New Books in 2008
Hebrew Writers of the First World War
by Glenda Abramson
(Vallentine-Mitchell Press, 2008; 448 pages. ISBN 9780853037705, Cloth, $75; 9780853037712, paper, $30)
Almost one and a quarter million Jewish soldiers took part in the First World War, spread through the armies on both sides of the conflict. Their numbers were more or less in proportion to the Jewish populations in the countries involved, and sometimes even greater. There is comparatively little writing about this experience in Hebrew. Those who did write novels, poetry, stories, memoirs and diaries in Hebrew were either serving soldiers on the Eastern Front and in Palestine, or civilians who were caught up in the war in one way or another. Their work reflected not only the tribulations of the trenches, but also the hardship suffered by civilians. Most of the Hebrew writers in Europe, including Saul Tchernichowsky, U.Z. Greenberg and Yehuda Ya'ari, confront the Russian pogroms in their work. Starvation, illness and banishment were the lot of the Jews in Jerusalem and the Lower Galilee, and the appalling situation of the Jewish refugees was represented by memoirists, journalists and fiction writers such as Aharon Reuveni, L.A. Orloff and Y.H. Brenner, all caught up in the trials of the wartime yishuv. Woven into their views of the war is a portrait of the major transition taking place in Jewish political culture at the time, and their growing identification with Zionism. Interesting aspects emerge from these texts: Jewish nationalism became a crucial theme in view of what the Jews considered to be the permanent setting of Europe's sun. The texts raise the question of genre: fiction in relation to autobiography. Also the trauma of the war led to an abandonment of the prevailing literary styles and structures, and the Hebrew writers adopted some of the new modernist trends, Expressionism in particular.
this book is available from Vallentine-Mitchell and from Amazon.com
Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries
by Michael R. Fischbach
(Columbia University Press, 2008; 376 pages. ISBN 9780231135382, Cloth, $35)
In the twenty years that followed the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, 800,000 Jews left their homes in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, and several other Arab countries. Although the causes of this exodus varied, restrictive governmental measures and an outburst of anti-Semitic feeling during and after the war were major factors. Some of these "Mizrahi" Jews, most of whom were not active Zionists, were forced to leave behind property of great financial and ancestral value-property that was sometimes seized by the governments of the countries they fled.
In this book, Michael R. Fischbach, who has dedicated years to studying land and property ownership in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, reconstructs the circumstances in which Jewish communities left the Arab world. Conducting meticulous and exhaustive research in the archives of Washington D.C., Jerusalem, London, New York, and elsewhere, Fischbach offers the most authoritative estimates to date of the value of the property left behind. He also describes the process by which various actors, most importantly the State of Israel, linked the resolution of Jewish property claims to the fate of Palestinian refugee property claims following the 1948 war.
Fischbach considers the implications of contemporary developments, such as America's invasion of Iraq, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and Libya's attempt to shed its international pariah status, which have impacted pending claims and will affect claims in the future. Overall, he finds that many international Jewish organizations have supported the link between the claims of Mizrahi Jews and those of Palestinian refugees, hindering serious efforts to obtain restitution or compensation.
this book is available from Columbia University Press and Amazon.com
Historical Dictionary of Zionism
by Rafael Medoff and Chaim I. Waxman
(The Scarecrow Press, 2008; 304 pp. ISBN 978-0-8108-5958-6, Cloth, $80)
The Jewish attachment to Zion is many centuries old. While the modern Zionist movement was organized a little more than a century ago, the roots of the Zionist idea reach back close to 4,000 years ago, to the day that the biblical patriarch Abraham left his home in Ur of the Chaldees to settle in the Promised Land, where the Jewish state subsequently arose. From that day to the establishing of the state of Israel in 1948, the Jewish people have been in a constant struggle to either regain or maintain their homeland.
Although 60 years have now passed since the establishment of Israel, many of the political and religious factions that made up the Zionist movement in the pre-state era remain active. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Zionism—through its chronology, maps, introductory essay, bibliography, and over two hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on crucial persons, organizations, and events—is a valuable contribution to the appreciation for both the diversity and consensus that characterize the Zionist experience.
This book is available from Scarecrow Press and from Amazon.com
Judicial Power and National Politics: Courts and Gender in the Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel
by Patricia Woods
(SUNY Press, 2008; 243 pages, Hardcover. ISBN: 978-0-7914-7399-3, $75)
Uses the case of Israel to examine the circumstances that lead national courts to engage heated political issues.
Patricia J. Woods examines a controversial issue in the politics of many countries around the world: the increasing role that courts and justices have played in deeply charged political battles. Through an extensive case study of the religious-secular conflict in Israel, she argues that the most important determining factor explaining when, why, and how national courts enter into the world of divisive politics is found in the intellectual or judicial communities with whom justices live, work, and think about the law on a daily basis. The interaction among members of this community, Woods maintains, is an organic, sociological process of intellectual exchange that over time culminates in new legal norms that may, through court cases, become binding legal principles. Given the right conditions—electoral democracy, basic judicial independence, and some institutional constraints—courts may use these new legal norms as the basis for a jurisprudence that justifies hearing controversial cases and allows for creative answers to major issues of national political contention.
This book is available from SUNY Press and from Amazon.com
Contemporary Israel: Domestic Politics, Foreign Policy, and Security Challenges (Paperback)
Edited by Robert O. Freedman
(Westview Press, 2008; 352 pages. ISBN: 0813343852 (paperback), $40)
Since its formation in 1948, and particularly since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin in 1995, Israel has experienced turbulent political change and numerous ongoing security challenges, including major party splits, collapsed peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria, nuclear threats from Iran, and even the specter of civil war as Israel withdrew from Gaza. This essential survey brings together Israeli and American scholars to provide a much-needed balanced introduction to Israel’s domestic politics and foreign policy.
Experts tackle this difficult subject in three parts: domestic politics, foreign policy challenges, and strategic challenges. Domestic topics include the Israeli Right and Left; religious, Russian, and Arab parties; the Supreme Court; and the economy. Part two discusses Israel’s complicated and often fractious relationships with the Palestinians and the Arab world, as well as its improved relations with Turkey and India and continuing close relationship with the United States. Israel’s second Lebanon war and existential threats to Israel, including the threat from Iran, are detailed in part three. This compelling and authoritative coverage provides students with the necessary framework to understand Israel’s political past and present, as well as the direction it is likely to take in the future.
Contents
1. Introduction (Robert O. Freedman)
Part One: Israeli Domestic Politics
2. The Israeli Right (Ilan Peleg)
3. The Israeli Zionist Left (Mark Rosenblum)
4. Israel’s Religious Parties (Shmuel Sander and Aaron Kampinsky)
5. Israel’s Russian Parties (Vladimir Ze’ev Khanin)
6. Israel’s Arab Parties (Hillel Frisch)
7. Israel’s Supreme Court (Pnina Lahav)
8. Israel’s Economy (Ofira Seliktar)
Part Two: Israel’s Foreign Policy Challenges
9. Israel and the Palestinians (Barry Rubin)
10. Israel and the Arab World (David Lesch)
11. Israel’s Strategic Relations with Turkey and India (Efraim Inbar)
12. Israel and the United States (Robert O. Freedman)
Part Three: Israel’s Strategic Challenges
13. Existential Threats to Israel (Steven David)
14. Israel’s Second Lebanon War (Elli Lieberman)
this book is available from Westview Press and from Amazon.com
Yehuda Amichai: The Making of Israel's National Poet
by Nili Scharf Gold
(Brandeis University Press, 2008; Cloth, 424 pages, $35; ISBN 1-58465-733-2)
An astonishing revision of the prevailing critical analysis of the poetry of Yehuda Amichai, based on newly discovered materials
Yehuda Amichai is one of the twentieth century’s (and Israel’s) leading poets. In this remarkable book, Gold offers a profound reinterpretation of Amichai’s early works, using two sets of untapped materials: notes and notebooks written by Amichai in Hebrew and German that are now preserved in the Beinecke archive at Yale, and a cache of ninety-eight as-yet unpublished letters written by Amichai in 1947 and 1948 to a woman identified in the book as Ruth Z., which were recently discovered by Gold.
Gold found irrefutable evidence in the Yale archive and the letters to Ruth Z. that allows her to make two startling claims. First, she shows that in order to remake himself as an Israeli soldier-citizen and poet, Amichai suppressed (“camouflaged”) his German past and German mother tongue both in reference to his biography and in his poetry. Yet, as her close readings of his published oeuvre as well as his unpublished German and Hebrew notes at the Beinecke show, these texts harbor the linguistic residue of his European origins. Gold, who knows both Hebrew and German, establishes that the poet’s German past infused every area of his work, despite his attempts to conceal it in the process of adopting a completely Israeli identity.
Gold’s second claim is that Amichai somewhat disguised the story of his own development as a poet. According to Amichai’s own accounts, Israel’s war of independence was the impetus for his creative writing. Long accepted as fact, Gold proves that this poetic biography is far from complete. By analyzing Amichai’s letters and reconstructing his relationship with Ruth Z., Gold reveals what was really happening in the poet’s life and verse at the end of the 1940s. These letters demonstrate that the chronological order in which Amichai’s works were published does not reflect the order in which they were written; rather, it was a product of the poet’s literary and national motivations.
This book is available from Brandeis University Press and Amazon.com.
THE ISRAEL-ARAB READER (Seventh edition)
Edited by Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin
(Penguin, 2008; Paperback, 640 pages, $18; ISBN 0143113799)
The book provides almost 300 primary texts covering more than a century of history. It documents the British mandate and early attempts to handle the conflict; Israel's independence and the outbreak of wars; international diplomatic efforts to make peace including the 1990s’ peace process and its breakdown. Materials are presented reflecting the positions of Arab leaders and states, Europeans, Israel, Palestinians, the USSR, and the United States. The texts of international resolutions and agreements, as well as accords made during the peace process, are also provided.
The book is available from the Penguin Group and from Amazon.com
The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land, Updated in 2008 for the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of Israel
Donna Rosenthal
(The Free Press, 2008; Trade Paperback, 480 pages, $16; ISBN 0-7432-7035-5)
Israel is smaller than New Jersey, with 0.11% of the world's population, yet captures a lion's share of headlines. It looks like one country on CNN, a very different one on al-Jazeera. The BBC has their version, The New York Times theirs. But how does Israel look to Israelis? The answers are varied, and they have been brought together here in one of the most original books about Israel in decades. From battlefields to bedrooms to boardrooms, discover the colliding worlds in which an astounding mix of 7.2 million devoutly traditional and radically modern people live. You'll meet "Arab Jews" who fled Islamic countries, dreadlock-wearing Ethiopian immigrants who sing reggae in Hebrew, Christians in Nazareth who publish an Arabic-style Cosmo, young Israeli Muslims who know more about Judaism than most Jews of the Diaspora, ultra-Orthodox Jews on "Modesty Patrols," and more. Interweaving hundreds of personal stories with intriguing new research, The Israelis is lively, irreverent, and always fascinating.
This book is available from The Free Press and from Amazon.com
Creator, Are You Listening? Israeli Poets on God and Prayer
David C. Jacobson
(Indiana University Press, 2007; Hardback, 243 pages,
$34.95; ISBN 0253348188)
In an anthology that is both scholarly and accessible to readers of
contemporary poetry, David C. Jacobson examines the search for God in the
work of six prominent Israeli poets? Yehuda Amichai, Admiel Kosman, Rivka
Miriam, Zelda Mishkovsky, Hava Pinhas-Cohen, and Asher Reich. In the book's introduction, Jacobson explores the central role that poetry
has always played and continues to play in our understanding of the
religious experience. The work of each poet is then preceded by an
introduction which establishes the historical and biographical contexts of
the poems discussed. The poetry appears in the original Hebrew as well as
Jacobson's graceful English translations.
This book is available from Indiana University Press and from Amazon.com
Israeli Counter-Insurgency and the Intifadas: Dilemmas of a Conventional Army
By Sergio Catignani
(Routledge, 2008; Hardback, 256 pages, $124; ISBN 978-0415433884 )
This volume analyzes the conduct of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) counter-insurgency operations during the two major Palestinian uprisings (1987-1993 and 2000-2005) in the Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It employs primary and secondary resources to produce a comprehensive analysis on whether or not the IDF has been able to adapt its conventional conduct of warfare to the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian low-intensity conflict and achieve any sort of victory over the Palestinian insurgents. Sergio Catignani provides new insights into how conventional armies struggle with contemporary insurgency by looking in particular at the strategic, operational, tactical and ethical dilemmas of the IDF over the last two decades. By examining the way in which the IDF and the Israeli security doctrine were formed and developed over time, he explores the extent to which Israeli security assumptions, civil-military relations, the organizational culture, command and control structure, and conduct of the IDF have affected its adaptation to the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian low-intensity conflict.
The book will be of much interest to students of low-intensity conflict and counter-insurgency, the Israeli army, the Middle Eastern conflict and strategic studies in general.
This book is available from Routledge Taylor & Francis Group and from Amazon.com
Israel / Palestine (2nd revised edition)
by Alan Dowty
(Polity, 2008; 256 pages; ISBN 978-0-7456-3202-5, paper $23.95, 978-0-7456-3203-2, cloth $64.95)
What explains the peculiar intensity and evident intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Of all the ‘hot spots’ in the world today, the apparently endless clash between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East seems unique in its longevity and resistance to resolution. Is this conflict really different from other ethnic and nationalist confrontations, and if so, in what way?
Alan Dowty demystifies the conflict by putting it in broad historical perspective, identifying its roots, and tracing its evolution up to the current impasse. His account offers a clear analytic framework for understanding transformations over time – and in doing so, punctures the myths of an ‘age-old’ conflict with an unbridgeable gap between the two sides. Rather than simply reciting historical detail, this book presents a clear overview that serves as a road map through the thicket of conflicting claims.
In this account the opposed perspectives of the two sides are presented in full, leaving readers to make their own evaluations of the issues. The book thus expresses fairly and objectively the concerns, hopes, fears, and passions of both sides, making it clear why this conflict is waged with such vehemence – and why, for all that, there are some grounds for optimism.
this book is availble from Polity and Amazon.com
The Failure of the Middle East Peace Process?
Edited by Guy Porat
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; 296 pages; ISBN 0-230-507093, $80)
In the early 1990's three conflicts that drew the world's attention and were deemed hopeless appeared to be heading towards resolution. In South Africa, Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine, conflicts previously described by scholars as "protracted" or "intractable", negotiations between the rival parties led to agreements and interim agreements that signalled a new future. While optimistic declarations of peace and bright future scenarios were quick to appear, in reality the celebration of peace was somewhat premature. The "official" and semi official ends of conflict were yet to facilitate the return to a normal, peaceful way of life. This volume engages with the gap between agreements and actual peace by focusing on different aspects of implementation and causes that explain success and failures of peace processes. It offers different explanations for the successes and failures of the three processes discussed above, and provides historical and comparative perspectives to come to terms with their contemporary realities.
this book is available from Palgrave Macmillan and Amazon.com
Anglo-American Support for Jordan: The Carrer of King Hussein
by Miriam Joyce
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; 200 pages; ISBN 0-230-60451, $74.95)
This book focuses on US-UK relations with Jordan for the entire period of King Hussein’s reign, explaining Hussein's successes and failures, while emphasizing the declining influence of London and the rising influence of Washington.
this book is available from Palgrave and Amazon.com
L’Etat d’Israel (in French)
by Alain Dieckhoff (ed.)
(Fayard, 2008; 591 pages; ISBN 976-2-213-62746-5, 30.00 Euros)
This book brings together more than thirty French, Israeli and American scholars who look at contemporary Israel in all its multiple dimensions: institutions, political live, populations and social groups, economy, external relations (regional and international), culture and communication. It offers a comprehensive and in-depth approach of Israel. The topics discussed in the book range from the transformations of the political system to the relationships between the different groups within Israel, from the sea-economic changes in the last fifteeen years to the foreign policy of Israel, from the demographic situation to the different artistic trends. Overall, the State of Israel appears, in those pages, as molded by deep contradictions. Democracy is very alive, in a multicultural setting, but in a State linked with a strong collective identity. The economy shows a steady dynamism but at the price of an increase of social disparities, far away from the egalitarian ideal of the kibbutz. The artists are fully part of modern cultural currents but their works are full of references to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Shoah. The State of Israel became a sovereign member of the world of nations, but its recognition on an equal footing was for a long time precarious and is still dependant on a final settlement with the Palestinians.
L’Etat d’Israel will be of particular interest to all those who want to grasp the various facets of modern Israel in all their nuances and to better undestand the complexities of this new-old society.
The book is available from Fnac.com and from Amazon.fr
Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis: Improving the Image of Cities, Countries and Tourist Destinations
by Eli Avraham and Eran Ketter
(Elsevier/Butterworth Heinmann, 2008; ISBN 0750684526 paperback, $49.55))
Growing competition between countries and cities over attracting infrastructure, investment, tourists, capital and national and international status mean that today, a negative image is more harmful than ever. Whatever the cause of the negative image, places perceived as dangerous, frightening, or boring are at a distinct disadvantage. Many decision makers and marketers stand by helplessly, frustrated by their knowledge that in most cases, their city's negative image is not based on well-grounded facts. Given that stereotypes are not easily changed or dismissed, the challenge facing these decision makers is great. Analyses of many case studies show interesting examples of places that tried to change a negative image into a positive one, in order to bringing back tourists, investors and residents. Although a great deal of knowledge about crisis communications has accumulated in recent years, very little has been written about strategies to improve places' negative images. The aim of "Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis" is to discuss the various dimensions of an image crisis and different strategies to overcome it, both in practice and theory. "Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis" is based on the careful analysis of dozens of case studies, advertisements, public relations campaigns, press releases, academic articles, news articles, and the websites of cities, countries and tourist destinations.
this book is available from Elsevier and from Amazon.com
Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish Identity
Edited by Danny Ben-Moshe and Zohar Segev
(Sussex Academic Press, 2008; 320 pages; ISBN 978-1-84519-189-4 cloth, $75; 978-1-84519-242-6 paper, $35)
Jews, like everyone else, have multiple identities and Israel is only one aspect of Jewish identity that has to compete and coexist with many other Jewish and non-Jewish factors. This book explores what it is about Israel that resonates or not with Diaspora Jews, leading them to place Israel above, alongside or below competing or complementary considerations in their identity.
This book is avialable from Sussex Academic Press and from Amazon.com
The Jews of Libya: Coexistence, Prosecution, Rehabilitation
by Maurice M. Roumani
(Sussex Academic Press, 2007; 324 pages; ISBN 1845191374 cloth, $77.50)
This book investigates the transformative period in the history of the Jews of Libya (1938–52), a period crucial to understanding Libyan Jewry’s evolution into a community playing significant roles in Israel, Italy and in relation with Qaddhafi’s Libya.
Against a background of a reform conscious Ottoman administration (1835–1911) and subsequent stirrings of modernization under Italian colonial influence (1911–43), the Jews of Libya began to experience rapid change following the application of fascist racial laws of 1938, the onset of war-related calamities and violent expressions of Libyan pan-Arabism, culminating in mass migration to Israel in the period 1949–52.
By focusing on key socio-economic and political dimensions of this process, the author reveals the capacity of Libyan Jewry to adapt to and integrate into new environments without losing its unique and historical traditions.
The evolution of Libyan Jewry between 1938 and 1952 is characterized by three pivotal developments: The first (1938–43) was one of disruption and dislocation, brought about by the oppressive colonial administration allied with Germany.
In the second (1945–48), riots and pogroms by Muslim Libyan mobs, agitated by pan-Arab and Palestinian sympathies, against Jewish communities left unprotected by the post-war British administration, ushered-in an awakening to the fact that its millennial presence in Libya was about to end. Incipient Zionism among Libyan Jews, particularly in youth movements, matured into fully shared decisions to migrate to Israel where the third pivotal development (1949–52) – encompassing resettlement, economic, social and religious adaptations –began to unfold.
The book concludes with an analysis of the success story of Libyan Jewry in Israel, and in Italy where a group of post-1967 refugees reconstituted a thriving, influential community in Rome. “Jerusalem and Rome”have thus become the two poles of the renewed Jewish community of Libya, exhibiting political advancement in Israel, and commercial prosperity in Italy, along with a cultural renaissance and potential contributions to the ongoing process of reconciliation of the new Libya (as of 2005) with the West.
this book is available from Sussex Press and from Amazon.com
Yigal Allon, Native Son: A Biography
by Anita Shapira (Evelyn Abel, Translator)
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008; 392 pages; ISBN 978-0-8122-4028-3 Cloth, $49.95)
Born in 1918 into the fabric of Arab-Jewish frontier life at the foot of Mt. Tabor, Yigal Allon rose to become one of the founding figures of the state of Israel and an architect of its politics. In 1945 Allon became commander of the Palmah—an elite unit of the Haganah, the semilegal army of the Jewish community—during the struggle against the British for independence. In the 1947-49 War of Independence against local and invading Arab armies, he led the decisive battles that largely determined the borders of Israel. Paradoxically, his close lifelong relations with Arab neighbors did not prevent him from being a chief agent of their sizable displacement.
A bestseller in Israel and available now translated into English, Yigal Allon, Native Son is the only biography of this charismatic leader. The book focuses on Allon's life up to 1950, his clash with founding father David Ben-Gurion, the end of his military career, and the watershed in culture and character between the Jewish Yishuv and Israeli statehood. As a statesman in his more mature years, he formulated what became known as the "Allon Plan," which remains a viable blueprint for an eventual two-state partition between Israel and the Palestinians. Yet in the end, the promise Allon showed as a brilliant young military commander remained unfulfilled. The great dream of the Palmah generation was largely lost, and Allon's name became associated with the failed policies of the past.
The story of Allon's life frames the history of Israel, its relationship with its Arab neighbors, its culture and spirit. This important biography touches on matters—Israel's borders, refugees, military might—that remain very much alive today.
this book is available from University of Pennsylvania Press and from Amazon.com
Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East
by Daniel Kurtzer and Scott Lasensky
(U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2008; 210 pages; ISBN 978-1-60127-030-6 Paper, $13)
As Washington struggles to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process, Kurtzer and Lasensky offer the definitive guidebook on how to broker peace in the Middle East. Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace sets forth a compelling, interests-based framework for American engagement in the peace process; provides a critical assessment of U.S. diplomacy since the end of the Cold War; and offers a set of ten core “lessons” to guide the efforts of future American negotiators.
This concise volume is the product of the United States Institute of Peace’s Study Group on Arab-Israeli Peacemaking, which brings together some of America’s most respected and experienced authorities in the field: William B. Quandt (University of Virginia), Steven L. Spiegel (University of California-Los Angeles), and Shibley Z. Telhami (University of Maryland and the Brookings Institution). The book draws on nine months of groundbreaking consultations with dozens of statesmen, political leaders, and civil society figures who have defined Middle East peacemaking in recent years.
this book is avilable from the United States Institute of Peace Press and from Amazon.
The Elections in Israel - 2006
by Asher Arian and Michal Shamir (ed.)
(Transaction, 2008; 337 pages; ISBN 978-0-7658-0388-7 Cloth, $59.95)
The Elections in Israel—2006 brings together leading Israeli and North American social scientists and their state-of-the-art, in-depth analysis of the 2006 Israeli national elections. The 2006 elections occurred soon after the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlers and the army from the Gaza Strip and the departure of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from active politics due to a massive stroke. Sharon had engineered the withdrawal from Gaza. The policy brought about a split in his ruling Likud party, and Sharon led his group to coalesce with other groups (including Labor’s Shimon Peres) to form a new party, Kadima. For the first time in Israeli political history, a party of the ideological center was poised to be the top vote getter. Kadima’s victory ensured the accession of Ehud Olmert, who became Israel’s new prime minister.
Labor, too, had fielded a new leader in the person of Amir Peretz, a former head of the country’s Histadruth labor union; he attempted to focus the campaign on social and economic issues, but the campaign reverted back to security and foreign affairs. Ironically, in the post-election government, Peretz was given the post of defense minister. Likud was unable to recover from the departure of Sharon and other leaders. Its leader.
The 2006 elections also saw a precipitous drop in voter turnout compared to previous elections. Parties and politicians were plagued by low levels of trust on the part of the electorate and revelations of corruption were rife. The Arabs and the religious Jewish parties each faced challenges in retaining their strength in the electorate and in the governing coalition.
This volume also illuminates developments and changes in Israeli society and politics. Many of these developments—multiculturalism, changes in social stratification, sinking turnout, growing mistrust of political institutions, and political reforms—characterize other Western democracies as well, and these are discussed from a comparative global perspective. The Elections in Israel—2006 will also be of particular interest to those concerned with comparative politics and elections in general.
this book is available from Transaction and from Amazon.com
Israel Since 1980
by Guy Ben-Porat, Yagil Levy, Shlomo Mizrahu, Arye Naor, Erez Tzfadia (ed.)
(Cambridge University Press, 2008; 200 pages; ISBN 9780521855921 Hardback, $80; ISBN 9780521671859 Paperback, $21.99)
Over the last quarter century, a radical demographic, economic and political transformation has been taking place from within Israel. Israelis are beginning to ask some fundamental questions about the country they live in and what it means to be an Israeli. This book, written by five Israeli academics, probes the changing nature of Israeli society over the last twenty-five years. It considers the deep rifts in that society caused by ethnic, cultural, class and religious divide. It looks at political and economic changes and how privatization has undermined the welfare state. It questions the role of the military in the light of the wider social and economic changes. Finally, and crucially, it asks whether new political initiatives can offer a realistic alternative to the inadequacies of recent governments. This is an informative account of Israel’s recent past and the challenges it faces in the twenty-first century.
• Five Israeli academics ask what it means to be an Israeli in today's Israel • An informed and informative account of the social, demographic, economic and political changes that have taken place over the last twenty-five years • Essential reading for students, professionals and policymakers
this book is avialble from Cambridge Press and from Amazon.com
Who Leads? Israel-Diaspora Relations (Hebrew)
by Gabriel (Gabi) Sheffer and Hadas Roth-Toledano
(Van Leer Institute and Hakibutz Hameuchad)
Sheffer and Roth-Toledano are presenting their original and in depth research, totally independent of the governmental institutions and other organizations involved in this field. Their independent academic study is allowing them to pursue data, analysis, theoretical insights and conclusions free of any prescribed slant. The book was very favorably reviewed in Israel. It is the intention of the researchers that the issues raised will generate extensive and informed discussion of the sensitive matters composing Israel-Diaspora relations yet to be appropriately considered in Israel and in the diaspora.
Politics of Regime Structure Reform in Democracies, The
Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective
by Gideon Rahat
(SUNY Press, 2008; 340 pages; ISBN 978-0-7914-7349-8 Hardcover, $90)
Analyzes initiatives aimed at reforming the electoral and government systems of Israel in comparison to other established democracies.
This book examines the success or failure of initiatives aimed at reforming regime structures in democracies, particularly their electoral and government systems. Through a comparative analysis of the several attempts at this type of reform in Israel over more than four decades, Gideon Rahat begins with the failed attempts at electoral reform in the 1970s and 1980s. He then analyzes Israel’s successful attempt at promoting government system reform from 1988 to 1992. Finally, he compares the Israeli cases to cases of electoral reform in New Zealand, Japan, and Italy in the 1990s. While the book focuses on the Israeli cases, it places Israel within a comparative framework and makes an important contribution to the debate concerning the politics behind regime structure reform.
“Thoroughly researched and carefully analyzed, this impressive piece of scholarship on party systems and electoral reform will be invaluable for academics, politicians, and policy makers working in this field. For scholars of Israel especially, this book will play an important role in explaining the country’s unique electoral history and its various experiments with electoral reform.” — John C. Courtney, author of Elections
“Rahat finds just the right balance between the larger theoretical and comparative questions and an informed, detailed analysis of the Israeli experience. This is no simple accomplishment, and he is to be congratulated on the achievement.” — Asher Arian, author of Politics in Israel: The Second Republic, Second Edition
this book is available from SUNY Press and Amazon.com
Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Christians Came Together to Rescue their Holiest Shrine
by Raymond Cohen
(Oxford University Press, 2008; 320 pages; ISBN 978-0195189667 Hardcover, $27.95)
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the mother of all the churches, erected on the spot where Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead and where every Christian was born. In 1927, Jerusalem was struck by a powerful earthquake, and for decades this venerable structure stood perilously close to collapse.
In Saving the Holy Sepulchre , Raymond Cohen tells the engaging story of how three major Christian traditions--Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Orthodox--each with jealously guarded claims to the church, struggled to restore one of the great shrines of civilization. It almost didn't happen. For centuries the communities had lived together in an atmosphere of tension and mistrust based on differences of theology, language, and culture--differences so sharp that fistfights were not uncommon. And the project of restoration became embroiled in interchurch disputes and great power politics. Cohen shows how the repair of the dilapidated basilica was the result of unprecedented cooperation among the three churches. It was tortuous at times--one French monk involved in the restoration exclaimed: "I can't take any more of it. Latins--Armenians--Greeks--it is too much. I am bent over double." But thanks to the dedicated efforts of a cast of kings, popes, patriarchs, governors, monks, and architects, the deadlock was eventually broken on the eve of Pope Paul VI's historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964.
Today, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in better shape than it has been for five hundred years. Light and space have returned to its ancient halls, and its walls and pillars stand sound and true. Saving the Holy Sepulchre is the riveting story of how Christians put aside centuries of division to make this dream a reality.
this book is available from Oxford University Press and from Amazon.com
A History of Modern Israel
by Colin Shindler
(Cambridge Press, 2008; 400 pages; ISBN 9780521615389 Paperback, $23.99)
The state of Israel came into existence in 1948. Colin Shindler’s book traces Israel’s history across sixty years, from its optimistic beginnings - immigration, settlement, the creation of its towns and institutions - through the wars with its Arab neighbours, and the confrontation with the Palestinians. Shindler paints a broad canvas which affords unusual insights into this multicultural society, forged from over a hundred different Jewish communities and united by a common history. Despite these commonalities, however, Israel in the twenty-first century is riven by ideological disputes and different interpretations of ‘Jewishness’ and Judaism. Nowhere are these divisions more revealingly portrayed than in the lives and ideologies of Israel’s leaders. Biographical portraits of Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime-minister, Yitzhak Rabin, whose assassination is still a traumatic memory for many Israelis, and the controversial Ariel Sharon, offer fascinating examinations of those who have led the country to where it is today.
• A new, incisive and comprehensive history, charting Israel's story across 60 years • A leading Jewish historian explains Israel's pioneering past, its present divisions, and the challenges for the future • This is a book for students, professionals, and general readers, in short all those seeking to understand Israel's turbulent history
this book is available from Cambridge Press or from Amazon.com
Israel and its Army: From Cohesion to Confusion
by Stuart A. Cohen
(Routledge, 2008; 208 pages; ISBN 978-0415400497 Hardcover, $140)
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) plays a key role in Israeli society, and has traditionally been perceived not only as the guardian of national survival, but also as a 'people's army' responsible for the custody of national values. This volume analyses the circumstances currently undermining these perceptions, and explores both the changes occurring in Israel’s military framework, and their potential implications.
The book highlights the influence exerted by massive shifts in both Israel's external strategic landscape and in the country's domestic and cultural environments, which have compelled the IDF to undertake major programmes of structural reform, technological adaptation and doctrinal revision. This book argues that these changes have lead the public to subject the armed forces and their conduct to unprecedented critical scrutiny. The way in which Israelis and their army resolve these tensions is of crucial importance not only for Israel, but for the Middle East as a whole.
this book is available from Routledge and Amazon.com
Migrants and Workers: The Political Economy of Labor Migration in Israel (Hebrew)
by Adriana Kemp and Rebeca Raijman
(Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishin House; 2008, 222 Pages)
The Challenge of Gender: Women in the Early Yishuv (Hebrew)
by Margalit Shilo
(Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House; 2007, 300 pp.)
The Contents
The Feminine Voice: The New Settlement in the Land of Israel (1882 – 1903) as Gender Transformation.
The Transformation of the Role of Women in the First Aliyah, 1882- 1903.
Hannah Trager's Stories – A Gender Perspective on the First Immigration Wave.
From the Private to the Public Sphere: Ita Yellin and Yehudit Harari Write Autobiography.
The Women`s Farm at Kinneret a Solution to the Problem of the Working Woman in
the Second Aliya.
The Multi-Faceted Image of the Modern Israeli Woman: The Watch Woman,
On Middle-Class Zionist Women during the Second Aliyah in Palestine 1904 – 1914.
Women as Victims of War: The British Conquest (1917) and the Blight of Prostitution in the Holy City.
The Image of Woman According to Rabbinic Scholars in the Suffrage Debate.
Women's Identity in the Discourse of Women on Mobilization and Suffrage.
This book is available directly from the publisher at 972-3-5785810 or at info@kibutz-poalim.co.il.
Israeli Society, the Holocaust and its Survivors
by Dina Porat
(Valentine Mitchell Books, 2008; 480 pages; ISBN 978 0 85303 741 5 cloth, $75.00; ISBN 978 0 85303 742 2 paper, $35.00 )
This collection of twenty essays analyses the encounters of the Yishuv (the Hebrew community in pre-state Israel) and Israeli society with the Holocaust and with its survivors. Sixty years after the end of the Second World War this is still a painful topic, very much at the centre of the agendas of both Israel and the Jewish communities worldwide, focusing on a soul-searching issue: was the tragedy unfolding in Europe part and parcel of public life in the Yishuv, its priorities and anxieties, and did Israeli society embrace the survivors as they deserved? Based on a wide scope of primary sources and on many years of research, the essays deal with a variety of poignant sub-issues, such as the attitudes of David Ben-Gurion, Martin Buber and other leaders, the understanding of the information about the 'Final Solution', relations and tensions between the Yishuv and the Jewish communities and youth movements in Nazi-occupied Europe, rescue plans and their failure, decisions regarding rescue made during a global war, and parallel changes in the attitude to the survivors and in Israeli and Jewish identity. The balanced answers provided in this collection take into consideration the limited resources of a small community under a mandate, and of a young, post-war country flooded by immigration, and the many dominant factors present during a world war and in its aftermath on which the Yishuv and Israel could have no impact, yet could not avoid criticism and pin-pointing of failures and deficiencies.
This book is available from Valentine Mitchell Books and from Amazon.com
The Jews of Yemen: History, Society, Culture, Vol. 3 (in Hebrew)
by Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman
(The Open University Press, 2008; 435 pages; ISBN 978-965-06-0954-2)
This volume discusses the Jews of Yemen under the Ottomans, immigration to Palestine 1881-1945, and immigration from Yemen to Palestine/Israel from the End of World War II Through the Establishment of the State of Israel and up to the End of the Twentieth Century.
History, Memory and Propaganda (in Hebrew)
by Yoav Gelber
(Am Oved)
Book information (in Hebrew) is avialble here.
Hanna Maisel's Lifelong Mission: Agricultural Training for Women, (in Hebrew)
by Esther Carmel-Hakim
(Yad Tabenkin, "Gender and Kibbutz" Series; ISBN 978-965-282-093-8)
Book information (in Hebrew) is available here.
The book is available from Yad Tabenkin (Fax : 972-3-5346376)
Radical Islam and International Security: Challenges and Responses
by Hillel Frisch and Efraim Inbar (ed.)
(Routledge, 2008; Hardback, 256 pages, $140; ISBN 978-041-544-460-6)
Radical Islam poses a political challenge in the modern world which is like that of no other radical religious movement. Ideologically, it is perceived by Western policy makers as threatening the liberal-democratic ideology by which most states in the West abide and which most other states rhetorically espouse.
This book serves as a welcome addition to the intellectual and policy debate on the nature of the radical Islam phenomenon and how to respond to it. The collection is divided into three parts: the first part seeks to understand the Islamic challenge in broad comparative and historical terms, while the second part deals with specific regional case studies, which seek to identify patterns of uniformity and variation in radical Islam across a wide swath of terrain. The third part is policy-oriented, suggesting possible responses to the Islamic challenge. The contributors include distinguished researchers from Europe, North America and the Middle East.
This book will be of much interest to students of Islamism, political violence, international security and Middle Eastern politics.
This book is available from Routledge Taylor & Francis Group and from Amazon.com
New Books in 2007
Israel's Materialist Militarism
by Yagil Levy
(Lexington Books, 2007; 296 pages, cloth $80, paper $34.95; ISBN 9780739119099)
Israel's Materialist Militarism examines the decade of fluctuations in Israel's military policies, from the peace period of the Oslo Accords to the al-Aqsa Intifada, when the military's use of excessive force led to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and on to the Second Lebanon War of 2006, which reversed the moderating tendencies of the withdrawal from Gaza a year earlier.
These dynamics of escalation and deescalation are explained in terms of materialist militarism, the exchange between social groups' military sacrifice and their social rewards, which in turn increases or decreases the level of militarism in society. Levy thus lays down a theoretical framework vital to tracing the fluctuating levels of militarism in Israel and elsewhere. Israel's Materialist Militarism is recommended for those interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict and military-society relations in general.
This book is avialble from Lexington Books and from Amazon
Israel's National Security: Issues and challenges since the Yom Kippur War
by Efraim Inbar
(Routledge Press, 2007; Hardback, 304 pages, $140; ISBN 9780412449557)
This volume presents a comprehensive analysis of Israel's security challenges since the 1973 October War. Efraim Inbar takes the reader on a historical journey through Israel's relations in the Middle East that begins with an analysis of Israel's strategic thinking after 1973 and ends with an important look at the recent Second Lebanese War and the Iranian nuclear challenge. Israel's National Security delves not only into Israel's responses, but also its relationships in the international community, providing a complete picture of how Israel's strategic environment has evolved over time.
Relevant to today's current political atmosphere, the volume dissects the influences of the growing appeal of Islamic extremism on the peace process, Israel strategic partnerships with India and Turkey, and Israel's relations with the Palestinians.
This book is available from Routledge Taylor & Francis Group and from Amazon.com.
Israel's Strategic Agenda
by Efraim Inbar (ed.)
(Routledge Press, 2007; Hardback, 296 pages, $125; ISBN 9780415413602)
Divided into two clear parts, the first part of this book examines political and economic factors in the global strategic environment including, the approach of US and EU foreign policies towards Israel, global trends in the field of defence industries and the energy sector and their implications for the Middle East and Israel.
The second part focuses on Israel’s strategic agenda as reflected in its military force design and doctrine, the dilemmas the country has faced in the course of fighting its wars of attrition, the relations between military and civil sectors in Israel, the struggle against Israel on the part of non-governmental organizations, Israel’s main security challenges and national grand strategy.
This book was previously published as a special issue of Israel Affairs.
This book is available from Routledge Taylor & Francis Group and from Amazon.com
Public Administration in Israel: Development, Structure, Functions and Reforms (Hebrew)
by Itzhak Galnoor
(Academon Publication, 2007)
Arab Soccer in a Jewish State: The Integrative Enclave
by Tamir Sorek
(Cambridge University Press, 2007; Hardcover, 240 pages, $85; ISBN 9780521870481)
Over the last two decades soccer has become a major institution within the popular culture of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. They have attained disproportionate success in this field. Given their marginalization from many areas of Israeli society as well as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such a prominent Arab presence highlights the tension between their Israeli citizenship and their belonging to the Palestinian people. Bringing together sociological, anthropological and historical approaches, Sorek examines how soccer can potentially be utilized by ethnic and national minorities as a field of social protest, a stage for demonstrating distinctive identity, or as a channel for social and political integration. Relying on a rich combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, he argues that equality in the soccer sphere legitimizes contemporary inequality between Jews and Arabs in Israel and pursues wider arguments about the role of sport in ethno-national conflicts. Ideal for researchers and graduate students.
this book is avilable from Cambridge University Press and from amazon.com.
Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist project in Palestine, 1920-1947
by Sandy Sufian
(University of Chicago Press, 2007; Hardcover, 384 pages, $40; ISBN 0-2267-7935-5)
A novel inquiry into the sociopolitical dimensions of public medicine, Healing the Land and the Nation traces the relationships between disease, hygiene, politics, geography, and nationalism in British Mandatory Palestine between the world wars. Taking up the case of malaria control in Jewish-held lands, Sandra Sufian illustrates how efforts to thwart the disease were intimately tied to the project of Zionist nation-building, especially the movement’s efforts to repurpose and improve its lands. The project of eradicating malaria also took on a metaphorical dimension—erasing anti-Semitic stereotypes of the “parasitic” Diaspora Jew and creating strong, healthy Jews in Palestine. Sufian shows that, in reclaiming the land and the health of its people in Palestine, Zionists expressed key ideological and political elements of their nation-building project.
Taking its title from a Jewish public health mantra, Healing the Land and the Nation situates antimalarial medicine and politics within larger colonial histories. By analyzing the science alongside the politics of Jewish settlement, Sufian addresses contested questions of social organization and the effects of land reclamation upon the indigenous Palestinian population in a decidedly innovative way. The book will be of great interest to scholars of the Middle East, Jewish studies, and environmental history, as well as to those studying colonialism, nationalism, and public health and medicine.
this book is avialble from University of Chicago Press and from amazon.com
"Lochama Psichologit" (psychological warfare in world history and
the Middle East)
by Ron Schleifer
Ma'arachot/Ministry of Defence Publishing House. 280
pp. Tel Aviv, October 2007.
Cooperating Rivals: The Riparian Politics of the Jordan River Basin
by Jeffrey K. Sosland
(SUNY Press, 2007; Hardcover, 298 pages, $80; ISBN 0-7914-7201-9)
This book examines the politics of water scarcity in the Middle East’s Jordan River Basin (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority) between 1920 and 2006. Jeffrey K. Sosland demonstrates that while water scarcity might generate political tension, it does not by itself precipitate war, nor is it likely to do so. At the same time, efforts to promote water cooperation, such as those initiated by the United States, have an identifiable political benefit by creating rules, building confidence, and reducing tensions among adversaries. Sosland concludes that while this alone might not resolve the overall conflict, it does create positive long-term value in achieving peace.
this book is avilable from SUNY Press and Amazon.com
Israel at the Polls
edited by Shmuel Sandler, Jonathan Rynhold and Manfred Gerstenfeld
(now available on-line as a special issue of the journal Israel Affairs 13 (2) 2007 at
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=g781743040~db=all )
The Middle East Under Fire?
by Roby Nathanson
(The Macro Center for Political Economics, 2007)
this book is avilable from the macro center
Democratizing the Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity
by Ilan Peleg
(Cambridge University Press, 2007; Hardcover, 256 pages, $75; Paperback, 256 pages, $24.99.
ISBN: 0-5218-8088-2)
Provides a new, comprehensive analytical framework for the examination of majority-minority relations in deeply divided societies. Hegemonic states in which one ethnic group completely dominates all others will continue to face enormous pressures to transform because they are out of step with the new, emerging, global governing code that emphasizes democracy and equal rights. Refusal to change would lead such states to lose international legitimacy and face increasing civil strife, instability, and violence. Through systematic theoretical analysis and careful empirical study of 14 key cases, Peleg examines the options open to polities with diverse populations. Challenging the conventional wisdom of many liberal democrats, Peleg maintains that the preferred solution for a traditional hegemonic polity is not merely to grant equal rights to individuals, but also to incorporate significant group rights via mega-constitutional transformation.
this book is avialble from Cambridge University Press and from amazon.com
Jews and Muslims in the Arab World: Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined
by Jacob Lessner and S. Ilan Troen
(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007; Hardcover, 410 pages, $80; Paperback, 410 pages, $27.95. ISBN: 0-7425-5842-8)
Jews and Muslims in the Arab World highlights the effects of historical memory on the Arab-Israel conflict, demonstrating that both Jews and Arabs use stories of distant pasts to create their identities and shape their politics. Whether real or imagined, the past filtered through their collective memories has had and will continue to have enormous influence on how Jews and Arabs perceive themselves and each other. Jews and Muslims in the Arab World describes the ways in which the past is absorbed, internalized, and then processed among Jews and Arabs. The book stresses the importance of historical imagination on the current evolving political cultures, but does not claim that explanations from an ancient past shed light on every aspect of contemporary events.
this book is avialble from Rowman&Littlefield and from amazon.com
Will Israel Survive?
by Mitchell G. Bard
(Palgrave, 2007; Hardcover, 256 pages. $24.95 ISBN: 1-4039-8198-1)
While most people view the Palestinian conflict as the greatest threat to Israel’s survival, it is in fact only one of the nation's long-term concerns. Aside from terrorists seeking to destroy it, Israel must contend with tensions between religious and secular Jews, the demographic issues posed by a quickly growing Arab population, internal political divisions, and disputes over the water sources that are critical to its survival. In the face of these challenges, the country’s future can seem precarious. Bard paints a realistic picture of the road ahead with a hopeful message: Israel will not only survive, but will endure long into the future.
The book is available from www.palgrave-usa.com and from www.amazon.com
Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War
by Isabella Ginor (Truman Institute, Hebrew University) and Gideon Remez
(Yale University Press, 2007; Hardcover, 304 pages. $26 ISBN: 0-3001-2317-5)
Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez’s groundbreaking history of the Six-Day War in 1967 radically changes our understanding of that conflict, casting it as a crucial arena of Cold War intrigue that has shaped the Middle East to this day. The authors, award-winning Israeli journalists and historians, have investigated newly available documents and testimonies from the former Soviet Union, cross-checked them against Israeli and Western sources, and arrived at fresh and startling conclusions.
Contrary to previous interpretations, Ginor and Remez’s book shows that the Six-Day War was the result of a joint Soviet-Arab gambit to provoke Israel into a preemptive attack. The authors reveal how the Soviets received a secret Israeli message indicating that Israel, despite its official ambiguity, was about to acquire nuclear weapons. Determined to destroy Israel’s nuclear program before it could produce an atomic bomb, the Soviets then began preparing for war--well before Moscow accused Israel of offensive intent, the overt trigger of the crisis.
Ginor and Remez’s startling account details how the Soviet-Arab onslaught was to be unleashed once Israel had been drawn into action and was branded as the aggressor. The Soviets had submarine-based nuclear missiles poised for use against Israel in case it already possessed and tried to use an atomic device, and the USSR prepared and actually began a marine landing on Israel’s shores backed by strategic bombers and fighter squadrons. They sent their most advanced, still-secret aircraft, the MiG-25 Foxbat, on provocative sorties over Israel’s Dimona nuclear complex to prepare the planned attack on it, and to scare Israel into making the first strike. It was only the unpredicted devastation of Israel’s response that narrowly thwarted the Soviet design.
The book is available from http://yalepress.yale.edu and from www.amazon.com
