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The history of the state of Israel, now in its eighth decade, is in many ways an extraordinary success story: a revival of Jewish political sovereignty after nearly two millennia of statelessness; a dynamic economy with more startups per capita than any other country in the world; a vibrant, multicultural society with an astonishingly diverse population. But the long and increasingly bitter conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, which seemed to be on a track toward resolution during the 1990s, now seems to be insoluble within the foreseeable future and threatens to turn Israel into an international pariah. Meanwhile, there are stubborn internal conflicts as well: unresolved problems in defining the relationships between Judaism and the state, between the country’s religious and secular inhabitants, and between the Jewish majority and non-Jewish minorities (particularly the Israeli Arab minority, about twenty percent of the population).
This course aims to illuminate both sides of this story: the impressive achievements of the state, and its frustrating failures to resolve persistent conflicts with its neighbors and simmering tensions within Israeli society. The course begins with an analysis of the Zionist movement and its founders; examines the origins and development of the conflict between Zionism and a nascent Palestinian nationalist movement; traces the causes and consequences of each of the wars Israel has fought; and explores the major political realignments that have occurred since the state’s founding in 1948. The course also examines the nation-building process and the distinctive features of Israeli democracy; the transition from the visionary socialism of the founders to the high-tech capitalism of today; the failure of the peace negotiations that began in the 1970s, appeared to come close to fruition in the 1990s, and collapsed so disastrously in 2000; and the roots of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Recommended reading: Anita Shapira, Israel: A History
Bruce Thompson is a lecturer in the Departments of History and Literature and the Associate Director of Jewish Studies at U.C.-Santa Cruz, and also teaches at the Institute. He received his Ph.D. in History from Stanford; his areas of scholarly research include European intellectual and cultural history, French history, British Isles history, American Jewish intellectual and cultural history, the history of cinema, and the history of espionage.
