Benny Morris is the founding father of the New Historians, a group of Israeli scholars who have challenged long-established perceptions about the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their research rigorously documented crimes and atrocities committed by the Israeli armed forces, including rape, torture, and ethnic cleansing. With Making Israel, Morris brings together the first collection of translated articles on the New History by leading Zionist and revisionist Israeli historians, providing Americans with a firsthand view of this important debate and enabling a better understanding of how the New Historians have influenced Israelis' awareness of their own past. "The study of Israeli history, society, politics, and economics over the past two decades has been marked by a fierce and sometimes highly personal debate between 'traditionalists'--scholars who generally interpreted Israeli history and society within the Zionist ethos--and 'revisionists'--scholars who challenged conventional Zionist narratives of Israeli history and society. Making Israel brings together traditionalists and revisionists who openly and directly lay out their key insights about Israel's origins. It also introduces multidisciplinary perspectives on Israel by historians and sociologists, each bringing into the debate its own jargon, its own epistemology and methodology, and its own array of substantive issues. This is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand the different interpretations of Israeli society and perhaps the central debate among students of modern Israel."--Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis, and Distinguished Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya "Israel's 'new historians' have done a great service to their country, and to all who care about the Arab-Israeli conflict. By challenging myths, reexamining evidence, and asking truly important questions about the past they help to confront the present with honesty and realism. This book provides a sampling of the best of what these courageous voices have to offer.

"Born in 1955, Avraham Burg witnessed firsthand many of the most dramatic and critical junctions in Israeli history. Here he chronicles the highs and lows of his country during the last five decades, beginning with the 1967 war, when, as a young boy, his mother brought him back Uzi cartridges from the Kotel, which he incorporated into the Chanukah menorah he made for his home economics class. Burg narrates the misplaced hopes of religious Zionism (informed by his conservative upbringing), Israel's obsession with military might (informed by his own experiences as a paratrooper), the country's democratic aspirations (informed by his tenure in the Knesset) and more. What he delivers, ultimately, is an analysis of the ambitions and failures of Israel and Judaism, from the unique standpoint of his generation--the children of the mythical "founders" who established the state. In Days to Come is Burg's philosophical inquiry into what Jewish-Israeli identity means today if you are personally, ethically, and politically opposed to what your country stands for. With bravery and candor, he urges his countrymen to dare to ask the difficult questions and accept the truth of difficult answers, have the courage to move on from trauma to trust, understand that Jews do not have monopoly over suffering but a responsibility to prevent crimes against humanity, have the will to solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine by adopting new paradigms, be ready to relinquish the privileges given to the Jews and create a shared space with equal rights for every human being, lay the groundwork for a constitutional reality in which every individual--under Israeli sovereignty or responsibility--has equal rights, and build a wall of separation between synagogue and state"--

This book discusses the history, land and people, society, government and politics, economics, and culture of Israel. It provides an introduction to Israel, a definitive account of the nation's past, its often controversial present, and much more. Written by a leading historian of the Middle East, the book is organized around six major themes: land and people, history, society, politics, economics, and culture. Based on research by scholars with firsthand knowledge of Israel, this book offers accessible, clearly explained material, enhanced with a generous selection of images, maps, charts, tables, graphs, and sidebars. This book provides readers with a solid foundation of knowledge about Israel and provides useful reference lists by topic for further reading.

Product Description Israel and Europe: An Expanding Abyss? Explores the complex, tense, and historically loaded relationship between Europe and Israel. Over the years a fissure has developed between their political views. Many believe that it continues to widen and has become an abyss. The introductory essay and the following interviews combine together as a reconnaissance mission into the essence of European-Israeli political relations. In the essay, the author illustrates how Israel and often European Jewry have been made to pay for Europe’s major strategic mistakes in defense, energy, and immigration policies. Europe has acted against Israel through voting for one-sided UN resolutions, political statements from the EU and member countries, and EU financing of NGOs hostile to Israel. Israelis and Europeans should not, however, give up hope for better understanding. Israel should take the initiative to see how the damage can be limited without endangering its vital interests or remaining silent about European injustice toward it. In the second part of the book, fourteen interviewees from Europe, Israel, and the United States discuss major aspects of the European-Israeli relationship About the Author Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is Chairman of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, editor of the Jewish Political Studies Review, and co-publisher of Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, Jerusalem Viewpoints, and Jewish Environmental Perspective serial publications. He has been an international business strategist for 40 years. His background is in chemistry, economics, environmental studies, and Jewish studies. Gerstenfeld is a former director in a consultancy whose other shareholders included four of the world’s largest banks. He has also been a board member of several public companies including a large investment company. The first of his previous nine books, which have been published in five languages, was the Italian bestseller Revaluing Italy. His other books are: Environment and Confusion; Israel’s New Future: Interviews; The State as a Business: Do-It-Yourself Political Forecasting; Judaism Environmentalism and the Environment; The Environment in the Jewish Tradition: A Sustainable World; Europe’s Crumbling Myths: The Post-Holocaust Origins of Today’s Anti-Semitism; The New Cloths of European Anti-Semitism; and American Jewry’s Challenge: Conversations Confronting the 21st Century.