ToC: Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 9,1 (2015)

Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, in its first publication with Routledge, is pleased to announce a new issue:

 

From the Editor

Dr. Laurence Weinbaum, Chief Editor

pages 1-2

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1019215

Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” in Europe: From Controversial Theory to Grim Reality

Oded Eran

pages 3-6

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1015093

 

Israel  Affairs

Israel’s National Security: Challenges and Assets

Dan Schueftan

pages 7-28

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1015300

The Delegitimization of Israel: Diplomatic Warfare, Sanctions, and Lawfare

Matthew S. Cohen & Charles D. Freilich

pages 29-48

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1015095

Middle Eastern Currents

Cracks in the Crescent: The Looming Sectarian Clash between Khilafah and Imamah

Dimitar Mihaylov

pages 49-61

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1003455

Iran and the Arab Gulf States: Change amidst Continuity

Yoel Guzansky

pages 63-74

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1006432

Bilateral Relations

Israel and Cuba: A New Beginning?

Margalit Bejarano

pages 75-85

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1005450

Reflections on Czech–Israeli Relations in Light of EU Policies

Lubomír Zaorálek

pages 87-89

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1015094

Jewish Affairs

Holocaust Restitution: The End Game II?

Aharon Mor

pages 91-97

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1004610

Reviews

The Journey to the Arab Spring: The Ideological Roots of the Middle East Upheaval in Arab Liberal Thought, by David Govrin

Nir Boms, Research Fellow

pages 99-102

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1008958

Egyptian Foreign Policy from Mubarak to Morsi: Against the National Interest, by Nael M. Shama

Terry Newman

pages 103-106

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1002062

The Next War between Israel and Egypt: Examining a High-intensity War between two of the Strongest Militaries in the Middle East, by Ehud Eilam

David Rodman

pages 107-108

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.994327

Iranian Foreign Policy during Ahmadinejad: Ideology and Actions, by Maaike Warnaar & Iranian Foreign Policy since 2001: Alone in the World, edited by Thomas Juneau and Sam Razavi

Aryeh Levin

pages 109-115

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1004795

The Hague Odyssey: Israel’s Struggle for Security on the Front Lines of Terrorism and Her Battle for Justice at the United Nations, by Richard D. Heiderman

Howard M. Weisband

pages 117-121

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2014.996968

Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community, by Keith Kahn-Harris

Robbie Sabel

pages 123-126

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.998004

Britain’s Moment in Palestine: Retrospect and Perspectives, 1917–48, by Michael J. Cohen

Aharon Klieman

pages 127-131

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.996840

Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, by Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz

Matthias Küntzel

pages 133-137

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1003360

Diary of a Foreign Minister, by Bob Carr

Jeremy Jones

pages 139-142

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1000563

Jews and the Military: A History, by Derek J. Penslar

Stephen G. Fritz

pages 143-145

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.994330

Armed Political Organizations: From Conflict to Integration, by Benedetta Berti

Rashmi Singh, Lecturer

pages 147-150

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.995891

Dynamics of Asymmetric Territorial Conflict: The Evolution of Patience, by Uri Resnick

Melanie Carina Schmoll

pages 151-153

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.999426

Letters

Letters by Daphna Sharfman, Simon Geissbühler, and Yisrael Medad

pages 155-160

DOI: 10.1080/23739770.2015.1016655

New Article: Šmok, Jewish Social Assistance Networks in Communist Czechoslovakia

Šmok, Martin. “‘Every Jew is a Zionist, and Every Zionist is a Spy!’ The Story of Jewish Social Assistance Networks in Communist Czechoslovakia.” East European Jewish Affairs 44.1 (2014): 70-83.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13501674.2014.904586

 

Abstract

This article explores some of the major operations of the Czechoslovak secret police (State Security Forces, StB) against individuals involved in organising Jewish social assistance networks during the 1950s, as documented by fragments of case files preserved in the Security Services Archive in Prague. While there is much focus on victims of the Prague show trial of the so-called “Conspiracy Centre,” all of whom were members of the top echelons of the Communist Party, the individuals who tried to revive Jewish life and secure the well-being of the needy in a country swept by anti-Jewish sentiment raked up by that trial remain largely unknown. In this work, we learn who these people were and what they did, and how the Communist regime punished them for their involvement. As an original contribution, the article details the search for safe methods of delivering humanitarian aid to Czechoslovak Holocaust survivors after the expulsion of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in 1950, from the initial attempts to use Israeli channels to the gradual legalisation of JDC aid under Swiss cover organisations.

New Article: Lichtenstein, Prague Zionists and the Paris Peace Conference

Lichtenstein, Tatjana. “Jewish Power and Powerlessness: Prague Zionists and the Paris Peace Conference.” East European Jewish Affairs 44.1 (2014): 2-20.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13501674.2014.904583

 

Abstract

This article explores how perceptions of Jewish power shaped the negotiations between Czechoslovak leaders and Jewish minority representatives at the time of the Paris Peace Conference. In the aftermath of the First World War, Prague-based Zionists embarked on a mission to convince Czechoslovak elites that attacks on Jews were detrimental to the internal stability of the new state and to Czechoslovak interests abroad. As Edvard Beneš, the head of the Czechoslovak delegation in Paris, worked to cultivate an image of the new state as more “Western” and “civilised” than other successor states – a strategy meant to garner international support for Czechoslovak territorial demands and its projected absorption of large minority populations – Jewish activists encouraged his uncertainty with regard to Jews’ influence on Western audiences and statesmen. They did so in order to convince him to accept their demands for special protection clauses for the new country’s Jews. The paper thus shows that the unprecedented victimisation of Jews and the upsurge in antisemitism during and after the war coexisted with a new bold and public Jewish activism. Yet, Jewish leaders did not in the end have the ability to convince Beneš and his colleagues to give in to international Jewish demands for special protection. Instead, they sought to cultivate a strategic alliance between the state’s Czech elite and the Jewish minority which centred on the claim that Czechoslovakia was a particularly welcoming and tolerant place for Jews, an image that would evolve into a significant component of the myth of Czechoslovakia as an island of democracy in Eastern Europe.