Peace, Beauty and Intifada: An American Jewish Political Scientist Returns to Jerusalem
Israel’s Labor Movement: What Went Wrong?
The Emerging Generation of Canadian Jewish Leaders
Interest Groups and the State in Israel
The PLO After Algiers, Stockholm and Geneva: Rhetoric and Substance
The 1989 Israeli Local Elections: What Happened?
The Beginning of Israeli Rule in Judea and Samaria
At the outbreak of the Six-Day War, I was serving as the commander of the district of Jerusalem. On the afternoon of June 7, 1967, I was riding in a half-track on the way to capture Bethlehem when I received a call on the radio to come back to Jerusalem because the Minister of Defense wanted to see me. I argued that I was in the midst of the campaign, but they repeated the message and kept insisting.
The Beginning of Israeli Rule in Judea and Samaria
The Book of Joshua as a Political Classic
The argument of this paper is that the Book of Joshua is a classic of political thought, that can be and should be read as a coherent whole, in fact, as a major statement of the classic political world view of the Bible. For political science, it is the first classic exposition of federal republicanism.1 While the themes it emphasizes are derived from the Torah itself, the Torah combines them with other elements. In Joshua, the federal republican character of the Israelite edah (lit: congregation or assembly — the biblical term for the Israelite polity) under God is the central theme.2
Ben-Gurion’s Concept of Mamlahtiut and the Forming Reality of the State of Israel
Ben-Gurion’s concept of mamlahtiut was at the center of his political ideology. It entailed not only the vision of an independent Jewish state, but primarily a set of principles
and modes of operation which he deemed essential for the formation of the state and considered highly critical for its preservation.
Interpretation of Genesis
I want to begin with the remark that I am not a biblical scholar; I am a political scientist specializing in political theory. Political theory is frequently said to be concerned with the values of the Western world. These values, as is well-known, are partly of biblical and partly of Greek origin. The political theorist must, therefore, have an inkling of the agreement as well as the disagreement between the biblical and the Greek heritage. Everyone working in my field has to rely most of the time on what biblical scholars or classical scholars tell him about the Bible on the one hand and Greek thought on the other. Still I thought it would be defensible if I were to try to see whether I could not understand something of the Bible without relying entirely on what the authorities, both contemporary and traditional, tell me.
The Language of Jewish Political Discourse
Theology is a source for political ideas and their implementation since God is described as a ruler and authorizer of social entities. The public playing out of theology is found in liturgy which not only describes political concepts but offers a dramatic means to implement them through the use of public ritual.
Keter as a Jewish Political Symbol: Origins and Implications
The use of the Hebrew term keter (lit. “crown”) to describe agencies of Jewish autonomous rule is first apparent in tanna’itic texts, and especially in Mishrtah, Avot 4:13. This article examines the reasons for that innovation, and examines the categories of rulership to which the term was applied. It is suggested that keter reflected an identifiable notion of “sovereignty” and its exercise. In early rabbinic usage, it became a vehicle which conveyed a unique view of the constitutionally correct ordering of Jewish political life.
The Themes of the Jewish Political Studies Review
The founding of the Jewish Political Studies Review marks yet an other major step in the emergence of the field which can be said to have begun twenty years ago with the publication of the first bibliographic essay on the subject in the American Jewish Yearbook. In the intervening 22 years, courses in Jewish political studies have been
introduced in over twenty universities around the world, a basic literature has been published, and some half a dozen conferences have been held to address issues in the field. Regular sessions are held at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies in Boston, and at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. An annual Workshop in the Study and Teaching of the Jewish Political Tradition, that brings together scholars from throughout the world, is entering its seventh year. At least one systematic theory has been developed to frame the field and parts of it are already being challenged by younger scholars, a sure sign of having arrived.
Learning from our Failures
Peoples as well as individuals can learn at least as much, if not more, from failures as from successes. Successes are usually just enjoyed; rarely are they analyzed to see what made them work. Failures, on the other hand, if we are aware of them (and we are not always aware of them), bring us up sharp and lead us to learn what we can do to do better next time.
