As taught in: Spring 2011
An Israeli flag hangs from a window on the country's 60th birthday in 2008. (Image courtesy of Johnk85 on Flickr.)
Instructors:
Dr. Ehud Eiran
MIT Course Number:
17.565
Level:
Undergraduate
Course Features
Course Description
The course provides the students a basic understanding of modern Israeli history, politics, culture and identity through lectures, discussions and projects. Among the topics to be explored are: ideational, institutional and material foundations of the state of Israel; Israeli national identity, Israeli society, economy, and foreign and security policies.
Syllabus
Course Meeting Times
Seminar: 1 session / week, 3 hours / sessionPrerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course. This course is appropriate for both undergraduate and graduate students.Learning Goals
By the end of the course, you should be able to:- Define and describe major events in the history of modern Israel
- Define and describe Israel's political system (political parties, municipal and regional administration, etc.)
- Define, describe and appraise the major analytical terms used in our course
- Integrate course data into a coherent narrative(s) of current Israeli identity(ies)
Grading
| ASSIGNMENTS | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Research paper (5-7 pages) | 40% |
| Four discussion papers (1-2 pages)/Cultural presentation | 40% |
| Short presentation on current events | 10% |
| Class participation | 10% |
Calendar
| SES # | TOPICS |
|---|---|
| 1 | Israel: An introduction |
| 2 | Zionism: Sources, variations |
| 3 | Zionist ideologies and the land of Israel |
| 4 | Nation building and immigrants |
| 5 | Settlements and the Zionist Project |
| 6 | The Arab-Israeli conflict |
| 7 | Israeli society: Cleavages |
| 8 | Israel in the West Bank and Gaza |
| 9 | Israeli identity revisited: The post Zionist challenge |
| 10 | Foreign and security policy |
| 11 | Israeli economy |
| 12 | Israeli culture |
| 13 | Israel: A comparative perspective |
Readings and Lecture Slides
Required readings for graduate students are marked with a (G).
I strongly recommend that you choose an issue you are truly interested in. For example, you can review, analyze, or explore a question you had in another field and try to apply it to the Israeli case.
Papers are due at the end of our last meeting. They should be 5-7 pages long. Please use a citation system such as the Chicago Manual:
Chicago Documentation Style
You are most welcomed to submit an earlier memo (no more than one page) describing your project, and are encouraged to discuss any questions you may have during office hours. Note that style counts. Spelling mistakes, syntax and grammar issues usually make the analysis hard to understand and should be avoided.
| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS | LECTURE SLIDES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Israel: An introduction |  Horowitz, D., and Moshe Lissak. Trouble in Utopia: The Overburdened Polity of Israel. State University of New York Press, 1989, pp. 1-31. ISBN: 9780791401149. | |
| 2 | Zionism: Sources | Shimoni, G. The Zionist Ideology. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 1995, pp. 12-51. ISBN: 9780874518337. Dowty, A. The Jewish State: A Century Later. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, pp. 34-60. ISBN: 9780520229112.Recommended Reading Stanislawski, Michael. Zionism and the Fin de Siecle. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, pp. xiii-xxi, and 1-18. (G). ISBN: 9780520227880. | (PDF) |
| 3 | Zionist ideologies and the land of Israel | Shimoni, G. The Zionist Ideology. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 1995, pp. 333-388. ISBN: 9780874518337.Recommended Reading Strenhell, Z. The Founding Myths of Israel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999, pp. 3-46. (G). ISBN: 9780691009674. Laqueur, W. A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel. New York: Schoken Books, 2003, pp. 338-384. ISBN: 9780805211498.Aran, Gideon. "From Religious Zionism to Zionist Religion: The Roots of Gush Emunim." Doctoral Dissertation, Hebrew University, 1987. | (PDF) |
| 4 | Nation building and immigration | Kimmerling, B. The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Society and the Military. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 56-89. ISBN: 9780520246720. Arian, A. Politics in Israel: The Second Republic. Washington DC: CQ Press, 2004, pp. 23-34. ISBN: 9781568029320.Recommended Reading Dowty, A. "Israel's First Decade: Building a Civic State." In Israel: The First Decade of Independence. Edited by S. Ilan Troen, and Noah Lucas. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, pp. 31-50. (G). ISBN: 9780791422601. | (PDF) |
| 5 | Settlements and the Zionist project | Troen, I. S. Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs, and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, pp. 3-14, and 62-84. ISBN: 9780300094831. Shafir, G. "Zionism and Colonialism: A Comparative Approach." In Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom. Edited by Michael N. Barnet. Albany: SUNY Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780791428320.Recommended Reading Yifatchel, O. Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, pp. 131-158. ISBN: 9780812239270.Ram, Uri. "The Colonization Perspective in Israeli Sociology: Internal and External Comparisons." Journal of Historical Sociology 6, no. 3 (2006): 327-350. (G) Aharonson, R. "Settlement in Eretz Israel, A Colonialist Enterprise? 'Critical' Scholarship and Historical Geography." Israel Studies 1, no. 2 (Fall 1996): 214-229. (G) | (PDF) |
| 6 | The Arab-Israeli conflict | Smith, C. D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Boston: St. Martin's, 2009, pp. 190-201, 264-282, 311-320, and 437-457. ISBN: 9780312535018. Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, 1948. The Palestinian National Charter, 1968. The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), 1988. Recommended Reading Bickerton, I. J. Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History. London: Reaktion Books, 2009, pp. 66-137. ISBN: 9781861895271. Rabinovich, I. Waging Peace: Israel and Arabs at the End of the Century. New-York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999, pp. 3-40. (G) ISBN: 9780374105761. Khalidi, R. The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Boston: Beacon Press, 2007, pp. 105-139. (G). ISBN: 9780807003091. | (PDF) |
| 7 | Israeli society: Cleavages | Smooha, S. "Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel: A Deeply Divided Society." In Israeli Identity in Transition. Edited by Anita Shapria. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, pp. 31-69. ISBN: 9780275976606.Recommended Reading Horowitz, Dan, and Moshe Lissak. Trouble in Utopia: The Overburdened Polity of Israel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989, pp. 32-99. (G). ISBN: 9780791401149. Grossman, D. Sleeping on a Wire: Conversations with Palestinians in Israel. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1993, pp. 80-100. ISBN: 9780312420970. Ghanem, A. The Palestinian-Arab Minority in Israel, 1948-2000: A Political Study. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001, pp. 11-27, and 36-38. (G). ISBN: 9780791449974.Cohen, Y., and Yitchak Haberfeld. "Second-Generation Jewish Immigrants in Israel: Have the Ethnic Gaps in Schooling d Earnings Declined?" Ethnic And Racial Studies 21, no. 3 (1998): 507-528. Gavison, R. "Jewish and Democratic? A Rejoinder to the 'Ethnic Democracy' Debate." Israel Studies 4, no. 1 (1999): 44-72. | |
| 8 | Israel in the West Bank and Gaza | Gordon, N. Israel's Occupation. Routledge, 2003, pp. 23-46. ISBN: 9780520255319. Sharon, A. "Why is Israel's Control in the Territories Still Called Occupation?" JCPA, 2009. (  PDF - 5.5MB)Recommended Reading Gazit, S. Trapped Fools: Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories. London: Frank Cass, 2003, pp. 241-288, and 333-341. (G). ISBN: 9780714683904.Troen, I. S. "Spearheads of the Zionist Frontier; Historical Perspectives on Post-1967 Settlement Planning in Judea and Samaria." Planning Perspectives 7 (January 1992): 81-100. (G) | (PDF) |
| 9 | Israel identity revisited: the post Zionist challenge | Silberstein, L. J. The Postzionism Debate: Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture. New York: Routledge, 1999, pp. 89-126.Recommended ReadingJudt, T. "Israel: The Alternative." New York Review of Books 50, no. 16 (October 23): 2003. (G)Wurmser, M. "Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism?" The Middle East Quarterly 6, no 1. (1999): 3-13. Morris, B. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. xii-xxii, and 473-492. ISBN: 9780521009676. Gelber, Y. Palestine 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001, pp. 1-15, and 298-302. (G). ISBN: 9781845190750. | (PDF) |
| 10 | Foreign and security policy | Inbar, E. "Israeli National Security 1973-1996." Annals of the American Academy of Political Science 555 (1998): 62-81. Neuman, D. "The Geographical and Territorial Imprint on the Security Discourse." In Security Concerns: Insights from the Israeli Experience. Edited by Daniel Bar-Tal, and D. Jacobson. Stanford: JAI Press, pp. 73-94. ISBN: 9780762304684. Freilich, C. D. "National Security Decision Making in Israel: Processes, Strengths and Pathologies." Middle East Journal 60, no. 4 (Autumn 2006): 635-663. Recommended Reading Bar Joseph, U. "Introduction. "In Israel's National Security Towards the 21st Century." London: Frank Cass, 2001, pp. 1-13. (G). ISBN: 9780714651699. Levite, E. Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Defense Doctrine. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989. (G). ISBN: 9780813307206. Maoz, Z. Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel's Security and Foreign Policy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006, pp. 3-46. ISBN: 9780472033416. | |
| 11 | Israeli economy | Zilberfarb. B. "From Socialism to Free Market — The Israeli Economy, 1948-2003." Israel Affairs 11, no. 1 (January 2005): 12–22. Shalev, Michael. "Have Globalization and Liberalization 'Normalized' Israel's Political Economy?" In Israel: Dynamics of Change and Continuity. Edited by David Levi-Faur, Gabriel Sheffer, and David Vogel. London: Frank Cass: 1999, pp. 121-155. ISBN: 9780714680620. Recommended Reading Arian, A. Politics in Israel: The Second Republic. Washington DC: CQ, 2005, pp. 48-82. (G) | |
| 12 | Israeli culture | Almog, Oz. The Sabra: The Creation of the New Jew. Berkeley: California University Press, 2000, pp. 1-22. ISBN: 9780520216426.Recommended Reading Regev, M., and Edwin Seroussi. Popular Music and National Culture in Israel. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004, pp. 1-45. (G). ISBN: 9780520236547. Smooha, S. "Is Israel Western?" In Comparing Modernities: Pluralism Versus Homogeneity; Essays in Homage to Shmuel N. Eisenstadt. Edited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael, and Yitzak Sternberng. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005. (G). ISBN: 9789004144071. | |
| 13 | Israel: A comparative perspective | Barnett, M. "The Politics of Uniqueness: The Status of the Israeli Case." In Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom. Edited by Michael Barnett. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996, pp. 3-28. ISBN: 9780791428320. Troen, I. "Frontier Myths and Their Applications in America and Israel; A Trans-National Perspective." Journal of American History Perspective 86, no. 3 (1999): 1209-1230. Recommended Reading Lustick, I. Unsettled States: Disputed Land: Britain in Ireland, France in Algeria, and Israel in the West Bank and Gaza. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993, pp. 385-438. (G). ISBN: 9780801480881.Merom G. "Israel's National Security and the Myth of Exceptionalism." Political Science Quarterly 114, no. 3 (1999): 409-434. (PDF) |
Assignments
Discussion Papers
Goal
- The discussion papers are intended to engage you with the reading, an essential part of the learning experience.
- Specifically, the papers will allow you to demonstrate in writing your command of the main arguments or data presented, your understanding of the analytical path used to substantiate them, an evaluation of arguments/data, and an ability to tie them to broader themes related to Israeli culture and history in, and outside, of the course.
Requirements
- Each student will produce four discussion papers during the semester. Each of the papers will count towards 10% of your total grade.
- Each discussion paper will be 1-2 pages, double spaced (font 12) and will be due at the class related to the readings discussed.
- An ideal paper will include:
- An accurate and succinct summary of the argument or data presented in the paper.
- An awareness of the way in which the argument was made, or data was presented.
- An evaluation of the argument/data. This could achieved through highlighting weaknesses in the argument, inconstancies in the reading or when compared to other unit, and internal tensions; and, or:
- An ability to tie the reading to other Israel related matters such as current events or other units discussed in course.
Final Research Paper
Goal
The paper is intended to deepen your understanding regarding a specific facet of Israel, through an analytical framework.I strongly recommend that you choose an issue you are truly interested in. For example, you can review, analyze, or explore a question you had in another field and try to apply it to the Israeli case.
Structure
A good paper will use an analytical framework (a puzzle, a comparison) to explain the phenomenon you are interested in and will reflect original thinking and accurate research. Structure matters. State clearly what the paper's purpose is up front, and summarize at the end how you have achieved what you intended to do. Possible frameworks could be:- Identifying and answering a specific question you are interested in, such as, "Why does Israel have many international trade agreements?"; "Why does the Israeli economy grow mostly through expansion of its high tech sector?"
- Comparing a specific facet of the Israeli experience to one in another country. Here, a good paper will to draw a conclusion (or explanation) for the variation. For example: a comparison of the Israeli immigration approach (laws, institutions) to the American approach.
- Analyzing a current event: Here you will need to explore the background for the event, and reflect on it. For example: a paper that would analyze the US-Israeli crisis over the settlements should review the reasons for the Israeli-US alliance and the different approaches Israel and the US held over the years regarding this issue.
- Writing in Political Science: A Sampling of Advice from Faculty, Marquette University
- How to Research a Political Science Paper, Queens College
- Writing Political Science Papers: Some Useful Guidelines, Queens College
Papers are due at the end of our last meeting. They should be 5-7 pages long. Please use a citation system such as the Chicago Manual:
Chicago Documentation Style
You are most welcomed to submit an earlier memo (no more than one page) describing your project, and are encouraged to discuss any questions you may have during office hours. Note that style counts. Spelling mistakes, syntax and grammar issues usually make the analysis hard to understand and should be avoided.
Related Resources
Additional Recommended Bibliography
Books
- Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt, The Transformation of Israeli Society: An Essay in Interpretation (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1985)
- Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press,1997)
- Ilan Pappe (ed.), The Israel/Palestine Question (London and New York: Routledge, 1999)
- Derek J. Penslar, Israel in History: the Jewish State in Comparative Perspective (London & New York: Routledge, 2007)
- Anita Shapira (ed.), Israeli Identity in Transition (Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2004)
- Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled, Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
- Steven J. Gold, The Israeli Diaspora (Routledge, 2002)
- Calvin Goldscheider, Israel's Changing Society: Population, Ethnicity, and Development (Boulder: Westview Press, 2002)
- Shelef, Nadav, Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Identity, and Religion in Israel, 1925-2005 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010)
Scholarly Journals
- Israel Studies
- Israel Studies Review
- Israel Affairs
- Journal of Israeli History
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Azure
Websites
Download Course Materials
This package contains the same content as the online version of the course.
For help downloading and using course materials, read our frequently asked questions.
Eiran, Ehud. 17.565 Israel: History, Politics, Culture, and Identity, Spring 2011. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu/ (Accessed 04 Jan, 2012). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
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