ToC: Israel Studies Review 31.2 (2016)

Israel Studies Review 31.2 (2016)

Table of Contents

Articles

• The Puzzle of The University on Air: A Story of Media and Academia in Israel, 1977–2013 / Hagai Boas and Ayelet Baram-Tsabari (1–21)
• Menachem Begin’s World Travels in the 1950s: A Road to Political Legitimacy / Ofira Gruweis-Kovalsky (22–40)
• The New Economic Policy of 1962: How Israeli Economists Almost Changed the Israeli Economy / Ronen Mandelkern (41–60)
• War and Memory: The Israeli Communist Commemoration of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1986 / Amir Locker-Biletzki (61–79)
• Israel Goes to the Polls: The Road to Elections for the Constituent Assembly, 1948–1949 / Meir Chazan (80–100)
• Westernization and Israelization within Israel’s Extreme Orthodox Haredi Society / Menachem Keren-Kratz (101–129)
• Turkish-Israeli Relations during the Cold War: The Myth of a Long ‘Special Relationship’ / Kilic Bugra Kanat (130–149)

Reviews

• Uri Ram, The Return of Martin Buber: National and Social Thought in Israel from Buber to the Neo-Buberians [in Hebrew].
• Christopher L. Schilling, Emotional State Theory: Friendship and Fear in Israeli Foreign Policy.
• Marwan Darweish and Andrew Rigby, Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance.
• Erella Grassiani, Soldiering under Occupation: Processes of Numbing among Israeli Soldiers in the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
• Assaf Meydani, The Anatomy of Human Rights in Israel: Constitutional Rhetoric and State Practice.
• Yael Raviv, Falafel Nation: Cuisine and the Making of National Identity in Israel.

Thesis: France, Netanyahu’s Polarizing Leadership

France, Alexander A. Toward an Understanding of Polarizing Leadership: An Operational Code Analysis of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, BA honors Thesis. Ohio University, 2016.

 

URL: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=ouhonors1461283894&disposition=inline (PDF)

 

Abstract

This analysis of Benjamin Netanyahu compiles a vast amount of information about his operational code. The overarching conclusion drawn was that,as a general theme, he is indeed hawkish and shows realist characteristics. However, there is a large amount of nuance in his decision making and world view described and revealed in qualitative analysis. Case studies showed that Netanyahu’s discourse about both Iran and Palestine has changed somewhat over time, but that his general tendencies and feelings seem to have not. Also, and perhaps most intriguingly, it was discovered that Netanyahu’s professed operational code disguises much of his nature. In his speaking, and to a lesser extent in his social media, Netanyahu manages to portray himself and his strategies as pursuant to peace. In 162reality, they may bring order and quiet, but are not likely to create sustainable peace. This characteristic is particularly interesting, as it may relate to the appeal of polarizing leadership in general. Perhaps it resonates with a constituency to hold up high ideals, but deny their possibility, thus leading followers to accept a more rational—maybe better read as “conflictual”— approach. It is possible that Netanyahu really does wish to have peace, but feels that only order and quiet are attainable. This would fit his realist tendencies as well as some of the conflicts within his own operational code. Knowing this for sure may be outside of the realm of what can be achieved by observing a politician from a distance, however, functionally speaking, this study can confirm that power is the main language that Netanyahu seems to understand.

 

 

 

New Book: Natanel, Sustaining Conflict

Natanel, Katherine. Sustaining Conflict. Apathy and Domination in Israel-Palestine. Oakland: University of California Press, 2016.

 

 

Sustaining Conflict develops a groundbreaking theory of political apathy, using a combination of ethnographic material, narrative, and political, cultural, and feminist theory. It examines how the status quo is maintained in Israel-Palestine, even by the activities of Jewish Israelis who are working against the occupation of Palestinian territories. The book shows how hierarchies and fault lines in Israeli politics lead to fragmentation, and how even oppositional power becomes routine over time. Most importantly, the book exposes how the occupation is sustained through a carefully crafted system that allows sympathetic Israelis to “knowingly not know,” further disconnecting them from the plight of Palestinians. While focusing on Israel, this is a book that has lessons for how any authoritarian regime is sustained through apathy.

 

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 The Everyday of Occupation
• 2 Bordered Communities
• 3 Normalcy, Ruptured and Repaired
• 4 Embedded (In)action
• 5 Protesting Politics
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

 

KATHERINE NATANEL is a Lecturer in Gender Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.

Lecture: Sabbagh-Khoury, Zionist Left and the Nakbah, 1936-56 (NYU, April 11, 2016)

Areej Sabbagh-Khoury

Meyers-Taub Postdoctoral Fellow (NYU) / Fulbright Scholar

“The Zionist Left, Settler-Colonial Practices and the Nakba in Marj Ibn ‘Amer (Jezreel Valley), 1936 – 1956.”

April 11, 2016 @ 6pm
14A Washington Mews, 1st Floor

CFP: AJS 2016, “Socio-Political Boundaries in the Yishuv”

I am seeking participants and papers for a panel on social, political, and cultural boundaries and boundary making in the Zionist Yishuv.  This could include work on the analysis, perception, depiction, destruction or creation of boundaries in the areas of political policy, language, labor organization, religion, art, literature, or other areas.  The panel will focus on the basis and strength of boundaries as indicators of socio-political goals, values, and challenges in this period and their ramifications for future periods. The goal of this panel is to foster conversation and connections on the latest research in Israel Studies on the pre-state period.

Please contact me at aemarino@ucdavis.edu if you are interested in presenting a paper or serving as a chair or respondent.  I am open to revising the panel proposal to fit more closely with participants’ interests.  Since I am a graduate student this panel needs at least one presenter who is a faculty, so faculty proposals are especially welcome.  Thanks in advance.

Postdoc: Research Associate in Religion and Violence in the MidEast (Princeton, 2016-7)

The Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia invites applications for a postdoctoral or more senior researcher related to the theme of Religion and Violence in the Middle East. Applicants can be from the disciplines of history, law, politics, literature, as well as Islamic studies. The appointment will be for the year, September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2017, with the possibility of renewal, subject to satisfactory performance and continued funding. Assuming approval by the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Dean of the Faculty, the researcher will be expected to teach a one-semester undergraduate course, which may be open to graduate students. Candidates must hold the Ph.D. degree and are expected to pursue independent research at Princeton and to participate in Institute-related activities on campus. Travel assistance of up to $1000 for round-trip, economy-class airfare will be available to the appointee and her or his immediate family. The salary, to be approved by the Department and the Dean of the Faculty, will be based on the successful candidate’s qualifications. This position is subject to the University’s background check policy.Interested applicants must apply online at https://jobs.princeton.edu and submit a current curriculum vitae, a research statement (maximum length 2 pages), a cover letter, and contact information for three references. The deadline for application is March 31, 2016, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Essential Qualifications: Candidates must hold the Ph.D. degree and are expected to pursue independent research at Princeton and to participate in Institute-related activities on campus.

Click here to apply.

New Book: Bekerman, The Promise of Integrated Multicultural and Bilingual Education

Bekerman, Zvi. The Promise of Integrated Multicultural and Bilingual Education. Inclusive Palestinian-Arab and Jewish Schools in Israel. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

 

 

The Promise of Integrated and Multicultural Bilingual Education presents the results of a long-term ethnographic study of the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel that offer a new educational option to two groups of Israelis–Palestinians and Jews–who have been in conflict for the last one hundred years. Their goal is to create egalitarian bilingual multicultural environments to facilitate the growth of youth who can acknowledge and respect “others” while maintaining loyalty to their respective cultural traditions. In this book, Bekerman reveals the complex school practices implemented while negotiating identity and culture in contexts of enduring conflict. Data gathered from interviews with teachers, students, parents, and state officials are presented and analyzed to explore the potential and limitations of peace education given the cultural resources, ethnic-religious affiliations, political beliefs, and historical narratives of the various interactants. The book concludes with critique of Western positivist paradigmatic perspectives that currently guide peace education, maintaining that one of the primary weaknesses of current bilingual and multicultural approaches to peace education is their failure to account for the primacy of the political framework of the nation state and the psychologized educational perspectives that guide their educational work. Change, it is argued, will only occur after these perspectives are abandoned, which entails critically reviewing present understandings of the individual, of identity and culture, and of the learning process.

 
Table of contents

• Introduction
• Part 1
• 1. Positioning the Author
• 2. Theoretical Perspectives
• 3. Methodology: From Theory to Implementation
• 4. Schools in Their Contexts
• Part 2
• 5. The Parents
• 6. Teachers at Their Work
• 7. The Children
• Part 3
• 8. School Routines: Culture, Religion, and Politics in the Classroom
• 9. Ceremonial Events
• 10. Conflicting National Narratives
• Part 4
• 11. The Graduates
• 12. Conclusions
• Author Index
• Subject Index

 

ZVI BEKERMAN teaches anthropology of education at the School of Education and The Melton Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main interests are in the study of cultural, ethnic, and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in formal/informal learning contexts. He is particularly interested in how concepts such as culture and identity intersect with issues of social justice, intercultural and peace education, and citizenship education.

 

 

 

New Article: Betzer-Tayar et al, Barriers to Women’s Access to Decision-Making Positions in Sport Organizations

Betzer-Tayar, Moran, Sima Zach, Yair Galily, and Ian Henry. “Barriers to Women’s Access to Decision-Making Positions in Sport Organizations: The Case of Establishing a Girls’ Volleyball Academy in Israel.” Journal of Gender Studies (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2015.1111835

 

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight the nature of the barriers facing women in terms of their participation in decision-making in Israeli sport, and to identify and evaluate some of the strategies and tactics adopted to overcome these barriers. This is done by making reference to a particular case study, the case of the process of establishing a major policy initiative in Israeli sport – the founding of the national Volleyball Academy for Young Talented Girls. The case is analyzed in order to identify how and why the goal of establishing the Academy was successful, and to consider what may be learned in terms of the implications for the tactics and strategies used that might be adopted by other women in similar circumstances.

 

 

 

New Article: Edrei, Identity, Politics and Halakhah in Modern Israel

Edrei, Arye. “Identity, Politics and Halakhah in Modern Israel.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 14.1 (2015): 109-25.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725886.2015.1007608

 

Abstract

The fierce debate over conversion to Judaism raging in Israel today has been fuelled by the Israeli Law of Return and the resulting immigration of large numbers of non-Jews to Israel from the Soviet Union. It has precedents, however, in earlier rabbinic literature. This paper traces the conversion debate from its Talmudic origins, through the nineteenth century halakhic polemic, to the present day. It demonstrates how the processes of secularization and nationalism that have affected the Jewish community have impacted on a changing balance in the roles of religion and nationalism in the definition of “who is a Jew” and “who is a convert?” It also shows how halakhic rulings are affected by social changes and how the ideologies of halakhic authorities impact their decisions.

New Book: Shiff, The Downfall of Abba Hillel Silver

Shiff, Ofer. The Downfall of Abba Hillel Silver and the Foundation of Israel. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2014.

 

URL: http://syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/spring-2014/downfall-abba-hillel-silver.html

 

In early February 1949, American Jewry’s most popular and powerful leader, Abba Hillel Silver (1893–1963), had summarily resigned from all his official positions within the Zionist movement and had left New York for Cleveland, returning to his post as a Reform rabbi. In the immediate years prior to his resignation, during the second half of the 1940s, Silver was the most outspoken proponent of the founding of a sovereign Jewish state. He was the most instrumental American Jewish leader in the political struggle that led to the foundation of the State of Israel. Paradoxically, this historic victory also heralded Silver’s personal defeat.

Soon after Israel’s declaration of independence, he and many of his American Zionist colleagues were relegated to the sidelines of the Zionist movement. Almost overnight the most influential leader—one who was admired and feared by both supporters and opponents—was stripped of his power within both the Zionist and the American Jewish arenas.

Shiff’s book discerns the various aspects of the striking turnabout in Silver’s political fate, describing both the personal tragic story of a leader who was defeated by his own victory and the much broader intra-Zionist battle that erupted in full force immediately after the founding of Israel. Drawing extensively on Silver’s personal archival material, Shiff presents an enlightening portrait of a critical episode in Jewish history. This book is highly relevant for anyone who attempts to understand the complex homeland-diaspora relations between Israel and American Jewry.

Reviews: Allen, The Rise and Fall of Human Rights

Allen, Lori. The Rise and Fall of Human Rights. Cynicism and Politics in Occupied Palestine, Stanford Studies in Human Rights. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013.

 

 

Reviews:

• Wright, Fiona. “Review.” Journal of Legal Anthropology 1.3 (2013): 396-398.
• Seidel, Timothy. “Review” H-Net Reviews, February 2014.
• Barbosa, Gustavo. “Review.” Critique of Anthropology 34.3 (2014): 372-374.
• Hurwitz, Deena R. “Review.” Middle East Journal 68.1 (2014): 173-175.
• Kelly, Tobias. “Review.” Allegra – A Virtual Lab of Legal Anthropology, August 11, 2014.
• Smith, Charles D. “Review.” American Historical Review 119.4 (2014): 1399-1400.
• Baruch, Pnina Sharvit. “Review.” Middle Eastern Studies 50.4 (2014): 679-682.
• Hajjar, Lisa. “Review.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 47.1 (2015): 175-176.

New Article: Szekely, Understanding Hamas’s Social Services as Political Advertising

Szekely, Ora. “Doing Well by Doing Good: Understanding Hamas’s Social Services as Political Advertising.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (online first; early view)

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2014.995565

 

Abstract

Like many nonstate military actors, Hamas has long provided social services to its constituents, but the mechanism by which charity leads to increased public support is poorly understood. This article argues that providing charity benefits nonstate actors not because it isolates recipients or acts as a bribe but because it allows organizations like Hamas to overcome the legacies of their own military activities and extremist ideologies. Service provision allows them to demonstrate that they are not merely soldiers or ideologues, but capable bureaucrats and managers as well.

New Book: Friedman-Peleg, A Nation on the Couch. The Politics of Trauma in Israel (in Hebrew)

פרידמן-פלג, קרן. העם על הספה. הפוליטיקה של הטראומה בישראל, ספריית אשכולות. ירושלים: מאגנס, 2014.

 

 

URL: http://www.magnespress.co.il/

 

Abstract

This book is an invitation to observe the practice of one of the most dominant communities in Israel, and yet one of its most closed ones: the therapeutic community. Through a four-year anthropological field work (2004-2008) among two of the most prominent associations in Israel – Natal (“Israel’s Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War”) and the “Israel Trauma Coalition” – the chapters of this book trace the inevitable intersection between professional questions of clinical diagnosis, treatment and prevention of PTSD in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict with political question of group identity and power relations: what differences exist between therapists on the meaning of traumatic experiences and its moral boundaries? What consensus is reached regarding practices of aid and funds allocation, and what is the connection between it and the questions of group identity; including political, ethnic, and social class aspects?

This ethnographic journey will shed light on the development of politics around the therapeutic practice of trauma in two sequential instances: (1) the institutional instance will address the establishment of a new therapeutic home, through the extraordinary juncture of therapists, donors and advertisers; (2) the professional instance will present the branching of four circles of therapeutic occupation of trauma: the “clinical core” among soldiers; the practice of the tense relationship between “primary” trauma of a man and the “secondary” trauma of a woman, his spouse; the growing distance from the “clinical mothership,” for the sake of intervention among “risk groups” from Be’er-Sheva in the South to Daliyat al-Karmel in the north; and the emphasis on the prevention of trauma, through activities such as “strength and immunity” in Sderot. These examinations will demonstrate how the therapeutic practice is far from representing a single objective reality with a clear professional truth. Instead, it will reveal the existence of a polyphonic and multi-participant network of reciprocities surrounding the therapeutic practice of trauma, between various social locations and diverse worldviews.

Dissertation: El-Dandarawy, Evaluating the nature of civil military relations in Israel

El-Dandarawy, Obaida A. Evaluating the nature of civil military relations in Israel. Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 2010.

 

URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/861744285

 

Abstract

Noting the unique case study that Israel presents, the following dissertation aims at answering the central research question of whether or not civil military relations in the Israeli state are consistent with that of a liberal-democratic model as Israel is self-described, and whether or not that relationship has changed or evolved over time. The hypothesis adopted at the outset is that civil military dynamics in Israel are not consistent with those of traditional liberal democracies and that Israel’s security concerns, and its particular societal make up has ensured a certain preeminence of the military in politics that goes beyond what would be acceptable in classic liberal democratic models. A two pronged literature review is utilized; the first focusing on civil military relations in general, and the second on Israel specifically. Through the first review a spectrum of civil military relations was plotted and a set of criteria established through which to assess the data collected. The second review provided the necessary understanding and contextual framework within which to evaluate the data on civil military relations taking into account that larger picture of Israeli politics. Three time periods are discussed (1948-1967, 1968-1981, 1982-Present) and researched using the above framework and a particular focus is given to a critical event that occurred within each of the three time periods (1967 War, 1973 War, 1982 Invasion respectively). The final chapter contains the conclusions reached which reaffirm that civil-military relations in Israel are still very much a work in progress.

Subject: Middle Eastern Studies; International Relations; Military studies

Classification: 0555: Middle Eastern Studies; 0601: International Relations; 0750: Military studies

Identifier / keyword: Social sciences, 1967 war, 1973 war, 1982 Lebanon invasion, Civil-military relations, Egypt, Israel

Number of pages: 428

Publication year: 2010

Degree date: 2010

School code: 0930

Source: DAI-A 72/06, Dec 2011

Place of publication: Ann Arbor

Country of publication: United States

ISBN: 9781124556093

Advisor: Shultz, Richard

Committee member: Fawaz, Leila, Hess, Andrew

University/institution: Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University)

Department: Diplomacy, History, and Politics

University location: United States — Massachusetts

Degree: Ph.D.

Source type: Dissertations & Theses

Language: English

Document type: Dissertation/Thesis

Dissertation/thesis number: 3449123

ProQuest document ID: 861744285

New Article: Harris, Palestinian, Druze, and Jewish Women in Recent Israeli Cinema on the Conflict

Harris, Rachel S. “Parallel Lives: Palestinian, Druze, and Jewish Women in Recent Israeli Cinema on the Conflict: Free Zone, Syrian Bride, and Lemon Tree.” Shofar 32.1 (2013): 79-102.

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v032/32.1.harris.html

Abstract

Free Zone (Amos Gitai, 2005); The Lemon Tree (Eran Riklis, 2008) and Syrian Bride (Eran Riklis, 2004), explore the Arab-Israeli conflict through women’s experience of the political and military stalemate. In presenting Palestinian, Druze, and Israeli women, these filmmakers attempt to contrast and compare women’s shared encounters, including their experience of patriarchy. While the characters may come from diametrically opposed sides, their experiences as women occlude their political differences. In these films, women are foregrounded within the plot, and have agency over their actions if not their situations. Rejecting the masculine frame that has governed representations of the conflict, these filmmakers demonstrate a new kind of approach in Israeli film that considers feminist aesthetics in the construction of character and plot, as well as the treatment of women’s physicality, gaze, territoriality, and agency.

New Article: Ben-Ze’ev, Civil Associations in Mandatory Haifa

Ben-Ze’ev, Na’ama. “Civil Associations in Mandatory Haifa: A New Perspective on Palestinian-Arab Political Life.” Middle Eastern Studies 49.6 (2013): 958-972.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00263206.2013.836498

 

Abstract

The article explores the potential of local civil associations for the study of power relations within Palestinian society during the Mandate. It argues that civil associations substituted political institutions and procedures serving functions that, in a sovereign state, would have been fulfilled by governmental authorities. Civil society organizations enabled democratic elections, mobilizing popular support and the establishment of hegemonic structures. The discussion begins with a survey of organizations that may have inspired Palestinian civil associations, and then considers the rise of mass politics in Ottoman provinces and its consequences for civil associations. By examining two Arab civil associations established in Haifa during the British Mandate, the article shows how this framework served the political aspirations of individuals and groups from various social strata.

Announcement: Schusterman Graduate Student Fellowships in Israel Studies 2014-15

Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University offers full and partial fellowships for doctoral candidates focusing on Israel Studies. Eligible disciplines include History, Politics, Sociology, Middle East Studies, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and Literature. Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis to students accepted into the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Brandeis University.Stipend up to $24,000 per year, renewable for up to five years, plus healthcare benefits. Join an engaged, diverse & multidisciplinary intellectual community.

Learn more here: www.brandeis.edu/israelcenter/support/gradStudent.html

Cite: Ben-Shitrit, Women Activists in Shas and the Islamic Movement

Ben Shitrit, Lihi. “Women, Freedom, and Agency in Religious Political Movements: Reflections from Women Activists in Shas and the Islamic Movement in Israel.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 9.3 (2013): 81-107.

URL: muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_middle_east_womens_studies/v009/9.3.shitrit.html

 

Abstract

Women’s activism in conservative religious-political movements poses a
challenge to liberal feminism. Why do women participate in great numbers
in political organizations that seem to limit women’s freedom and
equality? My work with women activists in the Islamic Movement and the
Jewish ultra-Orthodox Shas Movement in Israel, both explicitly
patriarchal religious revivalist groups similar to other movements
across the Middle East, finds that these movements offer women powerful
liberatory narratives. This paper takes issue with recent arguments that
suggest that pious women experience agency in acts of submission rather
than in resistance and that the association of agency with emancipatory
desire and action is an expression of a patently Western tradition that
celebrates the fiction of the autonomous individual. I find that women
activists’ interpretations of agency in piety practices are highly
invested in the idea of the autonomous individual. The validity of
practices, according to activists, rests on the choice and consciousness
of the individual and on the rejection of submission to social norms.
Furthermore, when we take into account the various class and cultural
contexts of Middle Eastern women’s piety practices and activism, we find
that for many women religious movements offer real liberation from
oppressive socio-economic realities and limiting cultural norms.

Reviews: Kanaaneh and Nusair, eds. Displaced at Home

Kanaaneh, Rhoda Ann and Isis Nusair, eds. Displaced at Home. Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 2010.

Reviews

• Sa’ar, Amalia. “Review.” Review of Middle East Studies 45.1 (2011): 113-115.
• Bachal, Lauren, et al. “Review.” Contemporary Sociology 40.5 (2011): 639-40.
• Gluck, Sherna Berger. “New Directions in Palestinian Oral History.” Oral History Review 39.1 (2012): 100-111.
• Vivier, Elmé. “Review.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 13.3 (2012): 203-207.
• Arar, Khalid. “Review.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 40.2 (2013): 227-30.

.

Cite: Tepe, Democratic Challenges of Political Fragmentation in Israel and Turkey

Tepe, Sultan. “The Perils of Polarization and Religious Parties: The Democratic Challenges of Political Fragmentation in Israel and Turkey.” Democratization 20.5 (2013): 831-56.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13510347.2013.801254

Abstract

With their “deeply divided societies”, distinctive electoral rules and pivotal religious parties, Israeli and Turkish politics offer crucial cases to probe into “polarization” processes and the ways in which religious parties play a role in them. Using a large sample of public opinion and experimental survey data, the analysis shows how polarization can be marked by some contravening trends. Despite declining social trust, religious party supporters do not denounce any institutions categorically; yet disregard some opposing parties as viable political alternatives. The political positions of religious partisans differ from their party leadership. Supporters assign different levels of significance to polarizing issues and carry the potential of forming issue-based coalitions across different ideological groups. Although they acquire news and political information from different venues, most partisans tend to process factual information through partisan lenses, reinforcing partisan ideological commitments. While religious party supporters increasingly reject the existing markers of politics and show signs of political apathy, they do not withdraw from politics. With their multifaceted commitments, religious party supporters do not fall into mutually exclusive political groups. Given the tendency of the political elite to exacerbate divisions for political expediency, it is ultimately the ability of individuals to engage in politics beyond the confines of party politics that presents an escape from these polarization traps.