Israel Studies Review

This article looks at how Israelis and American Jews—politicians, state officials, rabbis, public figures, and the press—viewed Henry Kissinger in the months during and a after the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The expectations of Kissinger reflect the endurance of certain attitudes in Jewish political culture, which saw him either as an advocate on behalf of the Jews with the gentile powers that be, or as the influential yet alienated Jew willing to betray his people. Kissinger himself sometimes turned his Jewishness into a potent tool to advance his policy goals in confidential conversations with American officials, American Jews, Israelis, and Arabs. Yet Kissinger's relation to his Jewish identity was not only used as an instrument, but also defined who he was, regardless of whether or not he admitted it.

The article critically examines Mapam's activity regarding the Military Government imposed on Arab-populated areas between 1948 and 1966. It analyzes and compares the party's declared stand and its parliamentary activity with the role played by the issue as a factor in coalition negotiations. The article contends that the issue of the Military Government did not serve as a crucial factor in Mapam's decision either to join the coalition or to stay out of it. It also claims that Mapam did not have a direct influence on the actual decisions concerning the Military Government, due to Mapai's dominance in the Israeli political system in those years. The article suggests that the case of Mapam and the Military Government sheds light on the modus operandi of the Israeli political system prior to the Six Day War, on the extent of Mapai's dominance of the political system in Israel prior to the 1977 political upheaval, on the limited role and influence available to small parties in a dominant party system, and on the inherent conflict and potential collision between security considerations and democracy.

This article analyzes decision making in national security cases on the Israeli Supreme Court and draws broader comparative conclusions. In the post-9/11 era, security has topped the national agendas in numerous established democracies, with repercussions involving their courts. Analyses of decision making on national security in Western judiciaries may benefit from lessons from the Israeli Court, which has been a pivotal player in this domain. A formal model analyzes how internal court institutions plus the rationality of individual justices are conducive to strategic Court behavior. Predictions are tested empirically using an original database with security decisions from 1997 to 2004. The findings indicate that constitutional design, Court leadership, ideology of the ruling coalition and interest group activity have influenced decisions of the Israeli Court on national defense. This study builds on and expands existing scholarship on the complex links among law, politics, and national security in Israel and beyond.

In the Knesset elections of 2009, what lay in the balance were not only significant programmatic differences between the main parties but the center of gravity of the party system and the direction from which the country is to be governed. Nevertheless, the three major rivals conducted a valance competition appropriate for situations in which the parties are ideologically close, and no questions of magnitude hang in the balance. This resulted from an unspoken agreement about the use of "tacit issues": rewards of the competition that are understood by stalwarts, and toward the attainment of which the rivals direct their e orts, but that are not spelled out to the wider public. Consequently, the campaign was among the shortest and least substantive in the country's history, but its outcome may determine the ideological direction of the country, the shape and steering capacity of its government, and the fate of the party system for a long time to come.

Gershom Gorenberg, Th e Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967–1977 (New York: Times Books, 2006).

Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar, Lords of the Land: The War over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories (New York: Nation Books, 2007).

Hagai Huberman, Against All Odds: Forty Years of Settlement in Judea and Samaria, 1967–2007 (Ariel: Netzrim Publishing, 2008 [in Hebrew]).

Farewell Laurie Eisenberg

Neil Caplan, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories Review by Alan Dowty

Rachel Feldhay Brenner, The Freedom to Write: The Woman-Artist and the World in Ruth Almog’s Fiction Review by Avraham Balaban

Jackie Feldman, Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag: Youth Voyages to Poland and the Performance of Israeli National Identity Review by Noam Schimmel

Michael R. Fischbach, Jewish Property Claims against Arab Countries Review by Aviva Klen-Franke

Asima A. Ghazi-Bouillon, Understanding the Middle East Peace Process: Israeli Academia and the Struggle for Identity Review by Mira Sucharov

Aviva Halamish, Meir Yaari: A Collective Biography: The First Fifty Years, 1987–1947 Review by Ilan Peleg

Tamar S. Hermann, The Israeli Peace Movement: A Shattered Dream Review by Gordon Fellman

Alexandra Nocke, The Place of the Mediterranean in Modern Israeli Identity Review by Karine Hamilton

Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel Review by Eran Schor

Yaron Peleg, Israeli Culture between the Two Intifadas: A Brief Romance Review by Philip Hollander

Orit Rosin, Duty and Love: Individualism and Collectivism in 1950s Israel Review by Michael Feige

Nita Schechet, Disenthralling Ourselves: Rhetoric of Revenge and Reconciliation in Contemporary Israel Review by Eran Fisher

Amit M. Schejter, Muting Israeli Democracy: How Media and Cultural Policy Undermine Free Expression Review by Dan Caspi

Patricia J. Woods, Judicial Power and National Politics: Courts and Gender in the Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel Review by Amnon Cavari