New Article: Kober, Arm Races and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Kober, Avi. “Arm Races and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.” In Arms Races in International Politics: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century (ed. Thomas Mahnken, Joseph Maiolo, and David Stevenson; Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2016): 205-23.

 

 

Extract

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the dynamic nature of the Arab-Israeli arms race, to identify the external and internal factors that have affected it, to discuss the role played by technology in this arms race, to point to the linkage between conventional and unconventional arm races in the Middle East, and to assess the connection between arms racing and the outbreak of Arab-Israeli wars.

 

 

 

New Article: Rodman, American Arms Transfers to Israel, 1962–1970

Rodman, David. “American Arms Transfers to Israel, 1962–1970: The Nuclear Weapons Dimension.” Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23739770.2015.1114769
 
Extract

The American-Israeli relationship underwent a dramatic transformation during the 1960s. From its establishment in 1948 and throughout the 1950s, Israel had largely been kept at arm’s length by the administration of Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Both feared that an intimate relationship with Israel would alienate the Arab world, and therefore threaten access to Middle Eastern oil, as well as encourage Soviet penetration of the region. The truncated logic in formulating its Middle Eastern policy, but eventually came around to adopting a more favorable attitude toward Israel. Presidnet Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration deepened the trend begun by its predecessor. And, by the early 1970s, during the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, Israel had come to be seen as a strategic asset to the United States in its quest to contain Soviet influence in the Middle East.

 

 

 

New Book: Yacobi, Israel and Africa

Yacobi, Haim. Israel and Africa. A Genealogy of Moral Geography, Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Geography. New York: Routledge, 2015.

 

 

Through a genealogical investigation of the relationships between Israel and Africa, this book sheds light on the processes of nationalism, development and modernization, exploring Africa’s role as an instrument in the constant re-shaping of Zionism. Through looking at “Israel in Africa” as well as “Africa in Israel”, it provides insightful analysis on the demarcation of Israel’s ethnic boundaries and identity formation as well as proposing the different practices, from architectural influences to the arms trade, that have formed the geopolitical concept of “Africa”. It is through these practices that Israel reproduces its internal racial and ethnic boundaries and spaces, contributing to its geographical imagination as detached not solely from the Middle East but also from its African connections.

This book would be of interest to students and scholars of Middle East and Jewish Studies, as well as Post-colonial Studies, Geography and Architectural History.

 

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Family Album

Part One: Israel in Africa
Chapter 1: Africa’s Decade
Chapter 2: The Architecture of Foreign Policy

Part Two: Africa in Israel
Chapter 3: Consuming, Reading, Imagining
Chapter 4: North Africa in Israel
Chapter 5: The Racialization of Space

Part Three: Israel in Africa II
Chapter 6: Back to Africa

Conclusion

Haim Yacobi is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

 

 

New Article: Bensimon, Aggressive Situational Cues Among Israeli Security Personnel

Bensimon, Moshe. “Aggressive Situational Cues Among Israeli Security Personnel.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 30.8 (2015): 1403-16.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260514540331

 

Abstract

The present study enriches our knowledge on the relationship between security personnel and situational cues that may provoke aggression, such as arms and uniforms. The study examined 259 security personnel who completed an aggression questionnaire (AGQ). The study aimed (a) to compare the tendency toward aggression of security personnel who carry or do not carry arms and/or wear a uniform and (b) to compare the tendency toward aggression of men and women security personnel who carry or do not carry arms and/or wear a uniform. The findings indicated no main effect for aggression cueing classification. However, uniformed men had higher scores of physical aggression than women, and women scored significantly higher on anger than men when not carrying any aggressive cues. The findings also revealed that in general, men security personnel reported much higher physical aggression than women, while women showed slightly higher means of verbal aggression than men. The findings are discussed in light of the gender theory and research.

Cite: Penkower, Jabotinsky, Bergson, and the Campaign for a Jewish Army

Penkower, Monty Noam. "Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, Hillel Kook-Peter Bergson, and the Campaign for a Jewish Army.” Modern Judaism 31.3 (2011): 332-374.

URL: http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/3/272.short

Abstract

On the morning of September 20, 1923, the Jewish Day of Atonement, a small ship was approaching the port town of Jaffa on the shore of Palestine. The ship, which had sailed from Alexandria, carried on its deck two young German-Jewish scholars who were to become—each in his own field—renowned personalities in the history of Jewish Studies in the 20th century. The first, the orientalist Shlomo Dov Goitein, continued sailing with the ship until its next station—the port of Haifa. The second, Gershom Scholem, who was welcomed on shore by his fiancé Escha Burchhardt, disembarked from the ship and arrived for the first time, as a Zionist, at his destination, where he stayed for the rest of his life. In his memoir Scholem describes the process of adaptation and integration in the new land as an easy one from the personal, social, and ideological point of view.¹ Nonetheless, on many occasions, he expressed discontentment with the local Jewish life, complaining about the cultural and political situation in Jerusalem.² The reasons for this discontent varied but they were mainly connected to the political developments in Palestine, to the direction that the Yishuv took, and to the dramatic events in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. This article concentrates on three important moments in the history of Zionism as well as in Scholem’s private life: first, the riots of 1929 and their aftermath; second, the realization of the destruction of European Jewry by the Yishuv in Palestine in 1943; and third, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Each of these events represents a turning point for the Jewish collective, as well as a turning point for Scholem as a private person on the way in the process of fulfilling his Zionist utopia.

ToC: Israel Affairs 17.4 (2011)

The online platform for Taylor & Francis Group content Israel Affairs, Vol. 17, No. 4, 01 Oct 2011 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Original Articles British arms sales to Israel: exercising the Foreign Office veto, 1950–56 Neill Lochery Pages: 487-503 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603517 On the complexities of modern Jewish identity: contemporary Jews against Israel Evyatar Friesel Pages: 504-519 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.615185 Politics and principle at the UN Human Rights Commission and Council (1992–2008) Steven Seligman Pages: 520-541 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603519 Sefrou and Baghdad Dan Urian Pages: 542-562 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603520 Between ethnic and civic: the realistic Utopia of Zionism Yitzhak Conforti Pages: 563-582 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603521 Changes in Likud Party organization as an outcome of electoral victory in 1988 and electoral defeat in 1992: an Israeli case study Yaffa Moshkovich Pages: 583-603 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603522 The first Hebrew ‘gymnasiums’ in Israel: social education as the bridge between ideological gaps in shaping the image of the desirable high school graduate (1906–48) Nirit Reichel Pages: 604-620 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603523 Public attitudes towards the welfare state and public policy: the Israeli experience Nissim Cohen, Shlomo Mizrahi & Fany Yuval Pages: 621-643 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603525 Review Essay Appropriating the Holocaust Bernard Harrison Pages: 644-650 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603526 Book Reviews Book Reviews David Rodman Pages: 651-663 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603527 Book Review: From empathy to denial: Arab responses to the Holocaust Howard A. Patten Pages: 663-665 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.603528 Miscellany Editorial Board, Volume 17, 2011 Pages: ebi-ebi DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.630565 Taylor & Francis, an Informa business. Taylor & Francis is a trading name of Informa UK Limited, registered in England under no. 1072954. Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London, W1T 3JH.