For decades, Israeli Jews, Palestinians, and Israeli Arabs have been engaged in a debate about past history, present options, and future possibilities. Basic questions of citizenship, religion, political tactics, democracy, the rule of law, and a host of other matters are abandoned, revived and modified in an intellectual exchange between representatives of all three communities that is as old as the political conflicts that have marked the region. The high stakes, intense emotions-and meager results-of the "peace process" lend particular importance and salience to these discussions. The sophistication of these debates will come as a surprise to many observers who might have concluded that there is no escape from the present impasse and little possibility for a just settlement of the grievous divisions in the region. Given the pivotal role of the United States in the Middle East, it would be particularly helpful if Americans' understanding of the issues went beyond the superficiality that often passes for political discussion and media coverage. Whatever the outcome of the discussions currently under way, the central commitment of the Oslo Accords to the two-state solution has long been the foundation of American diplomacy and is the starting-point of Washington's most recent attempt to revive the moribund peace process. Important segments of public opinion in the three communities, however, have started to question the possibility-and, more importantly perhaps, the desirability-of a two-state solution. Their doubts have set in motion a lively and important debate, and this book is designed to introduce American readers to the terms of that discussion. It features essays by well-known Israeli academics, both Jewish and Palestinian, as well as contributions from non-Israeli citizen Palestinian, and American scholars. It is the first to bring together a wide range of views and perspectives by influential scholars from various disciplines as well as from activists to bear on a very topical subject with international ramifications.

Ethnic democracy is a form of democratic ethnic conflict regulation in deeply divided societies. In "The Challenge of Ethnic Democracy, "Yoav Peled argues that ethnic democracy is constituted by the combination of two contradictory constitutional principles: liberal democracy and ethno-nationalism, and that its stability depends on the existence of a third, mediating constitutional principle of whatever kind.

This central argument is supported by an analysis of the history of three ethnic democracies; Northern Ireland under Unionist rule, where ethnic democracy was stable for almost 50 years (1921-1969), then collapsed; The Second Polish republic (1918-1939), where ethnic democracy was written into the constitution but was never actualised; and Israel within its pre-1967 borders, where ethnic democracy was stable for 35 years (1966-2000) but may now be eroding. This book examines the different trajectories of the case studies, demonstrating that Poland lacked a third, mediating constitutional principle, while Israel and Northern Ireland did have such a principle civic republicanism in Israel, and populism in Northern Ireland. The collapse of ethnic democracy in Northern Ireland resulted from the weakening of populism, that depended on British monetary subsidies for its implementation, whilst the erosion of ethnic democracy in Israel resulted from the decline of civic republicanism since the onset of economic liberalization in 1985.

Dealing with ethnic democracy in a comparative framework, this book will appeal to students, scholars and researchers of Sociology, Political Science and Middle East Studies.

This edited volume explores the theoretical and practical implications of war and terror situations for citizenship in democratic states. Citizenship is a key concept in Western political thought for defining the individual's relations with society. The specific nature of these rights, duties and contributions, as well the relations between them, are determined by the citizenship discourses that prevail in each society. In wartime, including low-intensity wars, democratic societies face different challenges than the ones facing them during peacetime, in areas such as human rights, the status of minorities, the state's obligations to its citizens, and the meaning of social solidarity. War situations can affect not only the scope of citizenship as an institution, but also the relations between the prevailing discourses of citizenship and between different groups of citizens. Since 9/11 and the declaration of the 'war on terror', many democracies have been grappling with issues rising out of the interface between citizenship and war. This volume examines the effects of war on various aspects of citizenship practice, including: immigration and naturalization, the welfare state, individual liberties, gender relations, multiculturalism, social solidarity, and state - civil society relations. This book will be of great interest to students of military studies, political science, IR and security studies in general.

This edited volume explores the theoretical and practical implications of war and terror situations for citizenship in democratic states.

Citizenship is a key concept in Western political thought for defining the individual's relations with society. The specific nature of these rights, duties and contributions, as well the relations between them, are determined by the citizenship discourses that prevail in each society.

In wartime, including low-intensity wars, democratic societies face different challenges than the ones facing them during peacetime, in areas such as human rights, the status of minorities, the state's obligations to its citizens, and the meaning of social solidarity. War situations can affect not only the scope of citizenship as an institution, but also the relations between the prevailing discourses of citizenship and between different groups of citizens. Since 9/11 and the declaration of the 'war on terror', many democracies have been grappling with issues rising out of the interface between citizenship and war. This volume examines the effects of war on various aspects of citizenship practice, including: immigration and naturalization, the welfare state, individual liberties, gender relations, multiculturalism, social solidarity, and state - civil society relations.

This book will be of great interest to students of military studies, political science, IR and security studies in general.

During Israel's military operation in Gaza in the summer of 2014 the commanding officer of the Givati infantry brigade, Colonel Ofer Vinter, called upon his troops to fight "the terrorists who defame the God of Israel." This unprecedented call for religious war by a senior IDF commander caused an uproar, but it was just one symptom of a profound process of religionization, or de-secularization, that Israeli society has been going through since the turn of the twenty-first century. This book analyzes and explains, for the first time, the reasons for the religionization of Israeli society, a process known in Hebrew as hadata. Jewish religion, inseparable from Jewish nationality, was embedded in Zionism from its inception in the nineteenth century, but was subdued to a certain extent in favor of the national aspect in the interest of building a modern nation-state. Hadata has its origins in the 1967 war, has been accelerating since 2000, and is manifested in a number of key social fields: the military, the educational system, the media of mass communications, the teshuvah movement, the movement for Jewish renewal, and religious feminism. A major chapter of the book is devoted to the religionization of the visual fine arts field, a topic that has been largely neglected by previous researchers. Through careful examination of religionization, this book sheds light on a major development in Israeli society, which will additionally inform our understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As such, it is a key resource for students and scholars of Israel Studies, and those interested in the relations between religion, culture, politics and nationalism, secularization and new social movements.

This penetrating and timely study by two well-known scholars offers a theoretically informed account of the political sociology of Israel. The argument is set in its historical context as the authors trace Israel's development from the beginning of Zionist settlement in Palestine in the early 1880s to the Oslo accords in 1993, and finally to the recent Palestinian uprising. Against this background, they speculate on the idea of citizenship and what it means to be the citizen of a fragmented and ideologically divided society.