Israel And The Quest For Permanence

For many years, the conflict between Jews and Arabs has affected Middle East politics. In their struggle to establish a Jewish state in a hostile region, the founding citizens of Israel put aside their cultural and religious differences to fight as a unified nation. Ironically, it was the prospect of peace that brought these differences back into the light. Israel became challenged by deep divisions within. The founders did not envision this divided nation--but the founders are gone. Today's Israelis must decide how to carry the founding vision forward. How will Israel's past shape its future? How will its people answer the looming questions of race, religion, citizenship--and nationhood itself? The answers lie in an extraordinary history--and a future only to be imagined.

Israel is not the only ‘new’ state around, but it is one of the few states whose legitimacy is still questioned, and its future affects the future of the Middle East as a whole and probably the stability of the international system. The reasons for this unique reality lie in its past and the particular historical circumstances of its birth. This book seeks to update analysis of the political history, contemporary politics, economics and foreign policy of this unique state. The first part of the book provides a general history of Israel since its inception until 2000. This general history evolves around the political development of the state, beginning with its origins in the early Zionist history (1882–1948) and ending with the turn of the century. The second part focuses on three contemporary aspects of present-day Israel: its political economy, its culture and its international relations. An epilogue describes Israel’s complex international image today and its impact on the state and its future. Providing a solid infrastructure from which readers can form their own opinions, this book offers a fresh perspective on developments both on the ground and in recent scholarship, and is essential reading for students, journalists and policy makers with an interest in Middle Eastern History, Jewish Studies and Israel Studies.

This well-established and widely-respected "Yearbook," now in its 10th volume, is a primary source of information on significant and topical legal issues relating to the Palestinian territories. It provides, in a single annual volume, not only leading articles on topics of major interest to the international legal community, but also key legislation, court decisions, legal cases, treaties, resolutions, special reports, and other relevant legal material translated from the original Arabic or Hebrew into English. The 10th volume of the "Palestine Yearbook of International Law" contains the following features: - leading articles on the legal issues relating to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, and on the peaceful settlement of disputes in Africa and its relevance to the Palestinian/Israeli peace process, - law reports, including important judicial decisions, legislation and court records, - a record of significant human rights reports, including UN Resolutions and the European Union's Statement on the Peace Process, - special reports on the Wye River Memorandum and on the Covenant of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, - a selection of recent book reviews, - a detailed bibliography of books, monographs and articles, - a comprehensive index. This new volume, as with its predecessors, will be an invaluable source of reference and record on the complex legal issues relating to the Palestinian territories, and will be of prime interest to legal practitioners, researchers, scholars and anyone involved in law, politics, human rights or international relations who has an interest in this region.

The Islamic resistance movement ‘Hamas’ is, arguably, one of the most important Palestinian organizations in recent decades. Since Hamas' establishment, it has extensively utilized media as a means of mobilization for its political and ideological agendas, and its tactics have undergone a remarkable evolution, from graffiti art to satellite broadcasting. This book presents the first systematic and historical contextualization of the development of Hamas' media strategy. It determines three key phases in Hamas’ development and explores the complex and important relationship at work between its politics and use of media. Assessing four elements of the Hamas media strategy; the media message (discourse), the media objectives, the infrastructure, and the target audience, this book tracks how Hamas grew its media infrastructure, and looks at how the idea of resistance has permeated the media discourse. Determining both tactical and strategic objectives and detailing the various layers to the target audience, it offers the first in-depth academic study of the Hamas media strategy. This book’s exploration of the key role the media plays in the Palestinian issue makes it a timely and relevant contribution to the study of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and a valuable resource for students, scholars and policymakers working in Middle Eastern studies.

The October War of 1973 (also known as the ‘Yom Kippur War’) was a watershed moment in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the modern Middle East more broadly. It marked the beginning of a US-led peace process between Israel and her Arab neighbours; it introduced oil diplomacy as a new means of leverage in international politics; and it affected irreversibly the development of the European Community and the Palestinian struggle for independence. Moreover, the regional order which emerged at the end of the war remained largely unchallenged for nearly four decades, until the recent wave of democratic revolutions in the Arab world. The fortieth anniversary of the October War provides a timely opportunity to reassess the major themes that emerged during the war and in its aftermath, and the contributors to this book provide the first comprehensive account of the domestic and international factors which informed the policies of Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, as well as external actors before, during and after the war. In addition to chapters on the superpowers, the EU and the Palestinians, the book also deals with the strategic themes of intelligence and political economy, as well as the socio-political legacy of the war on Israeli and Arab societies.

An author and subject index to selected and American Anglo-Jewish journals of general and scholarly interests.