Expedient Identity

The twenty percent Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel, which enjoys officially equal rights, refuses to recognize and accept the concept of a Jewish-Zionist state. Even though Israel is where Palestinians live, they strive to misuse Israeli democracy, allowing their representation of fifteen MK, or Members of Parliament, to subvert the legitimacy of the Israeli state and to totter it. This would allow them to create a bi-national Jewish-Arab country, where Arabs can veto anything Jewish or Zionist in its symbols or regime. But since the Jewish majority is adamant in maintaining the Jewish state, established more than seven decades ago, the Arabs who cannot reconcile their present situation will have to choose eventually between living in permanent friction and frustration, or restarting a new life in one of the surrounding 22 Arab or 57 Muslim countries where their likely adaptation would be much smoother and seamless. One major figurehead mentioned in the book is MK Ahmed Tibi, who despite being the darling of the liberal Israeli media, often adopts extremist anti-Israeli views and claims that Israel incites against his nation.

This edited volume features cutting-edge work in moral psychology by pre-eminent scholars in moral self-identity, moral character, and moral personality.

An exploration of how espionage narratives give access to cultural conceptions of gender and sexuality before and following the Second World War, this book moves away from masculinist assumptions of the genre to offer an integrative survey of the sexualities on display from important characters across spy fiction. Topics covered include how authors mocked the traditional spy genre; James Bond as a symbol of pervasive British Superiority still anxious about masculinity; how older female spies act as queer figures that disturb the masculine mythology of the secret agent; and how the clandestine lives of agents described ways to encode queer communities under threat from fascism. Covering texts such as the Bond novels, John Le Carré's oeuvre (and their notable adaptations) and works by Helen MacInnes, Christopher Isherwood and Mick Herron, Sexuality and Gender in Fictions of Espionage takes stock of spy fiction written by women, female protagonists written by men, and probes the representations of masculinity generated by male authors. Offering a counterpoint to a genre traditionally viewed as male-centric, Sexuality and Gender in Fictions of Espionage proposes a revision of masculinity, femininity, queer identities and gendered concepts such as domesticity, and relates them to notions of nationality and the defence work conducted at crucial moments in history.

There was a time in international relations, when in spite of the regular interests and intrigues used to seek them, some were able to keep the fundamentals of decency, truth, conscience, the respect for facts, traditions and history, and the search for an objective truth. Nowadays, political positions can change from one day to the next, facts can be reversed, narrative is as valuable as fact and history, and all opinions appear to be as valid as others. The world is globalized, no national culture or value can rival any woke-ist claim or sentiment of what is or what must be, for the world oppressors are never right. These developments, or rather this degeneration, is the result of social media, which have not only addicted people to produce fake news at will, but have allowed opinions to be presented instantly and universally as fact, including the routine lies, sycophancy, and betrayal by Arab and Muslim terrorists.

Rushing to Self-Perdition rings the alarm on the naivete of the Israeli and Western world, which has been numbed by peaceful and soothing Arab declarations, both domestically and internationally. This has left them naively rushing to share power with Israel’s sworn enemies, both inside Israel and outside of it, while letting down their defenses in spite of the continued Arab and Muslim denial and rejection of the idea of a Jewish state, and of Zionism as the foundational principle of Israel’s birth. The 20 percent substantial Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel declares insistently that it is only concerned with its own people’s interest and safety, and could not care less about the welfare of Israel. They align with the hostile attitudes of the Palestinian people, rather than with their state of Israel, and still declare that they would have nothing to do with Israelis who pursue the maintenance of a Jewish and Zionist majority of their country. They would conversely continue to press for de-Judaization and de-Zionization of the country, while still expecting naïve Israelis to link up and share power with them.

The imperatives surrounding museum representations of place have shifted from the late eighteenth century to today. The political significance of place itself has changed and continues to change at all scales, from local, civic, regional to national and supranational. At the same time, changes in population flows, migration patterns and demographic movement now underscore both cultural and political practice, be it in the accommodation of ’diversity’ in cultural and social policy, scholarly explorations of hybridity or in state immigration controls. This book investigates the historical and contemporary relationships between museums, places and identities. It brings together contributions from international scholars, academics, practitioners from museums and public institutions, policymakers, and representatives of associations and migrant communities to explore all these issues.

This book looks at India of the 1950s and 1960s while it was still emerging from two centuries of colonial rule and striving to come together as a nation. It critically explores the history of nationalism and identity in Northeastern India, a region with diverse ethnolinguistic communities and people, through the personal history of the first Manipuri (Meitei) direct recruit in the Indian Administrative Services. The book weaves in autobiographical stories with the story of Northeast India, capturing its politics, socio-cultural distinctiveness and milieus that set the region apart from the rest of the country. It covers the career of the author in the IAS, serving in Manipur and Karnataka, with the Union Government, and finally as Secretary for the northeastern region. Through these, the book tells the story of a changing society, of a developing nation and a people on the move. It shows how borders and barriers were collapsing and being formed at the same time and how the country was dealing with it. The book is a unique and significant addition to the literature on Manipur; it deepens our understanding of the northeastern states and the complex interactions of the people of the region with the rest of India. Part of the Transitions in Northeastern India series, this book will be of great interest to researchers and scholars of modern history, sociology, social anthropology and postcolonial studies, particularly those concerned with India and Northeast India.