| Edition |
Reprinted with corrections |
| Description |
xxviii, 371 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-355) and index. |
| Contents |
Zionism and security : Zionism beyond demonization ; The need for security ; Jewish socialism and Arab nationalism -- The Hebrew Republic : The end of empire ; Defeat and victory in 1948 ; Exile and return -- New immigrants and first elections : The survivors ; Jewish immigration into Palestine ; The first elections ; The dominance of Mapai -- The politics of piety : The balancing act ; Who is a Jew? ; The arrival of the Sephardim -- Retaliation or self-restraint : Ben-Gurion, Sharett and Dayan ; The developing schism ; Nasser's metamorphosis ; Stalin's embrace ; The return of Ben-Gurion ; The search for arms ; The road to Suez -- The rise of the right : The Six Day war ; Destroying Mapai from within ; Out of the underground ; The ideology of occupation ; Judea and Samaria -- The road to Beirut : Menachem Begin's leadership ; Who are the Palestinians? ; The reality of negotiations ; A more radical hue -- Dissent at home and abroad : The end of consensus ; The peace camp ; Traditional Diaspora opinions ; A new assertive generation -- An insurrection before a handshake : The man from Lehi ; A new path for the Palestinians ; The outbreak of the Intifada ; An Israeli awakening ; The fall and rise of ideology ; Constraining the Prime Minister ; From Kuwait to Madrid -- The end of ideology? : The problem solver ; The Oslo breakthrough ; The PLO in crisis -- The killing of a prime minister : The return of the rejectionists ; The right's backlash ; Rabbis and ayatollahs -- The magician and the bulldozer : The virtual and the real Likud ; A return to Camp David ; A long walk to disaster ; The descent into the abyss -- 'He does not stop at the red light' : 2001: a Sharon odyssey ; The Palestinian struggle within ; Islamism ascending ; Disengagement from Gaza -- An unlikely Grandfather : Ideology and evacuation ; Separating from the Palestinians ; Between pragmatism and ideology ; Olmert's arrival. |
| Summary |
The state of Israel came into existence in 1948. Colin Shindler's book traces Israel's history across sixty years, from its optimistic beginnings--immigration, settlement, the creation of its towns and institutions--through the wars with its Arab neighbors, 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 Israel's leaders. Biographical portraits of Ben Gurion, Israel's 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.--From the publisher. |
| Subject |
Israel -- History.
|
| ISBN |
9780521615389 (pbk.) |
|
0521615380 (pbk.) |
|
9780521850285 (hbk.) |
|
0521850282 (hbk.) |
|
