:
Preface
Israel Studies: An Anthology was
first conceived during a 2007 conference
for a group of visiting Israeli professors
sponsored by the American-Israeli
Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) to teach
Israel-related courses at American universities.
The participants in the conference voiced
the great need for an authoritative book,
since no comprehensive textbook on Israel
studies was available, that could serve
as a textbook for students, a survey of
the subject for the general public and
a reference book for teachers and professional
researchers.
Country studies in general
and the study of Israel in particular examine
numerous and diverse subject matters from
different and sometimes contradictory scholarly
perspectives. To represent the numerous
perspectives, the editors of the present Anthology chose
a multi-disciplinary approach with a a
wide range of topics that together would
convey Israel’s ever evolving society
and culture.
The Anthology contains six parts.
The articles in Part One focus on the historical
origins of modern Israel, in particular
on the emergence of the Zionist movement
and its impact, the organized Jewish community
in the mandatory era, the 1947
UN Partition Plan and Israel’s
War of Independence.
Part Two covers the population’s
demographic trends, including the waves
of immigration and immigrants’ absorption
into the growing mainstream Israeli society;
the socio-cultural characteristics of the
population and its major groups and the
attributes of the large Arab-Israeli
minority group and its relations with
Jewish-Israelis.
Part Three examines the evolution of and
the challenges faced by Israel as a democracy.
Lacking a formal constitution, democratic
procedures and values are maintained through
the Basic
Laws, the delicate balance between
Jewish traditions and democratic values
and the institutional guarantees of human
rights. Part Three also details the evolution
and the major characteristics of the Knesset,
the executive and the judicial branch.
Since the establishment of the State
of Israel in 1948, national security has
been the paramount concern. In Part Four,
the causes and the consequences of the Yom
Kippur War are examined, as well as
the government’s settlement policies
in the Golan
Heights, West
Bank and Gaza
Strip, Israel’s
war on terrorism and the intricate peace
process with neighboring Arab
countries.
Part Five contains articles
on distinct aspects of Israeli society:
The economy, the media and arts and literature.
In Part
Six, the relationship of Israel
with the Jewish
Diaspora is critically examined and
specifically, the special
relationship between Israel
and the United States are analyzed from a historical perspective.
In addition to the goal of publishing
a comprehensive overview of the most important
issues related to the history, politics
and culture of Israel, we wished to make
the material found in this publication
easy to update and expand, as well as to
make it free and accessible to all. This
is why we have published the Anthology online.
We encourage instructors to assign all
or parts of this anthology to their classes.
Students are free to download the material.
We request only that users properly attribute
any material they use and that no part
of Israel Studies: An Anthology be
reprinted on other web sites or for non-educational
purposes without the written permission
of AICE.
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