Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century

437 Pages·2017·4.826 MB·English

by  S Ilan Troen, Rachel Fish

Essential Israel
Perspectives on Israel Studies
S. Ilan Troen, Natan Aridan, Donna Divine,
David Ellenson, and Arieh Saposnik, editors
Sponsored by the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the
Study of Israel and Zionism of the Ben-Gurion University
of the Negev and the Schusterman Center for
Israel Studies of Brandeis University
Essential Israel
Essays for the 21st Century
Edited by
S. Ilan Troen and Rachel Fish
Indiana University Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of Manufactured in the
United States of America
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing Library of Congress
Herman B Wells Library 350 Cataloging-in-Publication Data
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA Names: Troen, S. Ilan (Selwyn Ilan), 1940-
editor. | Fish, Rachel, editor.
iupress.indiana.edu Title: Essential Israel : essays for the 21st
century / edited by S. Ilan Troen and
© 2017 by Indiana University Press. Rachel Fish.
All rights reserved Description: Bloomington, Indiana : In-
diana Unviversity Press, 2017. | Series:
No part of this book may be reproduced Perspectives on Israel studies | Includes
or utilized in any form or by any means, bibliographical references.
electronic or mechanical, including Identifiers: LCCN 2017001783 (print)
photocopying and recording, or by any | LCCN 2017003426 (ebook) | ISBN
information storage and retrieval system, 9780253027009 (cloth : alk. paper) |
without permission in writing from the ISBN 9780253027115 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
publisher. The Association of American ISBN 9780253027191 (Ebook)
University Presses’ Resolution on Subjects: LCSH: Arab-Israeli conflict. |
Permissions constitutes the only Arab-Israeli conflict—Peace. | Israel—
exception to this prohibition. Politics and government. | Zionism. |
Israel—Civilization.
The paper used in this publication Classification: LCC DS119.7 .E86 2017 (print) |
meets the minimum requirements of LCC DS119.7 (ebook) | DDC 956.9405—dc23
the American National Standard for LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov
Information Sciences—Permanence /2017001783
of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992. 1 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18 17
Your elders will dream dreams,
your youth shall see visions.
Joel 2:28
To Lynn and Paul with gratitude
Your dreams and visions guide and
inspire ours and future generations
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Contents
Acknowledgments / ix
1 An Invitation to Israel Literacy / S. Ilan Troen, and Rachel Fish / 1
2 Israel: Geography, Demography, and Economy / S. Ilan Troen,
Maoz Azaryahu, and Arnon Golan / 12
3 From Zionism to Zion / Michael Brenner / 40
4 Zionist Settlement in the Land of Israel/Palestine / S. Ilan Troen / 62
5 The Arab-Israeli Conflict / Alan Dowty / 89
6 History of the Peace Process / David Makovsky / 118
7 Israel in World Opinion / Gil Troy / 151
8 Israel: A Jewish Democracy / Yedidia Stern / 182
9 Citizenship and Democracy in Israel / Donna Robinson Divine / 201
10 Israel, American Jews, and Jewish Peoplehood / Steven Bayme / 232
11 “Jewishness” in Israel: Israel as a Jewish State / David Ellenson / 262
12 Contemporary Christianity and Israel / Yaakov Ariel / 280
13 Perceptions and Understandings of Israel within Islam /
Norman Stillman / 311
14 “Hebrewism” and Israeli Culture / Rachel S. Harris / 327
15 Israeli and Hebrew Literature: from the Yishuv to the 21st Century /
Ranen Omer-Sherman / 355
Glossary / Carol Troen / 387
Timeline: A Century of Wars and Conflict and Peace Negotiations
and Agreements 1917-2016 / 422
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Acknowledgments
This book was conceived in the unique environment of the Schusterman
Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, where we were con-
fronted with a fundamental question: What does it mean to be literate
about Israel in the twenty-first century? This manuscript is the product
of a series of collaborations and ongoing conversations that we initiated
several years ago when we embarked on our search for an answer.
We gratefully acknowledge and thank colleagues in the Brandeis
community from the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, the Cohen
Center for Modern Jewish Studies, the Mandel Center for Jewish Edu-
cation, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the Hornstsein Program in Jewish
Professional Leadership, and the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies de-
partment, who have been our partners in developing and significantly
enriching this project.
Our consultants under the rubric of what came to be termed the “Is-
rael Literacy Project” came from Brandeis and elsewhere. Practitioners
teaching about Israel in the community, educators deliberating on how
this teaching could best be done, and scholars engaged in researching
and teaching Israel in the university came together to address each other
and plumb the question. Together we debated which topics to examine
and what issues were key to a basic grounding in the complexity of Is-
rael today. These individuals, from Brandeis and beyond, included Yaa-
kov Ariel, Cheryl Aronson, Ofra Backenworth, Marci Borenstein, Abi
Dauber, Sharon Feiman Nemser, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Steve Bayme,
ix
x acknowledgments
Jan Darsa, Shira Deener, Donna Divine, Alan Dowty, David Ellenson,
Rachel Fish, Sylvia Fuks Fried, Lisa Grant, Rachel Harris, Alex Joffe,
Annette Koren, Jon Levisohn, David Makovsky, Daniel Marom, Ranen
Omer-Sherman, Zohar Raviv, Joe Reimer, Shula Reinharz, Len Saxe,
Ellen Smith, David Starr, Yedidia Stern, Norman Stillman, and Gil Troy.
Each author who contributed to Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st
Century was tasked with writing accessible narratives for readers seeking
knowledge without polemics and advocacy. Our authors engaged with us
to frame their ideas and arguments for nonacademic audiences without
sacrificing the sophistication and rigor appropriate to the academy.
Carol Troen’s skill as an editor and knowledge of the subject matter
contributed to making these individual essays into a coherent whole.
She also created and imagined the organization for the glossary, worth
reading in its own right as an introduction to Israel literacy.
The staff of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies have been indis-
pensable from the beginning to the conclusion of this complicated proj-
ect. JoAnn Leavitt, Anina Selve, Keren Goodblatt, Kristin Shulman, Rise
Singer, and Abby Huber ably coordinated and integrated the work of a
diverse set of experts meeting at specially convened conferences, in focus
groups and seminars in an undertaking that spanned time and space.
Special thanks are due to David Ellension, who became director of the
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies after participating in formulating
the project and contributing one of the chapters. David has appreciated
the significance of the project and has given it unstinting support. We
are grateful to these colleagues for their commitment to producing this
book. They have attended to myriad details while maintaining an invit-
ing, friendly, and generous working environment.
We gratefully acknowledge the Central Zionist Archives and Yad Yi-
zhak Ben-Zvi of Jerusalem for generously permitting the use of photos
that we have reproduced here. We thank, too, Noga Yoselevich of the De-
partment of Geography and Environmental Studies at Haifa University
for her expert preparation of the maps.
We thank Dee Mortensen of Indiana University Press, who took on
this book, and deeply appreciate her special combination of acuity, sym-
pathy, and critical expertise.
Finally, we are glad to acknowledge Terri Kassel and Carrie Fillpeti
of the Paul E. Singer Foundation not only for their financial support