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A history of Israel in the context of the modern Jewish experience and the history of the Middle East
This book traces the history of attitudes toward power and the use of armed force within the Zionist movementfrom an early period in which most leaders espoused an ideal of peaceful settlement in Palestine, to the acceptance of force as a legitimate tool for achieving a sovereign Jewish state. Reviews "A rich and sophisticated work that nicely complements more conventional political-historical studies of the Arab-Israeli conflict. . . . Shapira sifts through a vast body of material, ranging from essays, poems, and memoir literature to the unpublished minutes of political party and youth group meetings. Shapira interprets these sources with sensitivity and insight . . . and writes with powe...
David Ben-Gurion cast an enormous shadow across his world, and his legacy in the Middle East and beyond continues to be hotly debated to this day. There have been many books written about the life and accomplishments of the Zionist icon and founder of modern Israel, but this new biography by eminent Israeli historian Anita Shapira is the first to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of a new nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period in 1948 immediately following Israel's declaration of independence, a time few historians have concentrated on and none have explored in such intimate detail. Through her intensive research and access to Ben-Gurion's personal archives and rarely viewed documents and letters, the author gained powerful insights into his private persona. Her fascinating literary portrait of David Ben-Gurion bares the flesh-and-blood man inside the influential historical figure who brought the Zionist dream to full fruition.
Presents a history of Israel from the origins of the Zionist movement to the present day, focusing on the issues of mass immigration, shifting cultural norms, the politics of world diplomacy, and the creation of a civil society.
The book traces the history of attitudes toward power and the use of armed force within the Zionist movement from an early period in which most leaders espoused an ideal of peaceful settlement in Palestine, to the acceptance of force as a legitimate tool for achieving a sovereign Jewish state. “[A] classic... This brilliant intellectual history by a distinguished Tel Aviv University scholar shows how the exilic Jewish aversion to Machtpolitik shriveled in the crucible of state-building. Mainstream Zionism, which never saw itself as a movement of European usurpers, evolved what Shapira calls a ‘defensive ethos’ under British rule that skirted both compromise and confrontation with the A...
The essays in this volume, by leading scholars from within and outside Israel, shed new light on the Israeli historians' controversy of the creation of the State of Israel, the 1948 War and its aftermath, Israel's attitude towards Holocaust survivors, the "melting pot" absorption policy and similar subjects. The attack on Zionist historiography, which initially came from what is dubbed the "post-Zionist" radical left, has recently broadened to include a critique from the right. These essays cover diverse aspects of the critique, exploring its historiographical, political, sociological and educational ramifications.
Scholars from Israel and the US examine from various perspectives the relationship between nationalism and religion.
The biography of Berl is more than the biography of an individual: it is the story of a movement. The book traces Berl from a young Russian socialist and romantic pioneer on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, into the propounder of a work ethic and the founder of the central political current of the Israeli labour movement.
Born in 1918 into the fabric of Arab-Jewish frontier life at the foot of Mt. Tabor, Yigal Allon rose to become one of the founding figures of the state of Israel and an architect of its politics. In 1945 Allon became commander of the Palmah—an elite unit of the Haganah, the semilegal army of the Jewish community—during the struggle against the British for independence. In the 1947-49 War of Independence against local and invading Arab armies, he led the decisive battles that largely determined the borders of Israel. Paradoxically, his close lifelong relations with Arab neighbors did not prevent him from being a chief agent of their sizable displacement. A bestseller in Israel and availab...
Based on previously unexploited primary sources, this is the first comprehensive biography of Yosef Haim Brenner, one of the pioneers of Modern Hebrew literature. Born in 1881 to a poor Jewish family in Russia, Brenner published his first story, "A Loaf of Bread," in 1900. After being drafted into the Russian army, he deserted to England and later immigrated to Palestine where he became an eminent writer, critic and cultural icon of the Jewish and Zionist cultural milieu. His life was tragically ended in the violent 1921 Jaffa riots. In a nutshell, Brenner's life story encompasses the generation that made "the great leap" from Imperial Russia's Pale of Settlement to the metropolitan centers ...