Description
Book SynopsisThis finely etched, on-site work examines the relationships between the changing political system and political culture in Israel, with particular focus on the decade of the 1980s. Written by a scholar equally at home in the United States and in Israel, and intellectually equally at home in political science and anthropology, Israeli Visions and Divisions is a fundamental contribution to a literature long on passion and short on reason, which perhaps is an academic reflection of social life in this deeply troubled land.Aronoff starts from the belief that the basic conflicting and even contradictory interpretations over what should be the exact character of Israel as a Jewish state continues to be the source of the most serious division among Jews within contemporary Israel. As a consequence, consensus politics yields to coalition politics; and prospects for a future consensus are dim. Conflict among Jewish political and religious groups, and between Jews and Arabs, is aggravated by the
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Role of Dominance: Labor and the Likud 2. Political Polarization 3. The Manipulation of Political Culture under the Likud 4. The Revitalization of Political Culture: Gush Emunim 5. Protests for Peace: Peace Now and Two Smaller Peace Movements 6. Interpreting Israeli Political Culture; Epilogue
