Walled : Israeli society at an impasse / Sylvain Cypel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cypel, Sylvain.

Standardized Title:

Emmurés. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Arab-Israeli conflict.

Palestinian Arabs--Government policy--Israel.

Palestinian Arabs.

Palestinian Arabs--Government policy.

Israel.

Israel--Politics and government.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xiii, 574 pages : maps ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Other Press, [2006]

Summary:

Walled examines the contemporary state of mind of Israel's citizens, tracing the history of the state of Israel back to the Jewish national movement and the beginnings of Zionism. Sylvain Cypel offers a lucid analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian situation and powerfully demonstrates that the wall of protection erected in the West Bank by Israel is the most visible symptom of a society in peril. Those who are walled, Cypel argues, are first and foremost the Israelis themselves, who have chosen to ignore rather than acknowledge the existence and rights of their neighbors.

Through the study of political discourse, intellectual controversy, and national institutions such as the army and the educational system, Cypel illuminates the mechanics of the culture of force that has led Israeli society into its current impasse. Walled combines historical, cultural, and sociological analysis with personal testimonies and a delightful Jewish wit, offering a cogent and gripping portrait of two peoples walled by denial: Israeli society and its "other," the Palestinians.

Contents:

The Victim Position 5

The Role of Denial 9

Israel Real, Israel Disembodied: The Journalist, Honesty, and Emotions 19

Part 1 Memories, Self-Images, Images of the Other

1 Tantura: The Repressed Floods Back In

May 23, 1948: Was There a Massacre? 25

The Katz Affair 29

What the Katz Affair Reveals About Its Protagonists 33

An Old Technique: Challenging the Opponent's Legitimacy 37

An Inadmissible Reality from the Past? 40

The Expurgated Memory of the 1948 Generation 45

2 The "Purity of Arms": How to Escape from An "Ocean of Lies"

An Official Version: The Israelis as "Just, Absolute, and Sole Victims" 49

Primary Elements of the Initial Israeli Denial 52

The Missing Past in Literature 59

"The Palestinians Don't Exist," nor Do the Refugees 62

David and Goliath 64

Moral Superiority over the Enemy 66

Tzadkanut: Systematic Self-Justification 73

3 "A Villa in the Jungle": The Israelis' Perception of their Environment

The Keyword Bitakhon: Security 76

Institutional Paradoxes of Israeli Society 85

National Unity and Centrifugal Tendencies 92

The Colonial Question 94

The "Animal Nature" of the Arab 102

Teaching Contempt 104

4 "These Semites- They are Anti-Semites": We are What We Were Born to Be

Sources of Israeli Orientalism 107

The Influence of Ethnicism on the Jewish National Movement 112

Very Old Arguments Still in the News 119

Discounting the Other 129

5 "Something Like A Cage": The Dilemmas of the Israeli Historian

Israeli Orientalism Applied to History 137

"There Is No Partner" 143

Benny Morris, an Israeli Historian Torn Between Ethnicism and Historical Truth 145

6 Tom Segev vs. Gideon Levy: The "Immunization" of Israeli Students

What a Young Person in Israel Can Know 158

The Vicissitudes of Authorized Historiography: A Study of a Recent Textbook 169

The Impossibility of Returning to the Former Historic Order 177

7 An "Artificial State": Internal Palestinian Obstacles to Understanding the Israelis

The Palestinian Relationship to the Israelis 182

The Naqba: A Catastrophe, but Not a Defeat? 188

Part 2 Israelis, Palestinians: The Temptation to Do the Worst

8 Mute Oracles: The Transformation of Israel After the Six Days' War

The Emergence of the Bloc of the Faithful and Its Impact 199

1967: The Establishment of Omnipotence 205

Establishing the Routine of Occupation 214

The Mechanisms of Colonization 218

The Paradoxes of the Occupation 222

9 "We Missed An Extraordinary Opportunity": The Great Waste of the Peace Talks

The Oslo Upheaval (August 1993) 228

Seven Years to Negotiate a "Just and Comprehensive" Peace 236

The Camp David Fiasco 248

Taba, Geneva: Camp David Laid Bare 253

10 "Serial Liars": Creating a Useful Image of the Enemy

The Steamroller after Camp David 263

The Palestinian Uprising and Its Retroactive "Conception" 270

The Function of Hasbara, Official Communication 282

11 "Sharon is Sharon is Sharon": The Creeping "Pied-Noirization" of Israel

Ariel Sharon and the Palestinians 291

The Intifada and the Israeli "Matrix of Control" 296

The "Algerianization" of the Israelis 303

The Lexicon of Occupation 309

12 "Terrorism: Tell Arafat to Stop this Nonsense": The Failure of the Palestinian Authority

Either Armed Struggle or Secret Diplomacy 315

The Palestinian Authority at Work 324

Arafat: Muteness, Corruption, and Absence of Democracy 328

Indiscriminate Suicidal Terrorism 336

Demonization of the Israeli and Anti-Semitism 350

13 The Brutalization of Israeli Society and the Radicalization of Nationalism

The Nationalist Bloc 357

Pluralism Up, Democracy Down 360

The University, the Media, and the "Traitors" 363

The New Role of the Military 373

The "Settlers' Party" and the Development of the National-Religious Movement 382

14 "An Insane Logic, A Form of Suicide": The Israelis Confront Their Moral Failure

The Emergence of the "Moral Camp" 392

The "Soft Underbelly" and the Temptation to Leave 404

15 "The Hidden Plot of Our Lives": Competing for Victimhood

Israelis, Nazism, and the Shoah 411

Appropriation of the Memory of Suffering 416

Turning the Shoah and Nazism into Abstractions 421

The Vision of Present-Day Anti-Semitism 430

Palestinian "Victimization" 436

16 Forward: Israeli Society After the Evacuation of Gaza

The Withdrawal from Gaza: A "Prehistoric Event" 445

Reasons for the Withdrawal 448

Drawing up the Balance Sheet of the Withdrawal 453

Victors and Vanquished 456

A New Political Map for Each Side 461

Conclusion: Salvation through Defeat 471

Getting Out of the Impasse 473

The Price of Reconciliation 483

Afterword: Haim Gouri 489.

Notes:

"Originally published as Les emmures : la société israélienne dans l'impasse "--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [523]-530) and index.

Translated from the French.

ISBN:

9781590512104

1590512103

OCLC:

71005868