Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century [Paperback]

Most Americans are ill-prepared to engage thoughtfully in the increasingly serious debate about Israel, its place in the Middle East, and its relations with the United States.Essential Israelexamines a wide variety of complex issues and current concerns in historical and contemporary contexts to provide readers with an intimate sense of the dynamic society and culture that is Israel today. The expert contributors to this volume address the Arab-Israeli conflict, the state of diplomatic efforts to bring about peace, Zionism and the impact of the Holocaust, the status of the Jewish state and Israeli democracy, foreign relations, immigration and Israeli identity, as well as literature, film, and the other arts. This unique and innovative volume provides solid grounding to understandings of Israel's history, politics, culture, and possibilities for the future.

Rachel Fish is Associate Director of the Schusterman Center.

S. Ilan Troen is the Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair in Israel Studies and founding Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He is founding editor ofIsrael Studies. His publications includeImagining Zion: Dreams, Designs and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlementand (with Jacob Lassner)Jews and Muslims in the Arab World: Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined.

Essential Israelsuperbly fulfills its stated missionto gather together a group of energetically written and accessible essays, based on sound scholarship, that provide reasonably comprehensive overviews of the main areas of Israeli culture and history. The result is a book that will speak to the full range of interests people are likely to have, something a historical account alone cannot do. People new to the subject will find this a perfect place to start, but many who feel they know Israel well will also find much here that is new.

Essential Israelis an essential antidote to the under