Israel Studies Review

This study of neo-conservatism in Israel argues that despite its powerful emergence, internal contradictions prevent it from establishing a hegemonic position. This argument is used to explain the collapse of the Likud in the 2006 elections after it adopted a neo-conservative agenda. The attempt to maintain simultaneously a hawkish foreign policy and a neo-liberal economic agenda proved costly, since the demands of such a foreign policy often contradict the 'small state' tenets of neo-liberalism. Consequently, as this article demonstrates, neo-conservatism has a difficult time sustaining a stable constituency, as those who support an aggressive foreign policy may desire a more welfare-type state, while those who support neo-liberalism generally favor a moderate foreign policy.

In May 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel, by a narrow majority of 6 to 5, upheld the constitutionality of the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Provision), which severely restricts the rights of Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories to live in Israel. The main implications of the Act are that West Bank and Gaza spouses of Israeli citizens are prevented from living with their husbands or wives in Israel. This article reviews the court's judgment in light of the general immigration policy of Israel, which is reflected in three major laws. After presenting and analyzing the ruling, the article comments on some of the dilemmas and difficulties that the judgment raises.

American values, symbols, landscapes, and lifestyles have been widely used in Israeli advertisements to market a vast array of consumer goods. An analysis of advertisements that appeared in Israeli newspapers during the 1990s reveals that American symbols were invoked to promote products produced in the United States, Israel, or even a third country. By examining the relationship between advertising and culture, along with the changes that have occurred in Israeli society during this period, this analysis focuses on two interlocking spheres: capitalist-economic (labor and production, consumption, and technology) and cultural (cultural heroes and symbols, language, and lifestyle). Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, it is the authors' goal to show how social values have changed over time, losing their Israeliness and taking on an American flavor. This article seeks to present the manifestation of the American image in Israeli advertisements and thereby fuel a discussion on the Americanization of Israeli society.

The aims of this study are (a) to survey the existing theories of non-formal education (NFE) and their deficiencies, (b) to present a concise historical survey of Zionist-Israeli NFE, and (c) to summarize the research in brief, including additional dimensions derived from the Zionist-Israeli case. The seven dilemmas that are drawn and their continua of recommended solutions encompass the following: (1) a combined model of complementary, supplementary, and alternative NFE; (2) different but mixed age groups; (3) an emphasis on NFE community-centered activities combined with youth programs; (4) responsibility sharing among local institutions and various corporations and associations; (5) personnel ranging from professional to young volunteer leaders; (6) school and out-of-school activities; and (7) non-formal activities within formal, non-formal, and mixed frameworks. The overall contribution of this article is in detailing the central role of NFE in shaping nationality via national education.

Assaf Likhovski’s Law and Identity in Mandate Palestine is an excellent and most welcome study of legal thought and judicial practice in inter-war Palestine as they intersected with, and were defined by, colonial and nationalist ideologies. What marks Likhovski’s volume as especially timely and important is that it analyzes all three major communities of Mandatory Palestine—the British, the Jews, and the Arabs—and does not fall into the usual trap of setting up a binary opposition between one of these communities and the other two. Thus, at one and the same time, Likhovski rejects the conventional Zionist historiographical approach that views the Jews of the Yishuv as facing a combined enemy of the Arabs and the British. And unlike much ‘post-Zionist’ and Palestinian historiography, he equally rejects a starting point that pits the Arabs against a different combined enemy: the Jews and the British.

In order to discuss a book that parses the relationship of law and identity during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine requires that I first give my own background. I am neither a scholar of the Mandate nor a lawyer, but rather a historian of law interested in processes of colonizing. Fortunately, Assaf Likhovski’s scholarly and narrative skills minimize any shortcomings in these credentials. Specialists on the Mandate will profit from this book, but so will historians at large. And in my case, the history of colonizing does afford a measure for the success of Likhovski’s interpretive emphasis upon the relationship of law and identity, given his ambition to use it to undercut ‘Manichaean’ dichotomies that situate law starkly in relations between colonizer and colonized, between the powerful and the powerless.

Dr. Likhovski’s book is a formidable achievement that has relevance for the development of Israeli law, for students of comparative legal systems, particularly colonial ones, for the history of Zionist ideology, and for conceptualizers of legal anthropology. I shall focus on only a few aspects of his work from the standpoint of a political historian of Mandatory Palestine.

I am grateful for the insightful comments made by all three reviewers of my book and for the opportunity given to me by the editor of Israel Studies Forum to respond to these comments. A response is difficult because all three commentators, each in his own way, have shaped my views on the history of Zionism and of Palestine and on legal history. It is also a difficult task because I feel, as I believe many authors do after completing their books, that the book now is only partly ‘mine’. However, I am also happy to use this occasion both to clarify points made in the comments and to highlight some unresolved issues and interesting directions for further research.

Simeon D. Baumel, Sacred Speakers: Language and Culture among the Haredim in Israel Review by İlker Aytürk

D. Kelly Weisberg, The Birth of Surrogacy in Israel Review by Leora Bilsky

Raphael Cohen-Almagor, ed., Israeli Democracy at the Crossroads Review by Alain Dieckhoff

Sveta Roberman, Memory in Migration: WWII Red Army Soldiers in Israel Review by Isabella Ginor

Rebecca L. Stein and Ted Swedenburg, eds., Palestine, Israel, and the Politics of Popular Culture Review by Tamar Katriel

Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University

MA in Israel Studies at the University of Calgary

Notes on contributors