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Jewish Political Studies Review

Volume 29, Numbers 3–4

Volume 29, Numbers 1–2

Is the Jewish State the Ultimate Evil or a Golden Opportunity? Ideology vs. Politics in the Teachings and Actions of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum – the Satmar Rebbe by Dr. Menachem Keren-Kratz
To Kill Hope? In Search of a Reliable Strategy to Fight Terrorism by Moshe Yanovskiy, Ilia Zatcovetsky, Dr. Tim Ginker, and Sergei Zhavoronkov
The Polish Theologian Waldemar Chrostowski and the Setback of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue by Arno Tausch
The Saudi Specter over the American Education System by Prof. Arnon Gutfeld
Regarding Israel’s Borders: The Bible is neither a Land Registry nor a Legend by Florence Taubmann
Book Reviews:

Previous Issues:

Volume 28, Numbers 3–4 (Fall 2017)

Volume 28, Numbers 1–2 (Spring 2017): Special Issue on the Balfour Declaration
Guest Editor: Amb. Dore Gold

Volume 27, Numbers 3–4 (Fall 2016)

Volume 27, Numbers 1–2 (Spring 2015): Special Issue on Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza

Volume 26, Numbers 3–4 (Fall 2014): Special issue on the Historical Problem of Hajj-Amin al-Husseini, “Grand Mufti” of Jerusalem

A Sampling of Jewish Political Studies Review Articles

Europe and Israel
International Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Arab World
Israeli International Relations

Israeli National Identity
American Jewish Community
Jewish Political Tradition

Europe and Israel

Holocaust Remembrance in the Council of Europe: Deplorable Victims and Evil Ideologies without Perpetrators The current European politics of Holocaust remembrance, with its interplay of multiple perspectives of Holocaust history, is marked by the hijacking of the Jewish perspective by including numerous other real and self-claiming victim groups under the Holocaust definition, very general and superficial feelings of shame, and the ascription of a role-model character to the righteous among nations for present-day good citizenship behavior. On the flipside, evil ideologies and subsequent crimes are being denounced without clearly pointing to the individuals and societies who are guilty thereof. Read More »

Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic Roles of Jews in Swiss Society Jews, being the representatives of what now is dubbed the country’s Jewish-Christian heritage, are perceived to hold moral power. For many, the seemingly weak local Jews represent something larger and more powerful, the mysterious World Jewry. Read More »

The Jewish Community in Germany: Living with Recognition, anti-Semitism, and Symbolic Roles The symbolic roles of Jews in Germany cannot be compared to those in other countries, as in Germany the real presence of Jews is publicly very important as proof that the country has developed into a democracy and a diverse, open society. Nevertheless Jews are also taken as responsible for Israel’s policies and as such are targets for condemnation. Therefore, the roles which are put upon the Jewish communities and citizens are exchangeable depending on what German society needs and wants to see in the Jews. Read More »

European Politics: Double Standards toward Israel The mood created by the political leaders of European countries toward Israeli government officials often permeates their societies. Their discriminatory attitudes are enhanced by many media, NGOs, and some churches. These factors together help build an anti-Israeli atmosphere in large parts of European society, which is expressed in opinion polls. This is often accompanied by anti-Semitic positions. Read More »

Foundations of an Israeli Grand Strategy Toward the European Union Jewish Political Israel urgently needs a grand strategy toward the European Union. This is all the more so because the two parties disagree profoundly on fundamental issues and seriously misperceive each other. Israel has many strategic assets that it can use to improve its political and security relations with the European Union, but without a high-quality grand strategy these cannot be employed effectively. Read More »

Defining Limits on Religious Expression-the Turkish Example Moreover, in the increasingly sharp debate within Turkey between secularists and Islamists, the question of the nature and extent of Turkey’s relationship with Israel has become a sign of the future direction of Turkey’s foreign policy orientation. Read More »

How the Jewish Community Defeated the Banks and Stock Exchange in the 2000 Dutch Restitution Negotiations As far as the banks were concerned one could say that perhaps it was not their fault that the money had not been reimbursed to the Jewish account holders after the war. The stock exchange situation was different. They had been major collaborators with the German occupiers and continued to misbehave after the war. Read More »

Defining Limits on Religious Expression-the Turkish Example Moreover, in the increasingly sharp debate within Turkey between secularists and Islamists, the question of the nature and extent of Turkey’s relationship with Israel has become a sign of the future direction of Turkey’s foreign policy orientation. Read More »

International Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism

Anti-Zionist Expression on the UK Campus: Free Speech or Hate Speech? The last few years have witnessed an explosion of anti-Zionist rhetoric on university campuses across the United Kingdom. Encouraged by the University and College Union’s annual calls for discriminatory measures against Israeli institutions and academics, the rhetoric has become even more strident since Operation Cast Lead. Read More »

Antiracism for anti-Jewish Purposes: Reflections on the Swedish Mana Affair Although a survey of the journal shows that the accusations were justified, Mana’s claims that the criticism was policy-driven appealed to many of its defenders, and the support for the journal was strongest on the Left. It was mainly from there that accusations of political censorship emanated, along with claims that Mana’s anti-Semitism was merely legitimate criticism of Israel. This inability or unwillingness of parts of the Swedish Left to recognize the gravity of some of Mana’s content is disturbing, since it could lead to removing the taboo on, and legitimizing, anti-Jewish notions and sentiments. Read More »

The Jewish Community in Germany: Living with Recognition, anti-Semitism, and Symbolic Roles The symbolic roles of Jews in Germany cannot be compared to those in other countries, as in Germany the real presence of Jews is publicly very important as proof that the country has developed into a democracy and a diverse, open society. Nevertheless Jews are also taken as responsible for Israel’s policies and as such are targets for condemnation. Therefore, the roles which are put upon the Jewish communities and citizens are exchangeable depending on what German society needs and wants to see in the Jews. Read More »

The Centrality of NGOs in Promoting anti-Israel Boycotts and Sanctions NGO reports, press releases, and political lobbying campaigns constitute an important source of soft power, and they have a powerful influence in the UN, the media, and academia. This NGO-led political war against Israel uses the weapons derived from the rhetoric of human rights and international law and is conducted via the UN, the media, churches, and university campuses. Read More »

The University of Toronto: Where Israel Apartheid Week was Born A coalition of anti-Israel groups initially used the university campus as a launching pad for what has become an annual series of events that take place in dozens of cities around the world. Protesters call for a one-state solution, crippling divestment from Israel, and heavy sanctions. Parallels are drawn between Israel and the Apartheid system as it existed in South Africa. Read More »

The Jews as Contested Ground in Postmodern Conspiracy Theory As always with modern conspiracy thinking, the Jews, especially the Zionists, stand at the center of the storm. Read More »

An Invented Attack Leads to Decreasing Condemnation of anti-Semitism in France: a Case Study Public attitudes toward anti-Semitic incidents in France have greatly fluctuated in the new century. From autumn 2000 when the new major wave of French anti-Semitism erupted, till the demise of the Socialist government in June 2002, the official attitude was to deny or minimize the severe verbal and physical assaults on Jews. Read More »

The Big Lie and the Media War against Israel: From Inversion of the Truth to Inversion of Reality Since inversion of reality constitutes the basic principle of current anti-Israeli propaganda, it is important to understand what it is and how it works. This propaganda method is a product of Nazi Germany. It is totalitarian both in its methods, particularly the use of the paranoiac myth, and in the absolute solution it advocates. It totally denies all of Israel‘s claims and leaves no room for introspection and compromise. Read More »

Abusing the Legacy of the Holocaust: the Role of NGOs in Exploiting Human Rights to Demonize Israel This community has exploited the halo effect of human rights rhetoric to promote highly particularistic goals. In most cases small groups of individuals, with substantial funds obtained from nonprofit foundations and governments (particularly European), use the NGO frameworks to gain influence and pursue private political agendas, without being accountable to any system of checks and balances. Read More »

Anti-Semitic Trends in Post-Communist Eastern European States: an Overview Some governments took up legal and administrative measures to ban anti-Semitism, but unfortunately they are not sufficiently effective, although there are some positive tendencies that are effective. Israel could and should do more to collaborate with the respective governments on this matter. Read More »

Sweden’s Refusal to Prosecute Nazi War Criminals This has remained the position of the Swedish government even after it was revealed in 2000 that those who had participated in Nazi atrocities were alive and living in Sweden. All the efforts to induce a change in Swedish policy on this issue have hereto failed. Sweden is currently weighing the abolition of the statute of limitations on genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes but will not do so retroactively, so there is no chance that any Nazi war criminal will ever be prosecuted in Sweden. Read More »

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Israeli Settlements, American Pressure and Israel The settlement issue was often at the heart of U.S.-Israeli differences during the Obama administration. However, the crisis that erupted between the two countries appeared to be completely unnecessary. Read More »

American Jews More Right than Left on the Peace Process The best data on the positions of American Jews on the peace process show that they are more on the right side of the political spectrum than is often claimed regarding such issues as the two-state solution, basic Arab goals, the future status of Jerusalem, and the settlements, and this pattern has been consistent over the last decade. Moreover, the more attached American Jews feel to Israel and the more importance they attribute to their Jewishness, the more likely they are to take positions on the right. Read More »

The Campaign to Delegitimize Israel with the False Claim of Apartheid The comparison of Israel to South Africa under white supremist rule has been utterly rejected by those with intimate understanding of the old Apartheid system. Israel is a multi-racial and multi-colored society, and the Arab minority actively participates in the political process. Read More »

Palestinian Indictment and Peace: an Insurmountable Compatibility Persistent reports describe the pervasiveness and intensity of Palestinian incitement against Israel. The Palestinian Authority is an oligarchy whose purpose is war against Israel. Its leaders consider deception and the armed struggle as the legitimate means by which they can achieve their goals and have adapted their educational system to fill the younger generation with hatred and the desire to perpetrate terrorist acts. Because of the reality behind it, incitement is the real deal-breaker. One side wants peace, while the other does not. Read More »

The Palestinian Refugee Issue: Rhetoric vs. Reality The sixty-year-old Palestinian refugee issue has little connection with reality. It has become solely a bargaining chip used by Arabs and Palestinians in peace talks with Israel and, as such, is a distraction from the real issues of terrorism and boundaries. Indeed, continuing to call Palestinians refugees is a misnomer. Read More » Hatred of the Jews as a Psychological Phenomenon in Palestinian Society The essentially monolithic ideology and practice of Islam, which date from the inception of the Arab-Muslim world, make Palestinian hatred merely one instance of general Arab-Muslim, particularly Islamist, hatred of Jews and of the West. Read More »

Kill a Jew, Go to Heaven: the Perception of the Jew in Palestinian Society It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists, and to knock on heaven’s doors with the skulls of Zionists.1 Read More »

Arab World

The Holocaust in Arab Public Discourse: Historicized Politics and Politicized History The Holocaust has become increasingly important in international historical culture, and the murder of six million Jews during the Second World War is arguably the ultimate symbol of evil in Western politics, culture and academia. This fact has had its consequences in the Arab world as well, even though the effects there have been significantly different than in the West. Traditional Arab public discourse has a history of feelings of superiority vis-à-vis the Jews, largely based on Muslim theology. The creation of the state of Israel and its repeated victories over Arab armies have kindled political resentment partly based in this tradition, which in turn has made it virtually impossible to assimilate the dominant Western understanding of the Holocaust into Arab public discourse. Instead, Arab public discourse on the Holocaust is highly politicized and almost always displays hostility toward Israel or Jews. Read More »

The Big Lie and the Media War against Israel: From Inversion of the Truth to Inversion of Reality Since inversion of reality constitutes the basic principle of current anti-Israeli propaganda, it is important to understand what it is and how it works. This propaganda method is a product of Nazi Germany. It is totalitarian both in its methods, particularly the use of the paranoiac myth, and in the absolute solution it advocates. It totally denies all of Israel‘s claims and leaves no room for introspection and compromise. Read More »

Hatred of the Jews as a Psychological Phenomenon in Palestinian Society The essentially monolithic ideology and practice of Islam, which date from the inception of the Arab-Muslim world, make Palestinian hatred merely one instance of general Arab-Muslim, particularly Islamist, hatred of Jews and of the West. Read More »

The Forgotten Narrative: Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries However, unlike the Arab refugees, the Jews who fled are a forgotten case because of a combination of international cynicism and domestic Israeli suppression of the subject. The Palestinians are the only group of refugees out of the more than one hundred million who were displaced after World War II who have a special UN agency that, according to its mandate, cannot but perpetuate their tragedy. An open debate about the exodus of the Jews is critical for countering the Palestinian demand for the right of return and will require a more objective scrutiny of the myths about the origins of the Arab- Israeli conflict. Read More »

Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism in Sweden Nevertheless, the phenomenon exists and manifests itself among some Arab and Muslim pupils in suburban schools, on Muslim websites in Swedish, and in attacks on Jews and their institutions. This anti-Semitism has its roots in the Middle East, where it is widespread in the countries of origin of many Arab and Muslim immigrants in Sweden and reaches them through various channels such as satellite television and the Internet. The exclusion of many Arabs and Muslims from Swedish society fosters the spread of anti-Semitism in the segregated suburbs of the major cities. The situation calls for seriously addressing these groups’ problem of alienation. Read More »

National Socialism and anti-Semitism in the Arab World Although Islamism is an independent, anti-Semitic, antimodern mass movement, its main early promoters – the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Mufti and the Qassamites in Palestine – were supported financially and ideologically by agencies of the German National Socialist government. Read More »

Defining Limits on Religious Expression-the Turkish Example Moreover, in the increasingly sharp debate within Turkey between secularists and Islamists, the question of the nature and extent of Turkey’s relationship with Israel has become a sign of the future direction of Turkey’s foreign policy orientation. Read More »

Pakistan and Israel Pakistan‘s political and military leaders have always striven to get along with its radical clergy and likely will remain committed to the country’s Muslim identity. Only significant progress in relations between Israel and the Arab states could lead to a change in Pakistan‘s position. Read More »

Israeli International Relations

The US Role in Delaying Sino-Israeli Relations: Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd Although by the mid-twentieth century no outstanding problems had existed between Israel and China and although both were interested in formalizing their ties, over four decades passed before diplomatic relations were finally established. The inevitable conclusion is that while bilateral issues had not been an obstacle, the interference of third parties had been responsible for the delay, notably by the United States. Read More »

Benedict XVI,the Lefebvrians, the Jews, and the State of Israel This article explores the relations between the Catholic Church and the Jews from the middle of the previous century until the present day. It will focus on how the Catholic Church has dealt with memory of the Shoah and how this has affected the Church’s relations with the Jews. It will look at the most recent developments in dialogue between the Church and the Jews under Pope Benedict XVI and the impact of his visit to Israel in May 2009. Read More »

The Improvement of Israeli-South Korean Relations The two countries’ economies became complementary, and in the 1990s Israel became South Korea’s main Middle Eastern market. South Korean structural reforms following its economic and financial crisis of 1997-1998 and the priority it gave to high tech and information technology have enabled the further expansion of bilateral relations. Read More »

Japanese-Israeli Relations, the United States, and Oil The key change for Japan was the decision by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Gulf States to abolish their indirect boycott of Israel in September 1991. The fact is underlined that Japanese-Israeli economic relations proved robust enough to withstand the political upheavals during both the ﬁrst and second intifadas. Read More »

Indonesia and Israel: a Relationship in Waiting Since Suharto’s demise in 1998, the idea of establishing ties with Israel has arisen periodically in political circles, most notably under the brief presidency of progressive Islamic leader Abdurrahman Wahid, but any concrete developments are likely dependent on progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conﬂict. Read More »

Ben-Gurion and Jewish Foreign Policy For Ben-Gurion, Israel was the sum and substance of everything Jewish. Therefore, his foreign policy was totally Israel-centric; ideological when it came to matters of Israel’s centrality and pragmatic when it came to Israel’s survival. Ben-Gurion developed a unique interpretation of Judaism which enabled him to adopt policies and make decisions that would be compatible with his own version of Judaism while at the same time serving the collective interests of the new Jewish state. Read More »

The Origins of the National and the Statist Traditions in Zionist Foreign Policy The dilemma of choosing between goals that emanate from the ethno-national setting of Israel as opposed to those serving the state is rooted in Zionist thought and international behavior. The origins go back to the founding fathers of Zionism in the nineteenth century who responded to different challenges of their environment. Read More »

Israeli National Identity

Israel’s Democracy and Comparative Politics Special characteristics of the Israeli polity; constitutional government without a constitution, the religion-state relationship, the control system of the Arab minority, the political role of the “non-political” army, the con-sociationalism between Orthodox and secular elites, and the impact of the occupied territories on Israel’s democracy can be better understood in comparative perspective. Read More »

Jews, Israelis and Citizens: National Identity and Patterns of Political Involvement Among Israeli Adolescents The results of the study indicate a high level of political involvement among Israeli youth. This involvement is expressed mainly through highly developed affective orientations toward national collectives, the Jewish people and Israeli society, and also strong interest in political issues and functions of political institutions. Read More »

Jewish Identity Among Israel’s Future Teachers The question of Jewish-Israeli identity is one of present-day Israeli society’s cardinal and pressing issues.The identity of a citizen of Israel is not that of a purely Israeli identity nor is It a purely Jewish identity. It is,in varying degrees, a synthesis of Jewish and Israeli components depending on the particular subgroups or subidentities. Stress develops around the relationship between Jewishness and Israeliness and around the relationship between Jewish religion and Jewish natinality. Read More »

Cross-Cultural Issues in Community Mediation Perspectives for Israel Using examples from a conflict between orthodox and secular Jews, this article analyzes culturally biased assumptions of a mainstream model of mediation: impartiality, linear and rational problem solving, separating people from the problem, equal bargaining power, and using objective standards. Read More »

The War of the Torah: the Israeli Religious Peace Movement’s Struggle for Legitimation This situation has led to an almost total identification of religious Zionism with the Israeli right and the ideology of the Complete Land of Israel. To be an Orthodox Jew is to be a hawk. Religious doves are not only a rare bird; they are, in the eyes of manyat least, a nonkosher species. These exceptions to the rule are,therefore, a cognitive deviants, at one and the same time. Read More »

Citizens’ Rights in Flux: the Influence of American Immigrants to Israel on Modes of Political Activism Among the smallest immigrant groups in Israel are those individuals who immigrated to Israel from the United States. These American-born Israelis (henceforth referred to as ABIs) number roughly 85,000; or 1.5 percent of the current population of Israel.2 But despite their numerical marginality, ABIs have played a prominent role in the development and operations of extraparliamentary political groups. Indeed, ABIs can be found at the forefront of a wide variety of such groups dealing with civil rights, women’s issu