Israel

The First Decade of Independence

Edited by S. Ilan Troen & Noah Lucas

Subjects: Israel Studies
Series: SUNY series in Israeli Studies
Paperback : 9780791422601, 779 pages, May 1995
Hardcover : 9780791422595, 779 pages, May 1995

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Table of contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

An Introduction to Research on Israel's First Decade

S. ILAN TROEN AND NOAH LUCAS

PART I POLITICS IN THE NEW STATE

1   Israel's First Decade: Building a Civic State

ALAN DOWTY

2   The Structural Foundation for Religio-Political Accommodation in Israel: Fallacy and Reality

MENACHEM FRIEDMAN

3   The Road Not Taken: Constitutional Non-Decision Making in 1948-1950 and Its Impact on Civil Liberties in the Israeli Political Culture

PHILIPPA STRUM

4   New Challenges to New Authority: Israeli Grassroots Activism in the 1950s

TAMAR HERMANN

PART II POLITICAL THOUGHT: PROPENSITIES AND ALTERNATIVES

5   The "Utopian Leap" in David Ben-Gurion's Social Thought, 1920-1958

YOSEF GORNY

6   Sharett's "Line", Struggles, and Legacy

GABRIEL SHEFFER

7   Political Religion in a New State: Ben-Gurion's Mamlachtiyut

ELIEZER DON-YEHIYA

PART III POLITICS OF THE HOLOCAUST

8   Mapai and the "Kastner Trial"

YECHIAM WEITZ

9   The Commander of the "Yizkor" Order; Herut, Holocaust, and Survivors

HANNAH TOROK YABLONKA

PART IV SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC TRANSITIONS

10 The Economic Regime during Israel's First Decade

NACHUM T. GROSS

11 The Crisis in the Kibbutz Movement, 1949-1961

HENRY NEAR

12 The Kibbutz in the 1950s; A Transformation of Identity

ELIEZER BEN-RAFAEL

13 The Contribution of the Labor Economy to Immigrant Absorption and Population Dispersal during Israel's First Decade

YITZHAK GREENBERG

14 Israeli Nationalism and Socialism before and after 1948

NOAH LUCAS

PART V LITERATURE AND POPULAR IMAGES

15 The Fiction of the "Generation in the Land"

EZRA SPICEHANDLER

16 Israeli Literature as an Emerging National Literature

GLENDA ABRAMSON

17 War and Religiosity: The Sinai Campaign in Public Thought

YONA HADARI-RAMAGE

18 Early Social Survey Research in and on Israel

RUSSELL A. STONE AND S. ILAN TROEN

PART VI PHYSICAL PLANNING AND SETTLEMENT POLICY

19 The Transfer to Jewish Control of Abandoned Arab Lands during the War of Independence

ARNON GOLAN

20 New Departures in Zionist Planning: The Development Town

S. ILAN TROEN

21 Planning, Housing, and Land Policy 1948-1952: The Formation of Concepts and Governmental Frameworks

RUTH KARK

22 Creating Homogeneous Space: The Evolution of Israel's Regional Councils

DAVID NEWMAN

PART VII IMMIGRANTS AND IMMIGRATION

23 Styles of Ethnic Adaptation: Interpreting Iraqi and Moroccan Settlement in Israel

ALEX WEINGROD

24 Mapam and the European and Oriental Immigrations

ELI TZUR

25 The Silent Partner: Holocaust Survivors in the IDF

HANNA TOROK YABLONKA

PART VIII THE ARMY

26 The Civilian Components of Israel's Security Doctrine: The Evolution of Civil-Military Relations in the First Decade

MOSHE LISSAK

27 Utopia in Uniform

ZE'EV DRORI

PART IX THE ARAB MINORITY

28 An Uneasy Coexistence: Arabs and Jews in the First Decade of Statehood

ILAN PAPPÉ

29 Crime and Law Enforcement in the Israeli Arab Population under the Military Government, 1948-1966

ALINA KORN

PART X ISRAEL AND THE DIASPORA

30 The Zionist Movement and the State of Israel, 1948-1952: A Formation of Normal Interrelations

YOSEF GORNY

31 Philanthropy and Politics: Modes of Interaction between Israel and the Diaspora

ERNEST STOCK

32 Defining Relationships: The Joint Distribution Committee and Israel, 1948-1950

DALIA OFER

33 American Jewry and Israel: The First Decade and Its Implications for Today

MELVIN I. UROFSKY

Information on Contributors

Index

This book provides new interpretations and research findings, from a wide spectrum of viewpoints, on Israel's formative first decade of independence.

Description

Israel presents a panoramic display of fresh interpretations and new research findings related to Israel's first decade of independence. Those years of rapid change are widely regarded as a formative period in the development of the state and the society. As new archival materials have become available for scrutiny, a new generation of historians and social scientists has begun to re-examine old issues and to raise new questions. In this context of academic ferment, scholars in diverse disciplines, of different generations and of opposing ideological orientations, have collaborated in this book in examining the period anew. Thirty-two authoritative essays offer new understandings from the diverse perspectives of history, political science, sociology, literary criticism, geography, anthropology, and law. The intention is to provide a wide-ranging reconsideration of post-independence Israel that will serve as a benchmark for future study and research.

S. Ilan Troen holds the Sam and Anna Lopin Chair in Modern History, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and is Senior Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Noah Lucas is Fellow in Israeli Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Hebrew Centre Lecturer in Politics at the University of Oxford, and Senior Associate Member of St. Antony's College, Oxford.

Reviews

"This is an impressive work. The authors bring new evidence, documents that simply weren't available when the earlier histories were written, and these new documents, or even simply new perspectives, contribute to the ongoing debates involved in discussion of Israeli political history. This book is a mammoth undertaking, and one of its real strong points is the sheer range of subjects that are included within one set of covers. " — Gregory S. Mahler, University of Mississippi