Asad's Autocratic Dynasty in Syria: Civil War and the Role of Regional and Global Powers

By: Moshe Maoz

(Liverpool University Press, 2022, ISBN 9781789761993, 176 pages)

In 2011, the diplomatic and expert consensus was that Bashar al-Asad's regime would fail, causing Syria to disintegrate into several ethnic enclaves or mini-states. A decade later and Bashar is still in control, having defeated the rebels and gained the support of Russia. The years of internal warfare have brought about changes in the spectrum of parties involved in the Syrian state, and the final outcome is inevitably going to be shaped by geo-politics. The Alawi minority still in large measure controls the Sunni-Muslim (Arab) majority. The other players are a gallery of ever changing allegiances: ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and many other radical Islamic groups; the Muslim Kurdish and Christian Arab communities; as well as Shii Lebanese Hizballah. External horizon players are Iran; Sunni Turkey and Saudi Arabia; Jewish Israel; the United States and Russia. This study aims to analyze the agendas, actions, and interrelations of these various actors from 2011 until the present. It will discuss their ongoing politics and assess forthcoming developments. Both Iran and Russia continue to support Bashar, but compete for political, military, and economic influence. The US has greatly reduced involvement, keeping only 900 troops in northeastern Syria, to protect its Kurdish allies and fight against ISIS. Turkey still occupies parts of northern Syria, with the aim of eliminating the Kurdish forces. Syrian and Russian military attempts to conquer this area continue sporadically. The Israeli air force has attacked Iranian and Hizballah positions with the tacit approval of Russia. However, Russias war on Ukraine in February 2022 may result in restricting Israeli interdictions and instead enhance cooperation with Tehran in order to counter the US and NATO. Both Russia and Iran have been incapable of reconstructing the massively destroyed Syrian infrastructure; the US and Europe are reluctant to contribute due to Bashars continued Alawi minority-based autocratic and corrupt rule.

 

Upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa: Religious and Ethnic Communities

By: Moshe Ma’oz

(Magnes Press, 2021, IBSN: 978-965-7776-27-8, Hebrew, 281 pages)

During the last decades there have occurred significant upheavals in the political and military position of many religious and ethnic communities in the Middle East and North Africa. Communities which had been rejected and discriminated for decades rose to power or strengthened their political position in their countries by means of military struggles.
Meanwhile, in Israel/Palestine, the ethnical-religious Jewish minority has become a ruling majority, while excluding the former Arab-Muslim-Sunni majority, following the wars of 1948 and 1976.

This book examines these processes.

 

Israel and the Cyber Threat: How the Startup Nation Became a Cyber Power

By: Charles D. Freilich, Matthew S. Cohen, and Gabi Siboni 

(Oxford University Press, 2023, ISBN: 9780197677711)

This is the first comprehensive study of a remarkable story, of a nation with the population of a mid-sized city, that has become one of the world’s top cyber powers. Israel is subject to a nearly constant barrage of cyber attacks, by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, even global powers. A successful attack on its electricity, communications, or transportation systems, could not only disrupt its economy, but military capabilities, as well, and expose Israel to severe peril. Conversely, cyber has posed a great opportunity for Israel, that has transformed its economy and strengthened its military capabilities and overall national power.

The book describes the civil strategy and institutions that Israel has put in place to address the threats and opportunities that cyber presents, Israel’s singular cyber ecosystem and the role that cyber poses in its military strategy, including “Stuxnet” and various other cyber attacks attributed to it. It presents the “secrets” of Israel’s cyber prowess, including the IDF’s unique contribution both to its civil and military cyber realms, the unparalleled ability to harness the best and the brightest proffered by compulsory military service, and Israel’s extraordinary national culture - “chutzpa gone viral.” The book concludes with the first-ever proposal for a  comprehensive Israeli national cyber strategy, as well as lessons that cyber professionals can learn from Israel’s experience.

 

The Book of the People: The Hebrew Encyclopedic Project and the National Self 

By: Dan Tsahor

(De Gruyter, 2023, ISBN: 9783111062464; IBSN: 9783111061375, 218 pages)

Hebrew encyclopedias possess a captivating history filled with intriguing twists. In "The Book of the People," Tsahor traces the evolution of this influential literary genre, starting from its origins in late nineteenth-century Warsaw and culminating in the production of the final commercial encyclopedia in Israel a century later. The narrative unfolds as a tale of political ideologies interwoven with lofty pedagogical aspirations and the pursuit of financial gains within the realm of mass knowledge dissemination. Initially conceived as a modest initiative aimed at sharing general knowledge among Russian Jews and promoting Zionist ideals, these encyclopedias rapidly transformed into the cornerstone of modern Hebrew literature. Works like "Encyclopaedia Hebraica" and "Encyclopaedia Biblica" garnered a multitude of subscribers, reflecting not just their political aspirations but also their unique perspectives on the State of Israel and its surroundings. The book delves deeply into the intellectual framework that formed the foundation of these encyclopedias, revealing the driving motivations of their creators and illuminating the influence exerted by interest groups on their structure and content. As a result, it offers a previously undisclosed perspective on the global history of Zionism, brimming with unexpected revelations.

 

Understanding Territorial Withdrawal: Israeli Occupations and Edits

By: Rob Geist Pinfold

(Oxford University Press, 2023 | HB | 9780197658857 | £54.00 | $83.00|  Ebook available, 344 pages)

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/understanding-territorial-withdrawal-9780197658857?cc=us&lang=en&#

In Understanding Territorial Withdrawal, Rob Geist Pinfold addresses this research gap. He focuses primarily on Israel, a unique but important milieu that offers pertinent lessons for other states facing similar policy problems. As Pinfold demonstrates, occupiers choose to either perpetuate or abandon an occupation because of three factors: their relations with the occupied, interactions with third parties, and the occupier's domestic politics. He argues that each withdrawal is the culmination of a gradual process of policy re-assessment. Critically, it is a combination of local violence and international pressure that causes popular and elite opinion within the occupier to endorse an exit, rather than perpetuate the status quo. To affirm this pattern, Pinfold constructs a generalizable framework for understanding territorial withdrawal. He then applies this framework to multiple case studies, which include: Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula between 1974-1982; its "unilateral" withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000; and its "unilateral disengagement" from the Gaza Strip in 2005, as well as Israel's non-withdrawals from the West Bank and Golan Heights. Overall, Understanding Territorial Withdrawal delineates commonalities that manifested in each exit yet were absent in the cases of occupation without exit.

Rob Geist Pinfold is a Research Fellow at the Peace Research Center Prague and a Lecturer in International Peace and Security at Durham University's School of Government and International Affairs.

 

Zionism: An Emotional State 

By: Derek Penslar

(Rutgers University Press, June 2023, Paperback ISBN: 9780813576091, Cloth ISBN: 9780813576107, EPUB ISBN: 9780813576114, PDF ISBN: 9780813576121, 284 pages)

Emotion lies at the heart of all national movements, and Zionism is no exception. For those who identify as Zionist, the word connotes liberation and redemption, uniqueness and vulnerability. Yet for many, Zionism is a source of distaste if not disgust, and those who reject it are no less passionate than those who embrace it. The power of such emotions helps explain why a word originally associated with territorial aspiration has survived so many years after the establishment of the Israeli state.

Zionism: An Emotional State expertly demonstrates how the energy propelling the Zionist project originates from bundles of feeling whose elements have varied in volume, intensity, and durability across space and time. Beginning with an original typology of Zionism and a new take on its relationship to colonialism, Penslar then examines the emotions that have shaped Zionist sensibilities and practices over the course of the movement’s history. The resulting portrait of Zionism reconfigures how we understand Jewish identity amidst continuing debates on the role of nationalism in the modern world. 

 

Unacknowledged Kinships: Postcolonial Studies and the Historiography of Zionism

Stefan Vogt, Derek Penslar, and Arieh Saposnik eds.,

(Brandeis University Press, July 2023, Paper ISBN: 9781684581542, Cloth ISBN: 9781684581559, PDF ISBN: 9781684581566, 360 pages)

The first work to systematically investigate the potential for a dialogue between postcolonial studies and the history of Zionism.

There is an “unacknowledged kinship” between studies of Zionism and post-colonial studies, a kinship that deserves to be both discovered and acknowledged. Unacknowledged Kinships strives to facilitate a conversation between the historiography of Zionism and postcolonial studies by identifying and exploring possible linkages and affiliations between their subjects as well as the limits of such connections. The contributors to this volume discuss central theoretical concepts developed within the field of postcolonial studies, and they use these concepts to analyze crucial aspects of the history of Zionism while contextualizing Zionist thought, politics, and culture within colonial and postcolonial histories. This book also argues that postcolonial studies could gain from looking at the history of Zionism as an example of not only colonial domination but also the seemingly contradictory processes of national liberation and self-empowerment.

Unacknowledged Kinships is the first work to systematically investigate the potential for a dialogue between postcolonial studies and Zionist historiography. It is also unique in suggesting that postcolonial concepts can be applied to the history of European Zionism just as comprehensively as to the history of Zionism in Palestine and Israel or Arab countries. Most importantly, the book is an overture for a dialogue between postcolonial studies and the historiography of Zionism.

 

Israel/Palestine

5th Edition

By: Alan Dowty

(Polity, 2023 | PB | 978-1-5095-5320-4 | £15.99 | $22.95 | €19.90 eBook available, 208 pages)

30% discount code, DOW30 until September 30th 2023.

In this fully revised and expanded fifth edition of his highly respected introductory text, Alan Dowty demystifies the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 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. Updated to include recent developments, such as the recent Israeli elections and the debate over the two-state solution, the new edition presents in full the opposed perspectives of the two sides, 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.

ALAN DOWTY is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame.

  

The Israel/Palestine Reader

Edited by: Alan Dowty

(Polity, 2018 | PB | 978-1-5095-2734-2 £17.99 | $24.95 | €23.90 eBook available, 304 pages)

30% discount code, DOW30 until September 30th 2023.

Introduction to any complex international conflict is enriched when the voices of the adversaries are heard. The Israel/Palestine Reader is an innovative collection focused on the human dimension of the ongoing Israeli Palestinian confrontation. From Mark Twain to Theodor Herzl, Gamal Abdul Nasser, Golda Meir, Anwar Sadat, Ezer Weizman, Ehud Barak, Marwan Barghouti, Mahmoud Abbas, Benjamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, and others, the first-hand narratives in this Reader bring the conflict to life as seen by those closest to it. Each of its chapters is framed by an introduction which sets the pieces in context. By juxtaposing contrasting viewpoints, both between and within the opposed parties, the drama of the conflict is underlined while final judgment is left to the reader. This lively volume will add color and texture to any study of Arab-Israeli issues or of the Middle East generally.

ALAN DOWTY is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame.

 

Israel

By: Alan Dowty

(Polity, July 2021 | PB | 978-1-5095-3690-0 £12.99 | $14.95 | €15.90 eBook available| 198 pages)

30% discount code, DOW30 until September 30th 2023.

How did a community of a few thousand Jewish refugees become, in little over a century, a modern nation-state and homeland of half the world’s Jews? Has modern Israel fulfilled the Zionist vision of becoming “a nation like other nations,” or is it still, in Biblical terms, “a people that dwells alone?” Alan Dowty distils over half a century of study as an inside/outside analyst of Israel in tracing this remarkable story. It begins in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, when Jews fleeing Russian persecution established a renewed Jewish presence in their historic homeland. It continues through harsh struggle and in deep-rooted conflict with another people that sees Israel/Palestine equally as their homeland. Immensely successful by most standards, Israel today remains a center of contention and is still torn between its hard-earned role as a “normal” nation and the call of its particularistic, and unique, Jewish history.

ALAN DOWTY is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame.

Series: Polity Histories

  

Routledge Companion to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By: Asaf Siniver (ed.)

(Routledge, October 2022, ISBN: Hardback 9780367135942, eBook 9780429027376, 606 pages).

https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Companion-to-the-Israeli-Palestinian-Conflict/Siniver/p/book/9780367135942

This Companion explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from its inception to the present day, demonstrating the depth and breadth of the many facets of the conflict, from the historical, political, and diplomatic to the social, economic, and pedagogical aspects. The contributions also engage with notions of objectivity and bias and the difficulties this causes when studying the conflict, in order to reflect the diversity of views and often contentious discussion surrounding this conflict.

The volume is organized around six parts, reflecting the core aspects of the conflict:

• Historical and scholarly context of the competing narratives
• Contemporary evolution of the conflict and its key diplomatic junctures
• Key issues of the conflict
• Its local dimensions
• International environment of the conflict
• The "other images" of the conflict, as reflected in public opinion, popular culture, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, and academia and pedagogy. 

Providing a comprehensive approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this companion is designed for academics, researchers, and students interested in the key issues and contemporary themes of the conflict.

 

The Emotional Life of Populism: How Fear, Disgust, Resentment, and Love Undermine Democracy

By: Eva Illouz with Avital Sicron

(Polity Press, 2023, Paperback, ISBN 9781509558193, 232 pages)

Throughout the world, democracy is under assault from various populist movements and ideologies. To make sense of this, the sociologist Eva Illouz argues that we must understand the crucial role that emotions play in our political life. Taking the case of Israel as her prime example, she shows that populist politics rest on four key emotions: fear, disgust, resentment, and love for one’s country. It is the combination of these four emotions and their relentless presence in the political arena that nourishes and underpins the rise and persistence of populism both in Israel and in many other countries around the world. 

June 2023 | Paperback | ISBN 9781509558193 | Regular Price: US$22.95 – 20% off: US$18.36

To get 20% off the paperback, go to www.politybooks.com and use code P2023 at checkout.

Are you an instructor or book reviewer? Contact usmarketing@politybooks.com to inquire about review copies.

 

The Central Political Role of German Left Actors in the Campaign to Replace the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism

By: Gerald M. Steinberg 

(Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, Vol. 5.2, Fall 2022, DOI: 10.26613/jca/5.2.116)

This paper examines the evidence suggesting core involvement of, and leadership from, the German radical left in the process of composing and marketing the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), with the objective of weakening or replacing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s 2016 Working Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA-WDA).2 The main German actors include officials from the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS), which is the political foundation arm of Die Linke, its NGO allies, and from the Center for Research on Antisemitism (ZfA) at the Berlin Technical University. The analysis traces the history of instrumentalizing antisemitism and antizionism in pursuit of internal ideological and political agendas and objectives, including support for the BDS movement. This context serves as the foundation for explaining the specific actions, including publication of an “expert paper” in 2019 that articulated the goal of replacing the IHRA-WDA with an alternative definition, and presented much of the content that became the JDA.

Keywords: IHRA; antisemitism definition; Germany, antizionism; Die Linke; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

 

ISRAEL'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: THE HISTORY AND POLITICAL THEORY OF THE NATION'S FOUNDING MOMENT

By: Neil Rogachevsky and Dov Zigler

(Cambridge University Press, 2022, Online ISBN:9781009090841, 300 pages)

Israel's Declaration of Independence brings to life the debates and decisions at the founding of the state of Israel. Through a presentation of the drafts of Israel's Declaration of Independence in English for the first time, Neil Rogachevsky and Dov Zigler shed new light on the dilemmas of politics, diplomacy, and values faced by Israel's leaders as they charted the path to independence and composed what became modern Israel's most important political text. The stakes began with war, state-building, strategy, and great power politics, and ascended to matters of high principle: freedom, liberty, sovereignty, rights, and religion. Using fast-paced narration of the meetings of Israel's leadership in April and May 1948, this volume tells the astonishing story of the drafting of Israel's Declaration of Independence, enriching and reframing the understanding of Israel's founding and its ideas - and tracing its legacy.

  

TEACHING ISRAEL STUDIES: GLOBAL, VIRTUAL, AND ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES TO ACTIVE LEARNING

By: Amelia Rosenberg Weinreb

(Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, ISBN: 978-3-031-16914-4, ISBN: 978-3-031-16915-1 282 pages)

This book presents pedagogical strategies for today’s diverse Israel Studies classrooms. It offers Israel-specific innovations for online teaching, tested methods for organizing global virtual exchanges that uplift marginalized voices in Israel, including Palestinian voices, and an intellectual and political overview of the field. Informed by the author’s experiences in the classroom and principles shared with her by fellow instructors, the book provides a guide to developing an Israel Studies syllabus or integrating Israel Studies units into an existing curriculum.

 

Currents: Briefs on Contemporary Israel
Issue 6, Fall 2022
Populism in Power: Is the Leader Bound by the People? “Illegal Infiltrators” and Netanyahu's Rule
By: Gayil Talshir

Populist leaders emphasize the bond between the leader and his people: but is the leader bonded by the people? The paper deciphers the phenomenon of ‘populism in power’ through the case study of Netanyahu’s policy change regarding the illegal immigrants from Africa to Israel. ‘Populism in power’ pertains to leaders who took their once-upon-a-time moderate rightwing ruling parties to the nationalist-populist end: Trump, Netanyahu, Orbán and others. Netanyahu, often portrayed as ‘the magician,’ sought to maintain a distinction between virtual incitement against ‘others’ (Arabs, immigrants, and refugees as well as ‘the elites’) during election campaigns and a responsible leadership when in power. What brought him to abolish his own policy-outline devised with the UN to transfer half of the illegal immigrants to other democratic countries in return for provisional work permit for the other half, leading to all 100% remaining in Israel without a legal status? This case demonstrates that once a leader unleashes the populist genie, bottling it again is not an option: when in power, populism is not merely a rhetoric game, and the public would not let the leader back down from his populist policies. Who is the people, what is Netanyahu’s leadership style, and how does ‘direct representation’ work for populist leaders in power are critically examined.

Read Currents Issue 6:
https://www.international.ucla.edu/israel/currents/article/260760

The McGill-Queens - Azrieli Institute Book Series in Israel Studies is pleased to announce our new publication!

Fictions of Gender: Women, Femininity, Feminism and the Zionist Imagination by Orian Zakai

Press Editor: Richard Ratzlaff, Editor, McGill-Queen’s University Press 

Series Editor: Csaba Nikolenyi, Director, Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies

 

ASAD'S AUTOCRATIC DYNASTY IN SYRIA: CIVIL WAR AND THE ROLE OF REGIONAL AND GLOBAL POWERS

By: Moshe Maoz

(Liverpool University Press, 2022, ISBN-10: ‎1789761999, ISBN-13: 978-1789761993 140 pages)

In 2011, the diplomatic and expert consensus was that Bashar al-Asad's regime would fail, causing Syria to disintegrate into several ethnic enclaves or mini-states. A decade later and Bashar is still in control, having defeated the rebels and gained the support of Russia. The years of internal warfare have brought about changes in the spectrum of parties involved in the Syrian state, and the final outcome is inevitably going to be shaped by geo-politics. The Alawi minority still in large measure controls the Sunni-Muslim (Arab) majority. The other players are a gallery of ever changing allegiances: ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and many other radical Islamic groups; the Muslim Kurdish and Christian Arab communities; as well as Shii Lebanese Hizballah. External horizon players are Iran; Sunni Turkey and Saudi Arabia; Jewish Israel; the United States and Russia. This study aims to analyze the agendas, actions, and interrelations of these various actors from 2011 until the present. It will discuss their ongoing politics and assess forthcoming developments. Both Iran and Russia continue to support Bashar, but compete for political, military, and economic influence. The US has greatly reduced involvement, keeping only 900 troops in northeastern Syria, to protect its Kurdish allies and fight against ISIS. Turkey still occupies parts of northern Syria, with the aim of eliminating the Kurdish forces. Syrian and Russian military attempts to conquer this area continue sporadically. The Israeli air force has attacked Iranian and Hizballah positions with the tacit approval of Russia. However, Russias war on Ukraine in February 2022 may result in restricting Israeli interdictions and instead enhance cooperation with Tehran in order to counter the US and NATO. Both Russia and Iran have been incapable of reconstructing the massively destroyed Syrian infrastructure; the US and Europe are reluctant to contribute due to Bashars continued Alawi minority-based autocratic and corrupt rule.

  

UNSCOP AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: THE ROAD TO PARTITION

By: Elad Ben-Dror

(Routledge, November 2022, ISBN 9781032059631, 284 Pages)

https://www.routledge.com/UNSCOP-and-the-Arab-Israeli-Conflict-The-Road-to-Partition/Ben-Dror/p/book/9781032059631

This book provides the first comprehensive account of the work of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), constituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 to study the situation in Palestine at the end of the British Mandate and make recommendations about its political future.

Utilizing a wealth of archival documentation, some of it never before studied, Elad Ben-Dror explores the various aspects of UNSCOP’s activity to understand how it came to determine the fate of the country’s inhabitants. The book analyzes the methods and motivations of the various members, with special attention given to the personal viewpoint of each member of the committee. Through this Ben-Dror shows that the partition recommendation emerged after a long process of study, debate, and compromise that was very much dependent on the characters and circumstances of the individual members of the committee.

UNSCOP and the Arab-Israeli Conflict will be a key text in understanding the role of UNSCOP in shaping the modern Middle East. It will be appropriate for scholars and students of political science, Palestine and Israeli history, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the UN and diplomacy, and conflict resolution.

 

NOT ALONE: ISRAELI FOREIGN POLICY

By: Uri Bialer 

(Ben Gurion Research Institute 2022)

Available in Hebrew - click here for more

Uri Bialer lays a foundation for understanding the principal aspects of Israeli foreign policy from the early days of the state's existence to the Oslo Accords. He presents a synthetic reading of sources, many of which are recently declassified official documents, to cover Israeli foreign policy over a broad chronological expanse. Bialer focuses on the objectives of Israel's foreign policy and its actualization, especially as it concerned immigration policy, oil resources, and the procurement of armaments. In addition to identifying important state actors, Bialer highlights the many figures who had no defined diplomatic roles but were influential in establishing foreign policy goals. He shows how foreign policy was essential to the political, economic, and social well-being of the state and how it helped to deal with Israel's most intractable problem, the resolution of the conflict with Arab states and the Palestinians.

 

PROFILES IN PEACE: VOICES OF PEACEBUILDERS IN THE MIDST OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

By: Ron Kronish

(L.E.A.R.H.N. Peacebuilding Publications, 2022; ISBN: 978-1-7344700-7-9, ISBN-13 : ‎978-1734470093 318 pages)

*Available on Amazon Kindle and paperback

This new book traces the lives of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs in Israel and Palestine who have dedicated their lives to building peaceful relations among the two peoples as well as between individual people who seek to live in peace and harmony with one another. These people have acted courageously and consistently in their work for peace. In this book, the author profiles the lives, thoughts, feelings and actions of six important peacebuilders -- men and women, secular and religious, 3 Jewish Israelis: Rabbi Michael Melchior, Professor Galia Golan and Mrs. Hadassah Froman; and 3 Palestinian Arabs: Professor Mohammed Dajani, Ms. Huda Abuarquob, and Bishop Munib Younan. The reader learns about their visions for peace and their activities to bring their ideals to fruition in the real world of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Too many people have given up on peace. In contrast, the people in this book persevere for peace, thus keeping a flicker of hope alive, not only for Israelis and Palestinians who live in the same land, but also for people everywhere who continue to yearn for a peace agreement to be reached in the region.

 

HOLLYWOOD AND ISRAEL: A HISTORY

By: Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman

(Columbia University Press, 2022, ISBN Paperback: 9780231183413; ISBN Hardcover: 9780231183406, ISBN e-book: 9780231544924, 368 pages)

From Frank Sinatra’s early pro-Zionist rallying to Steven Spielberg’s present-day peacemaking, Hollywood has long enjoyed a “special relationship” with Israel. This book offers a groundbreaking account of this relationship, both on and off the screen. Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman investigate the many ways in which Hollywood’s moguls, directors, and actors have supported or challenged Israel for more than seven decades. They explore the complex story of Israel’s relationship with American Jewry and illuminate how media and soft power have shaped the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Shaw and Goodman draw on a vast range of archival sources to demonstrate how show business has played a pivotal role in crafting the U.S.-Israel alliance. They probe the influence of Israeli diplomacy on Hollywood’s output and lobbying activities, but also highlight the limits of ideological devotion in high-risk entertainment industries. The book details the political involvement with Israel—and Palestine—of household names such as Eddie Cantor, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Vanessa Redgrave, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert De Niro, and Natalie Portman. It also spotlights the role of key behind-the-scenes players like Dore Schary, Arthur Krim, Arnon Milchan, and Haim Saban.

Bringing the story up to the moment, Shaw and Goodman contend that the Hollywood-Israel relationship might now be at a turning point. Shedding new light on the political power that images and celebrity can wield, Hollywood and Israel shows the world’s entertainment capital to be an important player in international affairs.

 

Tony Shaw is professor of contemporary history at the University of Hertfordshire.

Giora Goodman, a historian, chairs the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee.

 

DWELLING ON THE GREEN LINE: PRIVATIZE AND RULE IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE

By: Gabriel Schwake

(Cambridge University Press, 2022, ISBN online: 9781009071246, 278 pages)

Concealed within the walls of settlements along the Green-Line, the border between Israel and the occupied West-Bank, is a complex history of territoriality, privatisation and multifaceted class dynamics. Since the late 1970s, the state aimed to expand the heavily populated coastal area eastwards into the occupied Palestinian territories, granting favoured groups of individuals, developers and entrepreneurs the ability to influence the formation of built space as a means to continuously develop and settle national frontiers. As these settlements developed, they became a physical manifestation of the relationship between the political interest to control space and the ability to form it. Telling a socio-political and economic story from an architectural and urban history perspective, Gabriel Schwake demonstrates how this production of space can be seen not only as a cultural phenomenon, but also as one that is deeply entangled with geopolitical agendas.