Enlightenment,Haskalah, and the State of Israel

ABSTRACT

This article charts the broad and transforming effects of the European Enlightenment and the Jewish Haskalah on Zionism and on modern Israel’s government, judiciary, and political discourse. It traces this complex legacy using a semantic distinction between two Modern Hebrew terms for the Enlightenment, haskalah and ne’orut, that illustrates their importance in the political and discursive legacies of the State of Israel. The article then explores the recent populist and nationalist assaults against some of these legacies.     

‘Therefore They Shouldn’t Exist’: The Carter Administration,the ‘Israel Lobby’ and the Sinai Settlements

Abstract

The Israeli settlements in Sinai could have been a fatal obstacle to Egyptian–Israeli peace, but the Jimmy Carter administration overcame it. The established narrative of how Israel ceded the Sinai settlements focuses on the Camp David summit. However, the real battle over the fate of the settlements was fought previously. In February–April 1978, the Carter administration attempted to turn pro-Israeli supporters in the United States against the Israeli position, according to which the Sinai settlements should remain in place. The Menachem Begin government mobilized to counter that push but lost the battle. Contrary to his image as an awkward political operator, Carter won over supporters of Israel effectively. The case raises questions regarding the oft-mentioned role of the ‘Israel lobby’ in preventing peace.     

Past continuous: archaeological representations on Israeli banknotes and coins

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the special role of archaeological representations on the legal tender in Israel. Money is one of the most pervasive symbolic instruments in daily life, frequently used for nation-building and carrying a political agenda. The use of archaeological representations on Israeli money has a clear political role: to revalidate the national Jewish-Zionist resurrection, to justify the nation’s claim for its historical land, and to draw the state’s borders through archaeological findings. This article sheds light on the centrality given to archaeology by members of the Bank of Israel Banknotes and Coinage Planning Committee and is based on its proceedings and correspondence from its inception in late 1955 to 2012.     

Signed,Sealed but Never Delivered: Why Israel did not Receive Nixon's Promised Nuclear Power Plants

ABSTRACT

In the early 1970s, Israel was on the cusp of launching an ambitious nuclear power programme. It had technical nuclear experience and a pressing need to limit its dependency on imported oil and coal, and interest in nuclear powered water desalination. This nuclear vision enjoyed the support of the Nixon administration, which proposed in June 1974 to export reactors to both Israel and Egypt. But by the end of the decade, under the Carter administration, the plan was all but gone. What was the original US and Israeli rationale behind the reactor deal? How did this initiative relate to other developments such as the Indian nuclear explosion, the Arab oil embargo and the peace talks with Egypt? How important was the Carter administration's policy shift in determining the outcome of the initiative? This paper will address these questions by analysing newly declassified documents from several US and Israeli archives.¹1. Archival research for this study was conducted at the Lindon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas, (LBJL), Richard M. Nixon Library, Yorba Linda, California (RNL), Gerald Ford Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan (GFL), Jimmy Carter Library, Atlanta, Georgia, (JCL), National Archives and Records Administration, Maryland, (NARA), The British National Archives, Kew, UK, (TNA), The Israeli National Archive, Jerusalem, Israel (INA), the David Tuviyahu Archive, Be'er-Sheva, Israel (DTA), The Kibbutz Movement Yad-Tabenkin Archives, Ramat-Ef'al, Israel, The Knesset archive, Jerusalem, and several other archives.     

Understanding Yhwh's Threats through Modern Politics—and Vice Versa

Abstract

Divine violence in the Hebrew Bible is regularly cited as primitive, irrelevant, and possibly unintelligible within a modern context. This paper presents a structural analogy between Yhwh's threats of destruction against Israel in Deuteronomy and threats against the disloyal made by the modern state. Deuteronomy expresses Yhwh's relationship with Israel in ancient Near Eastern suzerainty terms that reflect an unchallengeable demand for the vassal's undiluted loyalty. As in the treaties, this demand is backed with threats of destruction for the disloyal. Such threats are difficult to comprehend within a modern framework where loyalty demands and threats are largely illegitimate. However, the modern state provides a useful analogy because harsh state reprisals are legitimate against disloyal citizens. Contemporary examples from modern American responses to treason in the "Cold War" and the "War on Terror" illustrate the analogy with Yhwh's threatened destruction of disloyal Israel in Deuteronomy.     

Palestine,Israel, Gaza,and the West Bank: the muddled mental maps of French and Israeli students

ABSTRACT

The Palestinian–Israeli Conflict is perceived by many – observers and parties to the conflict alike – as a struggle of two peoples over the same land. Yet, through this century-long conflict (and more so as Israel has expanded and deepened its occupation), what was once, perhaps, imagined as a single land has become an assortment of territories. These territories bear multiple names and different legal statuses, and their boundaries are often blurred. In light of the jumbled patchwork that Palestine–Israel has become, we examine the ways that the conflict’s territorial dimensions are imagined and represented. We study the mental maps of the region held by higher education students from Israel, both Jewish and Arab-Palestinian, as well as with university students from Montpellier, France. The representations indicate that while the French students were almost completely at a loss regarding the conflict’s spatial dimensions, the students from Israel were also confused, especially regarding the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We argue that these findings stem from a wider process of deterritorialization, linked to the conflicting relations between state and nation and intensified by a policy of chaotic spatial arrangements.     

John Calvin and the Jews: A Problem in Political Theology

Abstract

Although John Calvin rejected the angry invective of Martin Luther against the Jews, he nevertheless agreed with him that Christian biblical interpretation was a more reliable guide to the mind of the patriarchs in Genesis than the exegesis of Rabbinic Judaism. The Hebrew Bible was therefore properly understood as Christian Scripture and had always been addressed to the Church as well as to ancient Israel.     

Roman-Period and Byzantine Landscapes Between Sepphoris and Nazareth

Abstract

A reinterpretation of the Roman-period (late first century BC to fourth century AD) and Byzantine-period (early fifth to early seventh century AD) landscapes between Sepphoris and Nazareth, in the Lower Galilee, Israel, is presented. This derives from a multi-period archaeological survey, in September 2004 and September 2005, of a 5 km×3 km transect — Israel grid 1760–2340, 1790–2390. Some of the relevant results from the 2004–2005 seasons are outlined, rather than providing a full report on this survey, which will form part of a forthcoming PEF monograph. For this reason, survey data are described in summary form and — as it is the Roman-period and Byzantine evidence that is the focus of attention — both earlier and later material are mentioned here only in relation to those periods.     

An Economic Reading of the Exodus: On the Institutional Economic Reconstruction of Biblical Cooperation Failures

In difference to Genesis, in Exodus interactions between Egypt and Israel broke down. The paper argues that Moses and pharaoh acted like “rational fools” when they escalated problems regarding industrial relations and common pool resources. Pluralism was not mastered as an interaction condition in cross-cultural, “inter-national” relations. The paper explores these issues through the concept of the prisoners' dilemma, in which mutual loss is the outcome. The unsuccessful ordering of economic institutions (governance structures, property rights arrangements, reward systems) is suggested as the key source of conflict. In this way, the paper develops the thesis that the Bible can be read as an economic text which instructs the organisation of human interactions in rational, economic terms. The exodus is not analysed in a more conventional, theological tradition as the resolution of conflict over religious values and the escape of Israel from a claimed system of slavery     

The conservation and management of mudbrick buildings at Tell Qasile,Israel

Abstract

Tell Qasile, in the area of the Eretz Israel Museum in north Tel Aviv, is the location of a small town founded in the twelfth century BCE. The site has significant importance for the study of various aspects of the Iron Age period in Israel. The buildings at the site were constructed of mudbricks on stone foundations. Conservation of buildings at the site was carried out using three methods: 1) building roofs (in roofed areas no other conservation was needed); 2) conserving mudbrick walls by plastering them in modern plaster made up in imitation of ancient building material; 3) full restoration of buildings up to roof level (carried out in one case). These methods were successful, and, due to the location of the site within a large museum compound, it is utilized for archaeological education, mainly of schoolchildren.     

The Caesarea Ancient Harbor Excavation Project (C.A.H.E.P.): Preliminary Report on the 1980–1983 Seasons

Abstract

Underwater and shoreline survey and excavation at the Herodian harbor of Sebastos, the port of Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, have provided important new information on Roman harbor design and construction. Local and imported materials were carefully selected and used to construct two immense breakwaters that framed outer and inner basins. Hydraulic concrete was used in a sophisticated manner, and ingenious sluice gates and a subsidiary breakwater provided protection against siltation and storm damage.     

The Rhetoric of the Expressions in the Song by the Sea (Exodus 15,1-18)

The author considers the expressions used in the Song by the Sea (Exodus 15,1-18) in connection with the commonly accepted bipartite structure of the Song. He analyzes the expressions by categorizing them, grouping them, and considering their rhetoric. This literary analysis, supported by tables and graphic illustrations, highlights the basic rhetoric of the Song. The two parts of the Song have different themes but an interconnected rhetoric centered in Yahweh and his relationship with Israel and her enemies.     

The land which bled forth its bounty: An exile image of the land of Israel

Abstract

The expression: “a land flowing with milk and honey” appears some 20 times in the MT version of the Hebrew Bible and is generally thought to express the overall productivity of the Land of Israel. It is one of the few expressions which is used in many literary strata of the text as a distinctive term to describe the Land of Israel and its produce, although its absence from poetic, proverbs and wisdom literature indicates that it was not seen as a universally useful expression. Appearing in writings attributed to J, E, Dtr¹ and Dtr², as well as the writings of the prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the expression is understood by medieval and modem commentators as a metaphor for abundant grazing land and date palm honey (i.e. abundant flora and fauna). It's presence in different literary strata of four of the five books of the Torah, in particular, seems to point to the antiquity and long term utility of the expression. Further investigation of this expression reveals that it may not be a realistic perspective on the ancient land of Israel, but rather a rather poignant, nostalgic, exilic, and purely metaphoric view of the land written at a period after the land had passed through a significant devastation. This article will investigate the language of this passage and attempt to locate it in its original historical context.     

Laurence Oliphant: Financial Sources for his Activities in Palestine in the 1880s

Abstract

Laurence Oliphant's interest in the development of Jewish settlement in Ottoman Palestine preceded his interest in the plight of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. While his intensive involvement in these matters is well known, especially in modern Israel, the fact that the funds for his largesse were contributed by the Christadelphian Brotherhood has not previously been published. The present article brings to light material from the archives of this sect, and thus, too, the motivation behind these efforts.     

Tools slippage and the Tel Dan inscription

Two extreme views exist as to the structure of Lam 1: one is that there is no structure at all, while the other is that we have a very sophisticated and intricate structure. The author of this article, in rejecting - as would many scholars - both extremes, underlines the unique occasion of the poem - the aftermath of 586 BCE - and the traumatic experiences that are being commemorated, and argues for a dramatic composition involving role-play in the annual commemoration of the greatest tragedy in the history of Israel.     

A STAMPED IMPRESSION ON THE RIM OF A MB II STORAGE JAR

Abstract

The scarab impression on the rim of a Middle Bronze II storage jar is the first of its kind to be discovered in Israel. The pattern on the impression appears on scarabs of the period. The unusual location of the impression may point to a special content of the jar, or alternatively to the owner of this pot. Once the context of the storage jar rim is studied, it may shed some light on the possible association of this jar with the scarab impression on its rim.     

Management Plans for Archaeological Sites: A World Heritage Template

Abstract

A failed attempt to produce a Management Manual for World Heritage Archaeological Sites and Monuments brought together a body of experts in 2002 at Ma'agan, Israel. This paper aims to make the general recommendations of the Ma'agan meeting more widely known among those concerned with the management of archaeological sites. The paper summarizes the outcomes of the meeting, including ideas on the structure of a management plan, the planning process, team building and public participation, site significance, conservation, monitoring, maintenance, presentation and interpretation, tourism and action plans; and includes a select bibliography.     

DECEIVING HOPE

Abstract

In Jeremiah, irony permeates the ethical texture of hope. For poetics and power intersect the Utopian aspirations and images of the text no matter how one theorizes its multiplicity of voices and occasions.

A reader may well recoil in horror from the fantastic landscape of violence painted by the oracular tradition attributed to Jeremiah. Moreover, being horrified may indeed be the desired effect of the rhetoric. Thus, a reader may well seek (be led to) metaphorical relief and comfort within the restoration traditions (equally attributed to Jeremiah) that on the surface reverse the terrors of divine violence rhetorically unleashed on the Jerusalem community.

However, should it be so easy for the rhetoric of hope to assuage the terrors of doom? For such Utopian desire to succeed it must construct a symbolic landscape that rewrites the myth of Yahweh and Israel as well as lay claim to the right to do so in exclusion of all others. The restoration hope deceives and offers its own Utopian terrors.

For it must dispossess and destroy alternative myths of Yahweh and Israel with their adherents. Irony on irony generates. Indeed, the terrors of doom and hope serve each other. Explicit rhetoric of dispossession (oracles of doom) provides the metaphorical means to open a symbolic space for the “imperial” restoration desires of colonial elites. Thus, the rhetoric of explicit comfort sustains a subtext of ideological terror. Both doom and hope dispossess and repossess rights to the myth of Yahweh and Israel. It is a matter of where a metaphorical reader is placed or takes up their place within the symbolic landscape called Jeremiah.     

Promise and Blessing: Gen 12,1-3

ABSTRACT

Gen 12,1-3 is a text which plays an important part in the dis-cussion about the establishing of the modern state of Israel. The question is, whether this text defends this event in the 20th century’s history or if one should find the defence elsewhere. In order to find an answer to this question three classic German commentaries have been reread. The commentaries, written by Herman Gunkel (GHAT), Gerhard von Rad (ATD), and Claus Westermann (BKAT), are from different periods of the 20th century. The result is that the commentators find that the text is more interested in the blessing and the promise than in the history of the possession of the land of Canaan.