Experts tackle this difficult subject in three parts: domestic politics, foreign policy challenges, and strategic challenges. Domestic topics include the Israeli Right and Left; religious, Russian, and Arab parties; the Supreme Court; and the economy. Part two discusses Israel’s complicated and often fractious relationships with the Palestinians and the Arab world, as well as its improved relations with Turkey and India and continuing close relationship with the United States. The Israel-Hizbollah War of 2006 and existential threats to Israel, including the threat from Iran, are detailed in part three. This compelling and authoritative coverage provides students with the necessary framework to understand Israel’s political past and present, as well as the direction Israel is likely to take in the future.
Contents
1. Introduction (Robert O. Freedman)
Part One: Israeli Domestic Politics
2. The Israeli Right (Ilan Peleg)
3. The Israeli Zionist Left (Mark Rosenblum)
4. Israel’s Religious Parties (Shmuel Sander and Aaron Kampinsky)
5. Israel’s Russian Parties (Vladimir Ze’ev Khanin)
6. Israel’s Arab Parties (Hillel Frisch)
7. Israel’s Supreme Court (Pnina Lahav)
8. Israel’s Economy (Ofira Seliktar)
Part Two: Israel’s Foreign Policy Challenges
9. Israel and the Palestinians (Barry Rubin)
10. Israel and the Arab World (David Lesch)
11. Israel’s Strategic Relations with Turkey and India (Efraim Inbar)
12. Israel and the United States (Robert O. Freedman)
Part Three: Israel’s Strategic Challenges
13. Existential Threats to Israel (Steven David)
14. Israel’s Second Lebanon War (Elli Lieberman)
Robert O. Freedman is Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Baltimore Hebrew University and visiting professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University where he teaches courses on Middle Eastern politics and Russian foreign policy. He is a past president of the Association for Israel Studies and is a consultant to the US government. He is the author or editor of twenty books, among them Israel in the Begin Era, Israel Under Rabin, and Israel’s First Fifty Years.