David Ohana, Jacqueline Kahanoff: The Levantine [In Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Carmel Publishing House, ... more David Ohana, Jacqueline Kahanoff: The Levantine [In Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Carmel Publishing House, 2022), 350 pp. Hardback, $25.00.Shaul Magid, Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought on an American Jewish Radical (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021), 296 pp. Hardback, $35.00.Johannes Becke, The Land beyond the Border: State Formation and Territorial Expansion in Syria, Morocco, and Israel (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2021), 286 pp. Paperback, $31.95
Israel is a parliamentary democracy that was established in 1948. However, the foundations of its... more Israel is a parliamentary democracy that was established in 1948. However, the foundations of its political system were laid before the state was established, in the framework of the Zionist movement and the Jewish community in Palestine, especially at the time of the British Mandate (1920–1948). Israel is a multi-cleavage society. The main rift is between Jews (about 75 percent of the population, as of 2019) and Arab/Palestinian citizens (about 20 percent). Prominent rifts also exist among the Jews: the religious–secular rift, the intra-Jewish communal rift (Ashkenazi-Mizrachi), the ideological rift (left-right), and the rift between new and veteran immigrants and the natives. Partly as a result of the highly proportional electoral system, these social rifts are translated into multiparty politics and coalition governments.
The decline of the peace camp has been one of the most widely noted issues in Israeli politics an... more The decline of the peace camp has been one of the most widely noted issues in Israeli politics and society in recent decades. The last time a left-wing government was elected in Israel (the one with Ehud Barak at the helm) was in 1999 and it only survived until 2001. The various peace and human rights organizations have also lost their broad appeal; the days when the Peace Now movement could organize a protest of hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets ended sometime in the 1990s. The last major demonstration in Israel occurred in 2011, and the leaders of that social protest did everything they could to avoid political identification with the left, concentrating on specific issues related to the cost of living. Even the Blue and White party’s relative success in the Israeli elections in March stems, inter alia, from its leaders’ insistence on moving away from any identification with the issue of peace.
This article argues that Menachem Begin's religious ideology shaped many of his decisions in ... more This article argues that Menachem Begin's religious ideology shaped many of his decisions in both domestic and foreign policy from his days as commander in the pre-State underground through his two terms as Israel's prime minister. A traditionalist approach toward Judaism, in contrast to secularist streams of Zionist thought that previously prevailed, was central to his actions and won him the political support that propelled him into power.
This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first pr... more This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first prime minister and founding father. Ben Gurion steeped down from office in 1963 and retired from political life in 1970, deeply diapointed in the path on which the state had embarked and the process that brought about the end of his political career. Based on his personal archive and new interviews with his intimate friends and family, the book reveals how Ben Gurion explored the Israeli establishment he created and from which he later disengaged. This is the foreword of the book "Ben Gurion - His later years in the political wilderness"
This riveting biography is the first to provide a satisfactory answer to the question, Who was Me... more This riveting biography is the first to provide a satisfactory answer to the question, Who was Menachem Begin? Based on wide-ranging research among archival documents and on testimonials and interviews with Begin's closest advisers, the book presents a detailed new portrait ofIsrael's founding leader. Among the many topics Avi Shilon holds up to new light are Begin's antagonistic relationship with David Ben-Gurion, his controversial role in the 1982 Lebanon War, his unique leadership style, the changes in his ideology over the years, and the mystery behind the total silence he maintained at the end of his career. Through Begin's remarkable life, the book also recounts the history of the right-wing segment of Israeli society, a story essential to understanding the Israel of today.
David Ohana, Jacqueline Kahanoff: The Levantine [In Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Carmel Publishing House, ... more David Ohana, Jacqueline Kahanoff: The Levantine [In Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Carmel Publishing House, 2022), 350 pp. Hardback, $25.00.Shaul Magid, Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought on an American Jewish Radical (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021), 296 pp. Hardback, $35.00.Johannes Becke, The Land beyond the Border: State Formation and Territorial Expansion in Syria, Morocco, and Israel (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2021), 286 pp. Paperback, $31.95
Israel is a parliamentary democracy that was established in 1948. However, the foundations of its... more Israel is a parliamentary democracy that was established in 1948. However, the foundations of its political system were laid before the state was established, in the framework of the Zionist movement and the Jewish community in Palestine, especially at the time of the British Mandate (1920–1948). Israel is a multi-cleavage society. The main rift is between Jews (about 75 percent of the population, as of 2019) and Arab/Palestinian citizens (about 20 percent). Prominent rifts also exist among the Jews: the religious–secular rift, the intra-Jewish communal rift (Ashkenazi-Mizrachi), the ideological rift (left-right), and the rift between new and veteran immigrants and the natives. Partly as a result of the highly proportional electoral system, these social rifts are translated into multiparty politics and coalition governments.
The decline of the peace camp has been one of the most widely noted issues in Israeli politics an... more The decline of the peace camp has been one of the most widely noted issues in Israeli politics and society in recent decades. The last time a left-wing government was elected in Israel (the one with Ehud Barak at the helm) was in 1999 and it only survived until 2001. The various peace and human rights organizations have also lost their broad appeal; the days when the Peace Now movement could organize a protest of hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets ended sometime in the 1990s. The last major demonstration in Israel occurred in 2011, and the leaders of that social protest did everything they could to avoid political identification with the left, concentrating on specific issues related to the cost of living. Even the Blue and White party’s relative success in the Israeli elections in March stems, inter alia, from its leaders’ insistence on moving away from any identification with the issue of peace.
This article argues that Menachem Begin's religious ideology shaped many of his decisions in ... more This article argues that Menachem Begin's religious ideology shaped many of his decisions in both domestic and foreign policy from his days as commander in the pre-State underground through his two terms as Israel's prime minister. A traditionalist approach toward Judaism, in contrast to secularist streams of Zionist thought that previously prevailed, was central to his actions and won him the political support that propelled him into power.
This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first pr... more This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first prime minister and founding father. Ben Gurion steeped down from office in 1963 and retired from political life in 1970, deeply diapointed in the path on which the state had embarked and the process that brought about the end of his political career. Based on his personal archive and new interviews with his intimate friends and family, the book reveals how Ben Gurion explored the Israeli establishment he created and from which he later disengaged. This is the foreword of the book "Ben Gurion - His later years in the political wilderness"
This riveting biography is the first to provide a satisfactory answer to the question, Who was Me... more This riveting biography is the first to provide a satisfactory answer to the question, Who was Menachem Begin? Based on wide-ranging research among archival documents and on testimonials and interviews with Begin's closest advisers, the book presents a detailed new portrait ofIsrael's founding leader. Among the many topics Avi Shilon holds up to new light are Begin's antagonistic relationship with David Ben-Gurion, his controversial role in the 1982 Lebanon War, his unique leadership style, the changes in his ideology over the years, and the mystery behind the total silence he maintained at the end of his career. Through Begin's remarkable life, the book also recounts the history of the right-wing segment of Israeli society, a story essential to understanding the Israel of today.
No matter how much has been written about Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of the Revisionist movement, ... more No matter how much has been written about Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of the Revisionist movement, his persona and writings continue to fascinate scholars. Recently, it seems, there has been a tendency to examine Jabotinsky's early thinking and activity in subject-focused contexts.1 Amir Goldstein's book takes a more classical path: By examining Jabotinsky's attitude toward antisemitism, he proposes to shed light on Jabotinsky's Zionist patterns of thinking throughout his lifetime. The outcome is an important and interesting book that enhances the corpus of research on Jabotinsky. It offers refreshing insights on Jabotinsky's place in regard to cultural/spiritual Zionism (Brian Horowitz and Leonid Katsis marched in similar directions in their new translation of Jabotinsky's autobiography2) and it touches on the analysis of Jabotinsky's publications while examining various historical episodes. Even though the author does not read Russian-a language in which that Jabotinsky did much writing, particularly in the prewar period-he consults a wellpopulated list of sources and tests his stance cautiously. Jabotinsky, Goldstein claims, established his singularity by fusing Herzl's political Zionism, which sees antisemitism as an acute socioeconomic problem that entails Jewish nationalism, and Ahad Ha'am's spiritual Zionism, which views antisemitism as a manifestation of negation of the historical singularity of the Jewish tradition. Ahad Ha'am sought to refrain from defining antisemitism as the compelling factor in Jewish nationalism, since such a perspective would justify the national movement by negation. However, Goldstein's point of departure is that Jabotinsky had a systematic and comprehensive take on the antisemitism issue. But the conclusion that one draws at the end of the reading, however, is slightly different. Specifically in regard to antisemitism, Jabotinsky theorized a somewhat simplistic dichotomy between "antisemitism of things" and "antisemitism of men." The latter originates in prejudice and is imparted by political interests and human malevolence. The former stems from the circumstances of Jewish life in exile. Jabotinsky offers a similar remedy for both illnesses: Zionism that would instigate a renewal of Jewish culture and introduce sovereign Jewish life in the land of Israel, cleansed of ghetto perceptions and suspicion of the "Goyim". The problem with Jabotinsky's differentiation is its binary nature. After all, many shades of antisemitism and many possible ways of coping with it-philosophical, psychological, and so on-rest between "antisemitism of things" and "antisemitism of men." Jabotinsky, according to Goldstein, as stated before, found one political solution called Zionism. In Ofer Schiff's biography of Abba Hillel Silver, as for counter example, נגדית[ ]?כדוגמה Schiff shows how Silver suggested having pity on antisemites (after having the Jewish state) on the grounds of their being of limited
Ben-Gurion, His later Years in the Political Wilderness (Rowman & Littlefield), 2016
This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first prime mini... more This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first prime minister and founding father. Ben Gurion steeped down from office in 1963 and retired from political life in 1970, deeply diapointed in the path on which the state had embarked and the process that brought about the end of his political career. Based on his personal archive and new interviews with his intimate friends and family, the book reveals how Ben Gurion explored the Israeli establishment he created and from which he later disengaged. This is the foreword of the book "Ben Gurion - His later years in the political wilderness"
Ben Gurion, His later years in the Political Wilderness (Rowman & Littlefield), 2016
This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first prime mini... more This is the account of the later years od David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first prime minister and founding father. Ben Gurion steeped down from office in 1963 and retired from political life in 1970, deeply diapointed in the path on which the state had embarked and the process that brought about the end of his political career. Based on his personal archive and new interviews with his intimate friends and family, the book reveals how Ben Gurion explored the Israeli establishment he created and from which he later disengaged. This is the foreword of the book "Ben Gurion - His later years in the political wilderness"
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