Militarism and social revolution in Africa

Militarism and Social Revolution in the Third World by Miles D. Wolpin Allanheld, Osmun and Co., Totowa (New Jersey), 1981. ix plus 260 pp. including tables, figures, bibliography and index. $19,95.     

Anti-Intellectualism and Israeli Politics

Anti-intellectualism is a discrete social phenomenon which eschews spatial or temporal boundaries. While it defies a restrictive definition, it is commonly understood as a populist disdain of individuals who speak of certain universal values and engage in the pursuit of knowledge from reason; conversely, an anti-intellectual is a person who is not a ‘dealer in ideas’ and is not committed to the ‘life of the mind’. This article focuses on anti-intellectualism as a defining characteristic of the Israeli ethos which predates the establishment of the Jewish state. The article begins with a terminological discussion and a brief historical survey of the prevalence of anti-intellectualism in contemporary societies. It then traces the roots of Israeli anti-intellectualism and examines their manifestations in the case of Abba Eban, Israel’s most quintessential diplomat, an orientalist scholar, a Cambridge don, a polyglot and a public intellectual. The article concludes by pointing to the uneasy fit between the political and intellectual spheres in Israeli politics and the challenges posed by the former to the latter.     

The Israeli Disengagement Initiative

Dr. Golan is professor, emerita, in the department of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and professor of government at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.     

Sandler, Freedman and Telhami: Religion in Israeli Politics The Religious-Secular Divide in Israeli Politics

The following is the edited text of a Sadat Forum held at the Brookings Institution on February 23, 1999. The cosponsors are the Brookings Foreign Policy Program and the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.     

日军“造神者”小笠原长生的军国文学和政治话语

对日军"造神者"小笠原长生的社会角色,特别是他作为拥有军事与皇族背景的军国主义政治文人属性进行了分析。小笠原利用自己经年所得的写作技巧,制造了一个糅合精致政治话语体系的军国主义文学世界,通过分析其结构和体系,可以一窥此类军国文人之政治思维的内核和矛盾之处。尽管小笠原以创造日军勇于赴死的神话著称于世,但深入其作品所反映出来的一些对人性、信仰、权力与战争的思考,可以体味到在军国主义政治重压下一个军国文人的内心挣扎。     

The Israeli collective memory and the Masada Syndrome: a political instrument to counter the EU funding of Israeli non-governmental human rights organizations

The EU’s practice of funding Israeli non-governmental human rights organizations (hereinafter ‘HRNGOs’) has in recent years encountered a counter-strategy, pursued by certain Israeli NGOs and members of the Israeli government, media and academia. This counter-strategy has succeeded in discrediting the HRNGOs and the EU and rendering their mutual collaboration less effective. The purpose of this article is to contextualize the counter-strategy within the sphere of Israel’s collective memory. The article analyses the manner in which certain politicians and various members of the Israeli society (agents of memory), who themselves are the product of the evolving Israeli collective memory and identity (structure), attempt to draw on Israel’s collective memory/structure in order to advance their particular political agenda.     

Consolidating right-wing hegemony: the Israeli election 2015

Following the premature collapse of an eclectic right-wing and centre-left government, Israelis went to the polls on the 17 March, 2015. Despite what appeared to be a clear-cut right-wing victory, the thirty-fourth government of Israel was constituted 14 May, 2015, over two months after incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent electoral triumph. This profile examines the contours of Israel’s recent election campaign and formation of a new government, assessing the triumphs and pitfalls of Israel’s major political parties during the election period. Similarly, this profile delineates the major political issues and dominant personalities featuring throughout the campaign. Subsequently, this profile traces the often-frantic coalition negotiations that led to formation of the thirty-fourth Israeli administration. Finally, the domestic and foreign policy implications of an increased hegemony of right-wing parties in the current government are outlined. Conversely, the narrow majority of the new government suggests ideological homogeneity may come with a price of increased political instability for Prime Minister Netanyahu.