The Hebrew Republic: Israel's Return to History

by Colin Shindler SOAS, University of Londo

Overview

The saga of Israel is fascinating, unique, and controversial. Yet the whole is constructed from individual episodes. This book concentrates on relating such episodes rather than narrating a formal, conventional history up until the present day. Each section deals with a different aspect of this journey through the decades. The chapters are based on the author’s own articles, published over the last fifty years in many outlets, from The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post to The Guardian. Each section and essay is linked to the next by an explanatory introduction. Most subjects are often unconventional and unusual. They do not cover old ground and are often intentionally revelatory as they relate the history of Israel in a vivid, engaging way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442265974
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	05/15/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	394
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Colin Shindler was the first professor of Israel Studies in the UK and is emeritus professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of The Rise of the Israeli Right, winner of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Book Prize for 2016.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Making of Modern Israel

Tel Aviv:Zerach Barnett and the Founding of the First Hebrew City
World War I and the Jewish Question
The Left and the Right: A 1933 Murder Mystery: The Killing of Haim Arlosoroff
Avraham Stern and his ‘Gang’

1. The Nation-Builders

In the Beginning: Theodor Herzl
Chaim Weizmann and Vladimir Jabotinsky
David Gruen from Plonsk

1. The Zionists and Pre-War Nationalism

The Germans
The Italians
The Irish
The Ukrainians

1. The Road to Independence

World War II and Zionism
The Aftermath
The Debate over Partition
Arieh Handler: Seeing Ben-Gurion proclaim the State of Israel
How British Jews reacted to the Rise of Israel

1. Israel in the Eyes of the History Makers

Disraeli and a mythical Zion
Churchill and the Jewish State
Stalin and Soviet Jews: 1948-1953
The Kennedys and the Promised Land
Richard Nixon and the Yom Kippur War

1. The Slow Disintegration of Labour Zionism

Imperialism, Zionism and Arab Nationalism
Labour Dissension after 1967
Yigal Allon
Moshe Dayan
Abba Eban

1. The Ascendency of the Right

The Persona of Menahem Begin
Begin in Poland
The Irgun and after
Abba Ahimeir and the Attraction of Fascism
The Influence of other Struggles

1. Israel and Pariah Regimes

Turning away from the past
The Afrikaners
The Argentinians
The Chileans

1. Evangelical Zionists

The Legacies of Christianity and Islam
The American Religious Right and the Likud
Evangelical Enthusiasm for Israel

1. The Struggle for Soviet Jewry

The Genesis of the Jewish Problem
How the Soviet Jewry Movement Started
The Change in Israeli policy and Jewish Activism
The First Trials of Soviet Jews
The Village of Ilyinka

1. Human Rights and the USSR

Marxist-Leninist Zionists
The Use and Abuse of Political Psychiatry in the USSR
Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov on the Jewish Question
Speaking to Sharansky

1. The Life and Death of Yitzhak Rabin

Rabin’s Resurrection 1992
Rabin’s Election and Government
The Incitement by the Right
The Killing and its Justification
The Aftermath

1. The Mystery of Ariel Sharon

Mr ‘Inconstituency’
Who was Ariel Sharon?
From Russia with Love
The Drift to the Right
The Twilight Years
From Mr Hyde to Dr Jekyll

1. The Islamist Rejectionists

Hamas and Palestinian Resistance
Negotiating with Hamas: An Exchange with Uri Avneri
Gaza under Hamas Rule
Hezbollah in the North

1. In the Company of Critics

Critical Friends
Margaret Thatcher, British Jews and Israel
Nye Bevan and Zion

1. Different Diaspora Voices

A History of Dissent
After 1945
Jewish Apostates?
Uncivil War
A Plethora of Jewish Critics

1. Non-Jewish Jews and Israel

Isaac Deutscher and Elisha Ben-Abuya
Ralph Miliband and Jewish Reality
Eric Hobsbawm and 1940
The Long March of the Corbynistas

1. Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions

The Campaign and its Origins
The Anti-Normalisation Campaign
Apartheid Israel
Jewish Reaction to the Boycott

1. Twenty First Century Politics

The Rise of the Far Right
In Government with Lieberman and Bennett
Supporting the Right
Recognising Israel as a Jewish State

Editorial Reviews

Colin Shindler is a celebrated historian of the rise of Zionism and Israel; an author of important books on the Israeli Right; and a fearless moral, intellectual voice against oppression and hypocrisy. This collection of his reviews and essays is a veritable treasure trove of information and critical observations ranging over the movements, personalities and challenges of Jewish and Israeli history of the past 100 years. It is a delight to read.

Jeremy Rosen

With an impressive command of his terrain and in lucid prose devoid of academic jargon, Colin Shindler guides the reader along the road from early Zionist idealism to contemporary Machiavellian politics. En route, he illuminates not only the highway of history, but also numerous little-known by-ways. Journeying with him, the reader encounters a wide variety of individuals, pivotal moments, political movements and counter-movements which coalesce into a panorama of political theory and practice over the past two centuries.

Alice Shalvi

The Hebrew Republic can and should be read by two different publics. Lay leaders will find a magisterial, insightful, panoramic look at Israel's history and politics embedded in the broader context of modern Jewish history and the dominant global trends of the time. Specialists will find a series of original and innovative essays on some of the most significant aspects of Israeli history and life. A must read; a rewarding read.

Itamar Rabinovich

The subtitle “Israel’s Return to History” represents a coherent collection of in-depth articles - at times chronological and at times focusing on crucial issues. Studying Modern Israel from inside and outside, Shindler explains its unfolding centrality for the dispersed Jewish people. This book is not only researching but also interprets the contending analyses of contradictions between the success of a dynamic state and its growing political isolation.

Edward Kaufman

Colin Shindler has produced a rich compendium of insights into Israel’s genesis, its early struggles and controversies, and its current challenges. He draws not just on his huge store of knowledge, but on an ability to convey the complexities of Israel and the Middle East, and of the wider political debate they generate, with depth and subtlety.

Edward Temko