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This book is about Avishai Ehrlich, his life’s work in political sociology, his contribution to the field of sociology in Israel and his role as a public intellectual. The chapters include some of his articles, commentaries on his work and his public activism, and personal experiences and memories of Avishai as teacher and friend. The book will appeal to sociologists in general, particularly those whose interests include the Middle East conflict, Arab-Israeli relations and the various socio-political contexts within which the State of Israel evolves. A number of distinguished academics have contributed to this publication; they are also counted among Avishai Ehrlich’s closest friends and associates. Their contributions introduce the reader to an extraordinary person whose interests span a very wide range: from sociology, Marxist theory and political economy, to photography, botany and cooking! Avishai is currently reading Jewish and Islamic Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and improving his knowledge of Arabic. This book is about his ideas, his work and the influence he wielded among his students, peers and friends.
Traces the history of Zionist ideas, examines how they were put into practice in the founding of Israel, and discusses the future of Zionism.
When a country is defeated in war, not only are the policies, strategies, and goals of the military affected, but those of society as well. In this book experts in military history examine conflicts ranging from the American Revolution to the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973 and to China's invasion of Vietnam in 1979 to show how the trauma of defeat also affects the evolution of society. The authors argue that recovery from defeat must be assessed on the level of grand strategy, that ultimate responsibility for recovery rests on the capacity of a nation's top political and military leaders to use their society's resources in order to master the challenges confronting them. Sometimes a nati...
Broadly defined as the grey area between strategy and tactics, operational art spans the theory and practice of planning and conducting campaigns and major operations aimed at accomplishing strategic and operational objectives in a given theatre of operations. An intermediate link between strategy and tactics has always existed, but a distinct concept that encompasses a systematic and deliberate plan of campaign for major operations is a mere two hundred years old. Based on country specific case-studies, this book describes how the concepts that underpin operational art originated, how they received practical expression in various campaigns, and how they developed over time. The point of dep...
A searching examination of the moral limits of political compromise When is political compromise acceptable--and when is it fundamentally rotten, something we should never accept, come what may? What if a rotten compromise is politically necessary? Compromise is a great political virtue, especially for the sake of peace. But, as Avishai Margalit argues, there are moral limits to acceptable compromise even for peace. But just what are those limits? At what point does peace secured with compromise become unjust? Focusing attention on vitally important questions that have received surprisingly little attention, Margalit argues that we should be concerned not only with what makes a just war, but also with what kind of compromise allows for a just peace. Examining a wide range of examples, including the Munich Agreement, the Yalta Conference, and Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, Margalit provides a searching examination of the nature of political compromise in its various forms. Combining philosophy, politics, and history, and written in a vivid and accessible style, On Compromise and Rotten Compromises is full of surprising new insights about war, peace, justice, and sectarianism.
Avishai Margalit builds his social philosophy on this foundation: a decent society, or a civilized society, is one whose institutions do not humiliate the people under their authority, and whose citizens do not humiliate one another. What political philosophy needs urgently is a way that will permit us to live together without humiliation and with dignity. Most of the philosophical attention nowadays is drawn to the ideal of the just society based on the right balance between freedom and equality. The ideal of the just society is a sublime one but hard to realize. The decent society is an ideal which can be realized even in our children's lifetime. We should get rid of cruelty first, advocat...
The Villa Tugendhat, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1928, is an icon of architectural modernism and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Behind the Glass tells the true story of the large family connected to it, who rose to prominence through industrial textile manufacturing. The book traces the transformations in the life of the family, from their roots in a Jewish ghetto to part of the wealthy bourgeoisie in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to adaptation in interwar independent Czechoslovakia and flight in the face of Nazi invasion. Michael Lambek examines the generation born in the first decade of the twentieth century, especially Grete Tugendhat – Lambek’s maternal grandmother – who commissi...
Transcultural Jazz: Israeli Musicians and Multi-Local Music Making studies jazz performance and composition through the examination of the transcultural practices of Israeli jazz musicians and their impact globally. An impressive number of Israeli jazz performers have received widespread exposure and worldwide acclaim, creating music that melds aspects of American jazz with an array of Israeli, Jewish and Middle Eastern influences and other non-Western musical traditions. While each musician is developing their own approach to musical transculturation, common threads connect them all. Unraveling and analyzing these entangled sounds and related discourses lies at the center of this study. Thi...
“Seamlessly combines analytic rigor with personal memoir . . . its arguments are drawn from political history . . . Biblical commentary . . . novels and biographies.” (Amélie Rorty, Tufts University) Adultery, treason, and apostasy no longer carry the weight they once did. Yet we constantly see and hear stories of betrayal. Avishai Margalit argues that the tension between the ubiquity of betrayal and the loosening of its hold is a sign of the strain between ethics and morality, between thick and thin human relations. On Betrayal offers a philosophical account of thick human relations?relationships with friends, family, and core communities?through their pathology, betrayal. Judgments of...