Debate In Israel Research Articles

Iron Age Chronology in Israel: Results from Modeling with a Trapezoidal Bayesian Framework

Bayesian methods have been widely used to address the Iron Age chronological debate in Israel, which has implications for the entire eastern Mediterranean Iron Age chronology. However, a consensus has not been reached. This is largely because radiocarbon dates of materials in this period lie on an oscillation in the calibration curve. This study focuses on the modeling of 14C dates from the Iron I and Iron II periods, discusses the underlying assumptions and limitations of existing Bayesian chronologies, and proposes the use of a more appropriate model that allows for the phase transitions not being instantaneous. The new trapezoidal model sheds light on the probable duration of the transitions between the Iron Age phases.

Iron Age Chronology in Israel: Results from Modeling with a Trapezoidal Bayesian Framework

Bayesian methods have been widely used to address the Iron Age chronological debate in Israel, which has implications for the entire eastern Mediterranean Iron Age chronology. However, a consensus has not been reached. This is largely because radiocarbon dates of materials in this period lie on an oscillation in the calibration curve. This study focuses on the modeling of 14C dates from the Iron I and Iron II periods, discusses the underlying assumptions and limitations of existing Bayesian chronologies, and proposes the use of a more appropriate model that allows for the phase transitions not being instantaneous. The new trapezoidal model sheds light on the probable duration of the transitions between the Iron Age phases.

Striking Iran: The Debate in Israel

A difficult security environment, electoral system and bureaucratic structure create five pathologies for Israel's national-security decision-making process.

Combating Terrorism With Intelligence: The Normative Debate in Israel

The struggle against terrorism has always been an intelligence challenge—a continuing effort to detect and prevent terrorist activity at the earliest possible moment, long before the “ticking bomb”...

Globalisation and the politics of international tests: the case of Israel

Comparative international tests of students' achievements have become increasingly popular over the past decade. An outcome of this widespread practice is the tendency of various countries to evaluate their national status according to their pupils' international ranking in such achievement tests, partly due to the common belief that high ranking is an indication of the nation's future ability to compete in the global market. Using PISA 2000 and PISA 2006 data, the present study aims to show that the low achievements of Israeli pupils were to be expected, and that their average scores are a reflection of the economic and demographic characteristics of their country. Our findings suggest that the public debate in Israel on school achievements has been magnified out of all proportion. We also discuss the educational policy which derives proposals for educational reform from a conception of globalisation of education. This policy focuses on the setting of standards for educational achievements aimed at improving pupils' place on the international scale. Finally, we claim that the focus on the international grading of educational achievements deflects public attention from an understanding of the significance of inequalities within the country.

A Message for Peace or a Tool for Oppression? Israeli Jewish-Arab duo Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad’s Representation of Israel at Eurovision 2009

Israel's contenders for 2009 Eurovision Song Contest (known as ESC or, as here, Eurovision) were Israeli Jewish-Arab duo Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad. The chosen song was There Must Be Another Way, a tri-lingual appeal for peace and reconciliation sung in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. The decision to nominate Nini and Awad as Israel's representatives to Eurovision was announced in early January, in midst of a full-scale war Israel launched on Gaza and its inhabitants, which came in response to several years of rockets ired into Israel from Hamas-led territory. Given timing and high proile of ESC, an annual competition held among active member countries of European Broadcasting Union (EBU), duo's collaboration generated much public debate in Israel and beyond. The debate highlighted symbolic charge of song and its performers, and it continued throughout year, animated by political situation, duo's activities, and media that closely followed process leading to May 2009 contest and its aftermath. This article will analyze meanings given to artistic collaboration of two performers that were circulating in public sphere to show how, in this war-torn region, cultural and political domains are intertwined such that wars are fought not only with guns and rockets but also within cultural spheres, and that both domains are constitutive of highly contested social constructions of ethnic and national afiliations. Eurovision is a site in which intersection of popular culture with national and international politics is especially visible, due to its country-centered format, voting processes, and extent of mass mediation--over 100 million viewers each year (Haan, Dijkstra, and Dijkstra 2005). The voting process takes place at national level irst when representative song is chosen, and later during Eurovision Song Contest, when each country votes for other countries' representative songs. Since late 1990s, voting process at both stages typically combines popular votes counted in local telethons with votes cast by a panel of experts commonly associated with each country's broadcasting apparatus (Cleridos and Stengos 2006). (1) Songs must be newly written for occasion, and participatory nature of selection process serves to mobilize citizens to share in creation of what Benedict Anderson calls physical realization of imagined (1983:145). According to Anderson, moments in which songs are publicly shared to signify an event--for example, anthems sung on national holidays--create an experience of simultaneity in which people who are unknown to each other come together in a special kind of imagined community: nation. What Anderson is pointing to is that music provides one of ways in which nationhood is culturally constructed. The participatory nature of Eurovision provides for similar moments of simultaneity, both when public votes for song and image that would represent and when it votes for other nation's songs. At same time that Eurovision is a participatory event, Eurovision voting process also leaves much of control in hands of government-affiliated institutions. In other words, what represents the nation, and also determines relative value of cultural production of other nations, combines both popular vote and government control. This process highlights important role cultural policy has in creation of imagined community, and in delimitation of cultural boundaries of this community with respect to other communities. Miller and Yudice (2002) analyze cultural policy as a conflation of two registers: aesthetic register and anthropological register, which, when combined, provide for training of citizens to share common values. The songs represented at Eurovision provide musical and lyrical content that is interpreted at aesthetic register, while context of national representation directed by government institutions inculculates nationalist sentiments among citizens in a manner deemed appropriate by such institutions. …

East and West in Jewish nationalism: conflicting types in the Zionist vision?

. This article analyses the ethnic and civic components of the early Zionist movement. The debate over whether Zionism was an Eastern-ethnic nationalist movement or a Western-civic movement began with the birth of Zionism. The article also investigates the conflict that broke out in 1902 surrounding the publication of Herzl's utopian vision, Altneuland. Ahad Ha'am, a leader of Hibbat Zion and ‘Eastern’ cultural Zionism, sharply attacked Herzl's ‘Western’ political Zionism, which he considered to be disconnected from the cultural foundations of historical Judaism. Instead, Ahad Ha'am supported the Eastern Zionist utopia of Elchanan Leib Lewinsky. Hans Kohn, a leading researcher of nationalism, distinguished between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ nationalist movements. He argued that Herzl's political heritage led the Zionist movement to become an Eastern-ethnic nationalist movement. The debate over the character of Jewish nationalism – ethnic or civic – continues to engage researchers and remains a topic of public debate in Israel even today. As this article demonstrates, the debate between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ Zionism has its foundations in the origins of the Zionist movement. A close look at the vision held by both groups challenges Kohn's dichotomy as well as his understanding of the Zionist movement.

The new Mizrahi middle class: Ethnic mobility and class integration in Israel

This article argues that in recent decades, following the political “turnaround” (mahapakh) in 1977, a distinct new group has appeared on the Israeli scene: the Mizrahi middle class. This social category no longer fits the traditional dichotomies that have steered academic and popular sociological debate in Israel. On the basis of the geographic-spatial changes and the changes in higher education that have taken place in Israel during the past two decades, the article suggests that the Mizrahi middle class is playing a prominent role in the transformations that Israeli society is undergoing, providing a possible source for renewed social integration on a national scale. Israeli sociology is thus called upon to give due consideration not only to the theoretical significance of this group but also to its empirical significance in shaping the collective identity and the ethno-class arena in Israeli society in the coming decades.

Muting the Alarm over the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The New York Times versus Haaretz, 2000–06

The prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remain poor, largely because of Israeli rigidity as well as Palestinian policies and internal conflicts. The United States has failed to use its considerable influence with Israel to seek the necessary changes in Israeli policies, instead providing the country with almost unconditional support. The consequences have been disastrous for the Palestinians, for Israeli security and society, and for critical U.S. national interests in the Middle East. Amajor explanation for the failure of U.S. policies is the largely uninformed and uncritical mainstream and even elite media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the United States. In contrast, the debate in Israel is more self-critical, vigorous, and far-ranging, creating at least the possibility of change, even as U.S. policy stagnates. Acomparison of the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the two most prestigious daily newspapers in the United States and Israel—in particular, over the breakdown of the peace process in 2000 and the ensuing Palestinian intifada, the nature of the Israeli occupation, the problem of violence and terrorism, and the prospects for peace today—underscores these differences. While the New York Times has muted the alarm over the dangers of the United States' near-unconditional support for Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, Haaretz has sought to sound the alarm.

Functional Theory and Political Discourse: Televised Debates in Israel and the United States

This study applied functional theory, developed for political campaigns in the United States, to six televised debates in Israel and compared debates in both countries. In both countries, acclaims were the most common function, followed by attacks and then defenses. Policy was addressed more often than character. Incumbent candidates in both countries acclaimed significantly more and attacked less than the challengers. Incumbents used past deeds significantly more often to acclaim—and less to attack—than the challengers. The similarities discovered suggest that candidates for elective political office may employ common discursive practices that transcend national borders.

The Israeli Refuseniks: 1982–2003

It has been claimed that no protest group has been as successful as the refusenik movement in generating an ongoing debate in Israel over the philosophical and theoretical implications of the refus...

Historical Truth, Modern Historiography, and Ethical Obligations: The Challenge of the Tantura Case

The event described and commented on here occurred within the State of Israel, a week after the state came into being (22-23 May 1948). Although the Tantura Case is a significant chapter in the history of Israel/Palestine there is virtually no detailed reference to it in the works of Israeli or Palestinian historians, or of any other historian. Nevertheless, the Tantura events were also a subject of heated legal and public debate in Israel throughout 2001. The public controversy still generates strong passions. This article provides not only a description of the event and the controversy, and its ongoing social implications, but also discusses its impact on fundamental questions of historiography, such as the question of the nature and hierarchy of sources, as well as the scope and limits of the historian's imagination. It also poses even higher questions, namely those which impinge upon a historian's objectivity and moral obligations.

The Jewish Response during the Holocaust: The Educational Debate in Israel in the 1950s

Since the end of World War II, the response of the Jewish population in Europe to the Nazi policy of extermination has constituted a significant element in Jewish, and particularly Israeli, consciousness of the Holocaust. In the 1950s this issue became the focus of a debate among Israeli writers and public figures. An examination of a variety of sources of Israeli public opinion—articles in Israeli daily newspapers, debates in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) and speeches during memorial ceremonies, as well as archival materials—reveals that the positions expressed in the public discourse of that period represented two opposing viewpoints. The first created a moral distinction between those who actively participated in self-defense, especially armed resistance, and those who did not. The second contested the idea of placing armed resistance at the center of Holocaust commemoration, or using it educationally as a value over other patterns of Jewish reaction.

Evaluating the effect of regulatory prohibitions against risk selection by health status on supplemental insurance ownership in Israel

In Israel, supplemental insurance, which covers services not included in the mandatory basic benefits package, is offered by sick funds and regulated by the Ministry of Health. In 1998, policy regulations were set to eliminate barriers that prevented the ill from purchasing supplemental insurance, thereby increasing equality and risk solidarity. In this paper, we examine whether these regulations have indeed changed the extent of ownership and characteristics of policyholders, using data from surveys conducted in 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2001. The findings indicate that while there were no significant changes between 1995 and 1997, there was a significant increase in ownership among those with poor health status after the new regulations came into effect. We conclude that administrative regulations can influence the structure of supplemental insurance to achieve desired social values, and discuss additional policy options that are currently under debate in Israel to further promote equality and solidarity in this market by increasing accessibility to low income and other underserved populations.

Paradise Lost: A Review of Laurence Silberstein's ?The Postzionism Debates: Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture?

PsT-ZIONISM HAS BEEN a growing focus of public as well as academic debate in Israel and abroad for much of the past decade. Though the term loosely relates to a composite community of scholars, essayists, writers, artists and intellectuals, who by no means share the same views, methodological approaches or even fields of inquiry, the term somehow stuck and by and large has become accepted. Given the growing relevance of the phenomenon and the amount of debate it has generated both among supporters and critics, Laurence Silberstein's book, 7he Postzionism Debates (PD), is a welcome contribution to the broad field. Four years after it was published, PD is still the only comprehensive scholarly English language textbook on post-Zionism.' Its aims are therefore laudable and its goals desirables; given the importance of the phenomenon and its diverse manifestations. PD should be welcomed as the first comprehensive attempt to fill this gap in scholarly literature, and it is with a view to the way this task was pursued that PD should be judged. Based on this standard, PD will disappoint anyone interested in learning about post-Zionism in a dispassionate, critical and scholarly manner.

Legitimating Official Brutality: Can the War against Terror Justify Torture?

In the aftermath of September 11, United States is confronted with dilemmas fundamental to any democratic regime faced with hostile terrorist attacks - dilemmas concerning the appropriate balance between human rights and national security. One such dilemma has to do with the method of interrogation of terror suspects. Detainees suspected of links with the Al-Qaeda network refused to answer questions and reveal information. Their silence led to a debate in the media about the possible need for torture. Following a similar debate in Israel, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled (in 1999) that the coercive methods of interrogation used by the security services are illegal. That ruling serves as a starting point for the discussion. The article offers a distinction between official empowerment and justifications applied to officials. It argues that the State ought never to empower officials to use force in interrogations. The absence of such power will prevent the use of force as a matter of routine. In exceptional situations a criminal law justification may apply, requiring that the individual interrogator deliberate, before acting, on whether the circumstances are so powerful to justify the use of interrogational force. A criminal law defense analogous to self-defense provides a possible justification for the use of force in interrogation. As in self-defense, the use of force will only be justified when needed to prevent an imminent concrete threat. It should, therefore, be limited to ticking bomb situations, where the person under interrogation knows of the location of a bomb set to imminently explode and refuses to reveal the information. In such situations the use of force may only be justified in an attempt to coerce the terrorist who has planted the bomb to reveal the information necessary to defuse the bomb; it should never be justified in the case of bystanders who happen to know of the location of a bomb.

Prevalence of and change in the prescription of methylphenidate in Israel over a 2-year period.

The use of methylphenidate for the treatment of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has increased dramatically in the past decade in some countries in Europe and North America. In response to a public debate in Israel, several Knesset members introduced a legislative initiative that aims to limit the prescription of methylphenidate by physicians. The objective of this study was to examine the rate methylphenidate prescriptions dispensed for the treatment of ADHD in children in northern and central Israel in 1999 and 2001. The population included all children aged 0-18 years living in central or northern Israel and insured by the largest national health management organisation who were prescribed methylphenidate at least once in 1999 or 2001. This was a population-based prevalence study comparing the two timepoints using data from the health management organisation and descriptive statistics. The overall 1-year prevalence of methylphenidate prescriptions dispensed to children was 1.01% in 1999 and 1.22% in 2001 (relative risk [RR] 1.21, 95% CI 1.15-1.26), an increase of 21%. Seventy-seven percent of those prescribed methylphenidate were boys. The prescription rate ranged from 0.2% (RR 1.24, 95% CI 0.76-2.05) in Arabic cities to 5.99% (RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.09-1.30) in kibbutzim; this wide variation by type of residence apparently involved cultural, racial and economic factors. Israel shows no unusual or unexpected patterns in methylphenidate prescriptions dispensed to children and a lesser increase over time than other developed countries. This suggests that limiting physician freedom to prescribe methylphenidate to children may not be justified.

Shall we go to war? And if we do, when? The genesis of the internal debate in Israel on the road to the Sinai war

Shall we go to war? And if we do, when? The genesis of the internal debate in Israel on the road to the Sinai war

The Security Argument in the Territorial Debate in Israel: Rhetoric and Policy

T FIRST JEWISH LEADER AND ideologue to use a security argument against the idea of having British mandatory Palestine partitioned between Jews and Arabs was Vladimir Jabotinsky, the leader of Revisionist Zionism. He often wrote and spoke against partition on the grounds that the Jewish people had an exclusive national right to the Land of where an Arab minority could live in peace, prosperity, and human dignity. He based his opinions on a comprehensive ideology, rooted in history, a relative concept of justice, and the existential needs of East European Jews, who, according to his political assessment, had to evacuate that area of the world quickly. latter argument had an instrumentalist nature: in order to absorb mass immigration, the territory on both sides of the Jordan was needed. Such an argument also reflected geopolitical considerations of the times,' but there is no textual evidence that Jabotinsky was aware of this. He also wrote poems on the subject of the Whole Land of Israel, as he understood itone country, on both sides of the Jordan River. A very famous poem of his, entitled The Left Bank of the Jordan, has been sung by members of the Betar youth movement ever since:

Jewish and Democratic? A Rejoinder to the ?Ethnic Democracy? Debate

GROWING AWARENESS OF TENSIONS BETWEEN Jewish and democratic elements in Israel's regime abounds in the scholarship of Israeli society of the last two decades. This may be surprising, since the tensions were not created recently. They have accompanied the Zionist movement and its idea of a Jewish state from the very beginning. In fact, all agree that Israel is in many ways more democratic today than it was when it was founded. Nonetheless, the debate about the possible and actual relationships between the Jewish and the democratic strands in the identity of Israel is becoming more intense. In part this is the result of the inclusion of the description of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state in the 1992 Basic Laws, and the ideological, legal and judicial debate that ensued., But more important is the fact that the complex processes and mechanisms that had helped to manage and obscure these tensions in the first years of Israel's existence have been weakened significantly. There are at least three different sources, independent but inter-related, of these tensions. One is the fact that Israel, a state defined and structured as the locus of Jewish self-determination, has a 17 percent Palestinian minority within its borders. The second is the inter-Jewish debate about the meaning of the Jewishness of the state, with a fierce competition between religious and secular-cultural-historical conceptions of Jewish identity. The third is the deep political debate in Israel concerning its borders and its nature: while most Jewish Israelis want Israel to remain a Jewish state in some sense, positions on what are, or should constitute, Israel's border move between the 1967 lines and the whole region of Israel/Palestine. In the years prior to 1967, all these sources of potential tension were