In this volume a distinguished group of international scholars draws from history, folklore, political anthropology, historiography, and cultural criticism to reexamine critical issues surrounding the birth of Israel. The authors explore such issues as the transition form yishuv to state, early state policy toward the Arab minority, the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem, the conflict over myths and symbols in the early state, early attitude toward Holocaust victims and survivors, Arab historiography of the 1948 war, Israel-Diaspora relations, and the shaping of Israeli foreign policy.The contributors to the book include: Myron J. Aronoff (Rutgers University), Uri Bialer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Neil Caplan (Vanier College, Montreal), Benny Morris(Hebrew Univeristy of Jerusalem), Don Peretz (State University of New York, Binghamton), Dina Porat (Tel Aviv University), Jehuda Reinharz (Brandeis University), Elie Rekhess (Tel Aviv University), Avraham Sela(Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Anton Shammas(University of Michigan), Laurence J. Silberstein (Lehigh University), Kennethy STein (Emory University), Yael Zerubavel(University of Pennsylvania), and Ronald W. Zweig (Tel Aviv University).
Part I Frameworks and perspectives: reading perspectives/perspectives on reading - an introduction, Laurence J. Silberstein. Part II The transition to statehood - Jews and Arabs in conflict: the transition from Yishuv to state - social and ideological changes, Jehuda Reinharz; the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem, Benny Morris; early state policy towards the Arab population, 1948-1955, Don Peretz; one hundred years of social change - the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, Kenneth W. Stein; initial Israeli policy guidelines towards the Arab minority, 1948-1949, Elie Rekhess; Arab historiography of the 1948 War - the quest for legitimacy, Avraham Sela. Part III Myths, symbols, values - the struggle for national identity: attitudes of the young state of Israel toward the Holocaust and its survivors - a debate over identity and values, Dina Porat; myths, symbols and rituals of the emerging state, Myron J. Aronoff; new beginning, old past - the collective memory of pioneering in Israeli culture, Yael Zerubavel; at half-mast myths, symbols, and rituals of the emerging state - a personal testimony of an "Israeli Arab", Anton Shammas. Part IV Conflicts within and conflicts wihout - diplomacy and foreign policy: Israel's global foreign policy, 1948-1956, Uri Bialer; Zionist-Arab diplomacy - patterns and ambiguities on the eve of statehood, Neil Caplan; Israel-Diaspora relations in the early years of the state, Ronald W. Zweig.
