Israel Studies Review

This article explores issues of identity and "otherness" by looking at the construction of Jewish-Israeli identity among Jewish-Israeli young adults in relation to two main external others, Germans and Palestinians. Our main thesis is that the construction of Jewish-Israeli identity is connected to their perceptions of these two different external "others." This argument is discussed from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. We suggest two modes of discourse that represent the ways in which German and Palestinian "others" are perceived in Jewish-Israeli society, and then demonstrate the interrelationship through examples from interviews conducted with Jewish-Israeli university students who participated in a seminar that touched on topics connected to the Holocaust past and the present Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

This article examines American Zionist leaders' positions on the Jerusalem issue, taking into consideration that from the 1920s until 1948, they acted within the Zionist movement as an independent political force that sought to play an active role in shaping the Yishuv and the State of Israel according to their own worldview. Their position on Jerusalem included recognition of its significance in Jewish history and the necessity of consolidating Jewish nationalism in Palestine. Yet they demonstrated a clear preference for social and economic patterns that, they maintained, had consolidated in Tel Aviv as a counterbalance to Jerusalem.

This article focuses on the practices that led to the elimination of the possibility of establishing an independent academic sector—professional-academic colleges—in the first years after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. This sector, the "service tradition" of non-university institutions, focuses on meeting economic and social needs through professional and vocational education. The only academic model in Israel that evolved under the control of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) was the comprehensive university model. By describing the ongoing problems of the School of Law and Economics (SLE) in Tel-Aviv, we can learn about the close relations that were established between politicians and the HUJ and the paradox that has resulted in the rapid growth of the SLE but also its integration with the comprehensive university.

This article argues that Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity, which has recently come under fire due to unfolding events in the Middle East, has played a critical role in the Arab world's strategic calculus vis-à-vis Israel. It has convinced Arab leaders of Israel's military superiority, putting an end to their efforts to annihilate the Jewish state. At the same time, it has shielded them from public pressure to become nuclear powers themselves. Indeed, Arab leaders have, in practice, reconciled themselves to Israel's existence, creating the possibility for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict through peace diplomacy. Israel would be mistaken, I argue, to abandon its doctrine of nuclear ambiguity, a move that could accelerate nuclear proliferation in the region, bring about a pre-emptive attack on Israel's nuclear facilities, and harm US-Israeli relations.

John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” (Faculty Research Working Paper No. RWP06-011, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2006).

Elizabeth Stephens, US Policy Towards Israel: The Role of Political Culture in Defining the Special Relationship (Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2006).

Irvine H. Anderson, Biblical Interpretation and Middle East Policy: The Promised Land, America, and Israel, 1917–2002 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005).

Yehoudah Shenhav, Ha-yehudim-‘Aravim: Leumiyut, Dat, Etniyut (The Arab-Jews: Nationalism, Religion, Ethnicity) Review by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite

Uri Ram, The Globalization of Israel: McWorld in Tel Aviv, Jihad in Jerusalem Review by Dani Filc

Dan Bavly, Dreams and Missed Opportunities, 1967–1973 Review by Moshe Ma’oz

Risa Domb, Identity and Modern Israeli Literature Review by Yaakova Sacerdoti

Steven V. Mazie, Israel’s Higher Law: Religion and Liberal Democracy in the Jewish State Review by Chaim I. Waxman

Notes on contributors