”.

 

In displaying the resilience necessary to survive in exile, many Jews have come to fetishize weakness, and believe that they could pursue their mission as a “light unto the nations” on a

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