- - To strengthen the bond between Jews in Israel and Jews living in the Diaspora and to create a Jewish meeting point, Taglit-Birthright Israel, which was initiated by Yossi Beilin, has for the last 10 years provided Jewish young adults with the opportunity to visit Israel at no charge. In his latest book, "Birthright: The True Story" (ISBN 1456452606), Beilin seeks to reveal the unexpected struggles he encountered from Jewish establishments-- both in Israel and the wider Jewish community--in finding support for these free trips. Written to expose the inner culture and politics of the existing Jewish establishments, Beilin describes the challenges he had to overcome to make the program a reality: from confronting harsh opposition, to gaining financial support from donors and eventually convincing the wider Jewish community of the necessity of such a program. "False knowledge has been spread about the creation of Birthright, or been left out completely," Beilin said. "I wanted to provide the truth behind this project." "Birthright: The True Story" looks to provide readers with insight behind the project that has sent a quarter of a million young Jews to Israel. Beilin mixes the elements of a documentary with those of a memoir to show the personal struggles he faced in order to facilitate such a monumental international project.

Ten leading scholars and practitioners of politics, political science, anthropology, Israel studies, and Middle East affairs address the theme of continuity and change in political culture as a tribute to Professor Myron (Mike) J. Aronoff whose work on political culture has built conceptual and methodological bridges between political science and anthropology. Topics include the legitimacy of the two-state solution, identity and memory, denationalization, the role of trust in peace negotiations, democracy, majority-minority relations, inclusion and exclusion, Biblical and national narratives, art in public space, and avant-garde theater. Countries covered include Israel, Palestine, the United States, the Basque Autonomous Region of Spain, and Poland. The first four chapters by Yael S. Aronoff, Saliba Sarsar, Yossi Beilin, and Nadav Shelef examine aspects of the conflict and peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, including alternative solutions. The contributions by Naomi Chazan, Ilan Peleg, and Joel Migdal tackle challenges to democracy in Israel, in other divided societies, and in the creation of the American public. Yael Zerubavel, Roland Vazquez, and Jan Kubik focus their analyses on aspects of national memory, memorialization, and dramatization. Mike Aronoff relates his work on various aspects of political culture to each chapter in an integrative essay in the Epilogue.