Israeli State and Society, The

Cover

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Title Page, Copyright

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pp. i-iv

Contents

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pp. v-vi

Preface

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pp. vii-ix

In planning this collection of articles, my colleagues and I sought to reassess relations between state and society in Israel from various points of view. This issue, which has been given scant attention by Israeli social scientists, has recently aroused increasing interest, both theoretical and empirical, in the international community. The more we progressed in formulating...

1: The Crystallization of the State and the Struggles Over Rulemaking: Israel in Comparative Perspective

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pp. 1-27

Much of the recent literature on the concept of the state and its role in social change has centered around the experiences of Europe. Authors such as Dyson (1980) and Badie and Birnbaum (1983) have gone so far as to rule out explicitly from their consideration "stateless societies," ones lacking a long historical and intellectual tradition of the state as an institution...

2: Before the State: Communal Politics in Palestine Under the Mandate

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pp. 28-65

There are two possible points of departure for examination of the social and political characteristics of the Jewish community in Palestine: Studies which focus on the impact of the pre-independence communal institutions on society and politics in Israel tend to emphasize the community's quasi-state characteristics (e.g. Eisenstadt, 1967; Horowitz and Lissak, 1977; Y. Shapira, 1977), whereas...

3: Citizenship, Nationality and Religion in Israel and Thailand

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pp. 66-92

The Arabs of the state of Israel number about 700,000, and constitute around one sixth of the total population of the country (within the boundaries of the "Green Line" preceding the Six-Day War of 1967). Close to 80% of them are Muslims, the rest Christians. They are ethnically, culturally and religiously part of the surrounding Arab world and of the Palestinian...

4: Jewish Organized Labor and the Palestinians: A Study of State/Society Relations in Israel

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pp. 93-133

From a comparative perspective, two of the most distinctive features of the relationship between the state and "civil society" in Israel are (1) the fuzziness of the state/society boundary, and (2) the anomalous (for a liberal democracy) status of the Arab minority. (1) In Sharkansky's (1979) terminology, the Israeli state is characterized by exceptionally wide and diffuse "margins." Lying on the margins of the...

5: Children's Perceptions of Minority Rights: Israel in a Cross-National Perspective

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pp. 134-151

A major problem facing many societies is the relation between majority and minority groups within a defined national state. Observers have noted the danger to minority groups emanating from the majority within a state (Gordon, 1975), a danger which could be greater than any coming from outside the state. Majority-minority relations have a direct bearing on the concept...

6: The Social Meaning of Alternative Systems: Some Exploratory Notes

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pp. 152-164

A major function of every social system is to ensure that the basic needs of its members, in a few major and critical areas, are met. Many modern states-including Israel-take it upon themselves to meet such needs or control the way in which they are met. It is worth our while to make a distinction at this point between a society and a state, the latter being an additional...

7: The State of Israel as a Theological Dilemma

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pp. 165-215

...Rabbi Schach's words reflect the atmosphere of spiritual uplift which pervaded most of the religious community following the military victory, the liberation of Jerusalem and the conquest of the entire Land of Israel. The renewed encounter of the Jewish People with its holy places, especially the Western Wall, Rachel's Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs,...

8: The Structure and Dilemmas of Israeli Pluralism

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pp. 216-236

The term pluralism has been used freely by various authors with different meanings and implications suggesting ideological, political, cultural or structural designations (Gordon, 1964; Kuper and Smith, 1969; Schermerhorn, 1970; Van den Berghe, 1973). In this chapter we will formulate some general definitions of pluralism in a democratic society and spell out the conditions and constraints...

9: Between "Alexandria-On-The-Hudson" and Zion

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pp. 237-264

The establishment of a sovereign Jewish State in part of Palestine in 1948 created a new configuration of forces within the Jewish people. The initial signs of this configuration had already emerged along with the political, social and economic development of the Yishuv (the pre-State Jewish community in Palestine) or even earlier, as the Jews began to encounter the modern...

10: Boundaries and Frontiers of the Israeli Control System: Analytical Conclusions

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pp. 265-284

This collection together with most recent studies and analyses of Israel by social scientists (both Israelis and non-Israelis), has raised a basic question: Can the Jewish nation-state, founded in 1948 as a civil and democratic state based on Western states' and societies' premises, still be said to exist? The problem was formulated in the Preface regarding the extent of continuity...

Contributors

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pp. 285-287

Index

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pp. 289-301