A History of Modern Israel

by Colin Shindler

• ISBN13: 9780521615389
• ISBN10: 0521615380
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The state of Israel came into existence in 1948. Colin Shindlers book traces Israels history across sixty years, from its optimistic beginnings - immigration, settlement, the creation of its towns and institutions - through the wars with its Arab neighbours, and the confrontation with the Palestinians. Shindler paints a broad canvas which affords unusual insights into this multicultural society, forged from over a hundred different Jewish communities and united by a common history. Despite these commonalities, however, Israel in the twenty-first century is riven by ideological disputes and different interpretations of Jewishness and Judaism. Nowhere are these divisions more revealingly portrayed than in the lives and ideologies of Israels leaders. Biographical portraits of Ben Gurion, Israels first prime-minister, Yitzhak Rabin, whose assassination is still a traumatic memory for many Israelis, and the controversial Ariel Sharon, offer fascinating examinations of those who have led the country to where it is today.

Author Biography

Colin Shindler is Reader in Israeli and Modern Jewish Studies in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. x
List of maps	p. xii
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Glossaries	p. xv
Chronology	p. xxv
Introduction	p. 1
Zionism and security	p. 10
Zionism beyond demonization	p. 10
The need for security	p. 23
Jewish socialism and Arab nationalism	p. 30
The Hebrew republic	p. 38
The end of empire	p. 38
Defeat and victory in 1948	p. 43
Exile and return	p. 49
New immigrants and first elections	p. 54
The survivors	p. 54
Jewish immigration into Palestine	p. 62
The first elections	p. 65
The dominance of Mapai	p. 70
The politics of piety	p. 78
The balancing act	p. 78
Who is a Jew?	p. 85
The arrival of the Sephardim	p. 91
Retaliation or self-restraint	p. 98
Ben-Gurion, Sharett and Dayan	p. 98
The developing schism	p. 102
Nasser's metamorphosis	p. 108
Stalin's embrace	p. 109
The return of Ben-Gurion	p. 112
The search for arms	p. 114
The road to Suez	p. 119
The rise of the Right	p. 123
The Six Day war	p. 123
Destroying Mapai from within	p. 125
Out of the underground	p. 130
The ideology of occupation	p. 134
Judea and Samaria	p. 141
The road to Beirut	p. 147
Menachem Begin's leadership	p. 147
Who are the Palestinians?	p. 150
The reality of negotiations	p. 156
A more radical hue	p. 165
Dissent at home and abroad	p. 175
The end of consensus	p. 175
The peace camp	p. 181
Traditional Diaspora opinions	p. 186
A new assertive generation	p. 191
An insurrection before a handshake	p. 198
The man from Lehi	p. 198
A new path for the Palestinians	p. 201
The outbreak of the Intifada	p. 203
An Israeli awakening	p. 207
The fall and rise of ideology	p. 211
Constraining the Prime Minister	p. 213
From Kuwait to Madrid	p. 220
The end of ideology?	p. 227
The problem solver	p. 227
The Oslo breakthrough	p. 232
The PLO in crisis	p. 236
The killing of a Prime Minister	p. 244
The return of the rejectionists	p. 244
The Right's backlash	p. 255
Rabbis and ayatollahs	p. 262
The magician and the bulldozer	p. 267
The virtual and the real Likud	p. 267
A return to Camp David	p. 275
A long walk to disaster	p. 281
The descent into the abyss	p. 284
'He does not stop at the red light'	p. 289
2001: a Sharon odyssey	p. 289
The Palestinian struggle within	p. 298
Islamism ascending	p. 307
Disengagement from Gaza	p. 314
An unlikely grandfather	p. 321
Ideology and evacuation	p. 321
Separating from the Palestinians	p. 326
Between pragmatism and ideology	p. 332
Olmert's arrival	p. 337
Bibliography	p. 351
Index	p. 356
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.