The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Society, and the Military
"This book, the first of its kind in the English language, reexamines the nation of Israel in terms of its origin as a haven for a persecuted people and its evolution into a multicultural society. Arguing that the monocultural regime built during the 1950s is over, Baruch Kimmerling suggests that the Israeli state has divided into seven major cultures. These seven groups, he contends, have been challenging one another for control over resource distribution and the identity of the polity. He...
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"Like all of Baruch Kimmerling's work, this is a penetrating and provocative book. It offers a new paradigm for the current and future direction of Israeli society that will certainly become a central point of reference in the field. Kimmerling's explanation for the rise and fall of classic Labor Zionism is a seminal contribution to the ongoing debate over this central thread of the Israeli experience."—Alan Dowty, author of The Jewish State: A Century Later "Baruch Kimmerling is an influential and controversial scholar whose books have set the agenda for contemporary Israel Studies. The Invention and Decline of Israelinessoffers an original and provocative interpretation of the formation and transformation of Israeli national identity. Anyone seriously interested in Israeli society should read this book."—Derek Penslar, author of Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction11The Mythological-Historical Origins of the Israeli State: An Overview162Building an Immigrant Settler State563The Invention and Decline of Israeliness894The End of Hegemony and the Onset of Cultural Plurality1125The Newcomers1306The Cultural Code of Jewishness: Religion and Nationalism1737The Code of Security: The Israeli Military-Cultural Complex208Conclusions229Works Cited239Index257
