Modern Israel

Catalog description

While the course will address the topic of Israel and the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict, our discussions will include topics of social, cultural, and political history of Israel since 1948 to the present. Starting with the nation building enterprise such as challenges of absorption and modernization of the state and society, we will also survey the rise of Palestinian national movement; the role of ethnicity in Israeli politics; global political developments as a factor in the changing Israeli economy and politics; the social and cultural divisions in Israel; and, finally, challenges facing Israel in the twenty-first century.