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Summary
This book challenges the conventional view of Israeli politics as an ideological, stron party system. Focusing on three important and influential interest groups, the Gush Emunim, the Ihud kibbutz federation, and the Manufacturers' Association, Drezon-Tepler presents a comprehensive view of Israel's society and politics. Integrated here are unpublished sources, and material from personal interviews with prominent personalities including Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, and Minister Ariel Sharon. The book illuminates such current controversial topics in Israel as the influence of the volatile Gush Emunim, the country's chronically unstable economy, and the continued vitality of the kibbutz movement.
Relevant beyond Israel's borders, this book enhances understanding of systems, groups, and change, presenting an original, analytical framework of three models for group and party decision making within democracies.
"This is the first systematic exploratory analysis of interest groups in Israel's bewildering political system. Drezon-Tepler's fresh insights help clarify the elusive informal interparty cooperation on such issues of common concern as industry, rural socialism, and settlements in occupied territories." -- J.C. Hurewitz, Columbia University
Marcia Drezon-Tepler is a political scientist and Middle East specialist with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, and a former Fulbright Scholar in Israel.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. A Theoretical Framework
Part I. The Setting
Chapter 2. Politics and the Economy
Chapter 3. The System in Operation
Part II. The Manufacturers' Association
Chapter 4. The Early Years: Alternatives to Politicization
Chapter 5. Dominant Party Politics
Chapter 6. A Continuing Spearhead for Change
Part III. Ihud ha-Kvutzot ve-ha-Kibbutzim
Chapter 7. An Interest Group Emerges
Chapter 8. The Ihud in Operation
Chapter 9.Growing Group Consciousness and Government Relations
Part IV. Gush Emunim
Chapter 10. Gush Emunim in the Labor Era
Chapter 11. Elections 1977
Chapter 12. Gush Emunim, the Likud, and the Eighties