From Slumber to Awakening: Culture and Identity of Arab Israeli Literati (review)

182 SHOFAR Winter 2001 Vol. 19, No.2 so confident that the weapons that they built (said by some to amount to a substantial number) would work? Even more interesting are some of the critical questions that Cohen does address. One set has to do with using the knowledge that he has gained about nuclear weapons to help to explain specific events in Israel's history. For example, was fear that the Egyptians might bomb Dimona a factor in Eshkol's decision to preempt on June 5, 1967? In general, the relationship ofnuclear issues to the outbreak ofthe Six Day War was first raised by Shlomo Aronson several years ago. Cohen cites evidence that Egypt was thinking about bombing the reactor before the war began. Moreover, Nasser sent two flights over Dimona on May 17, 1967, which may have contributed to the Israeli decision to take out the Egyptian air force in a surprise attack. Cohen also claims that Israel assembled its first two operational nuclear weapons on the eve ofthe war, just in case. Another speculation suggested by Cohen is that Ben-Gurion's abrupt resignation in 1963 was prompted in part by his discomfort with the escalating deception regarding Dimona that he had to direct at President Kennedy. The other group of questions is more theoretical. Conventional wisdom is that Israel's nuclearbombs represent a deterrent that discourages its enemies from launching attacks that could jeopardize the very existence of the state. Most nuclear deterrence theory is derived from the u.S.-Soviet experience, but Cohen perceptively wonders whether facile comparisons are relevant. Under what circumstances might Israel even consider using its nuclear weapons? Are they in any way a substitute for conventional forces? If not, do their costs require that resources be shifted away from the kinds of weapons that the IDF might actually use? Cohen has told a story that, even though based extensively on archival material, reads like a thriller. But more important, he has highlighted some of the key issues facing Israeli strategists and policy makers during the past 40 years and enabled us to understand the security environment in which they have had to make so many fateful decisions. Harold M. Waller Department of Political Science McGill University From Slumber to Awakening: Culture and Identity of Arab Israeli Literati, by Mishae1 Maswari Caspi and Jerome David Weltch. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998. 257 pp. $37.50. This study focuses on the Israeli-Arab literary and cultural scene. The subject is so rife with contest that even the term "Arab-Israeli" arouses contention. This book, by Caspi and WeItch, wrestles with basic issues of identity and its expression in literature. The authors are careful in their attempt to charter and codify the territory they have chosen to address. This study begins with a preface and introduction which gives the reader a Book Reviews 183 background to the history of the area as well as the European presence in the Middle East. What emerges as the focal point is the emergence of the State of Israel in 1948. Statehood changed the face of the Middle East and its character. The trauma to the traditional Arab society is clearly stated. The study finds in literature from the Arab quarter one of its major markers. The lack ofacademic work in the area has enabled the authors to base part oftheir study on personal interviews. Ultimately personal and collective cultural identities are at the heart ofthese discussions. Centering on the collective identity, the authors follow Benedict Anderson's dictum of a nation as "an imagined political community." Following the assertion that the Israeli-Arab is a national minority, the study attempts to follow creative literary work as a reflection of the ethos of~e group. The problems facing Palestinian writers is well expressed in the words of Palestinian poet Salma Khadra Jayyusi: For the writer to contemplate an orientation completely divorced from political life is to belie reality, to deny experience; for to engross oneself for too long in "normal" everyday experiences is to betray one's own life and one's own people. This means that Palestinian writers have little scope for indulging in escapism...