". . . an excellent book . . . provides valuable insights into a broad range of cutting-edge topics in the social sciences such as ethnic and identity politics, nation building, transnationalism and diasporas." —Choice "This book will take its place as a classic in the field . . ." —Journal of Church and State " . . . a lucid formulation of post-Zionist ideology for the generation of the 1980s and 1990s." —International Journal of Middle East Studies "It is . . . a remarkable experience to read Evron's thoughtful book. He finds much to criticize in the conventional reading of Jewish history and argues that Israel should be thought of not as a state for the Jewish people but as a territorial state much like others, with full rights for all its inhabitants." —Foreign Affairs " . . . an extremely erudite, brilliant and powerful book with a novel approach: a sober secular conception of Judaism." —Maariv "A provocative post-Zionist critique of the fundamental concepts of Jewish peoplehood, Zionism, and Israeli nationalism." —Choice "This compelling book conveys the reader straight to the frontline of the battle raging in Israel over the proper boundaries of the national identity. Evron's radical post-Zionist critique of Israel's conceptual foundations calls in question the core link between Israel and Judaism and between Israel and the Jewish diaspora. His penetrating analysis challenges the muddled ideological bearings of Israel's public self-images and points the way toward what may be a more realistic adaptation to its Middle Eastern environment." —Noah Lucas, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies "Boas Evron is one of the most important and innovative contemporary Jewish-Israeli thinkers and writers. . . . For the English-speaking reader, Evron's book is a unique opportunity to understand the new secular Israeli nationalism, written by one of its most critical yet optimistic representatives." —Baruch Kimmerling, The Hebrew University Boas Evron concludes that Israel should become a territorial state that would accommodate its sizeable non-Jewish minority in a truly democratic way.

" --Baruch Kimmerling, The Hebrew UniversityBoas Evron concludes that Israel should become a territorial state that would accommodate its sizeable non-Jewish minority in a truly democratic way.

Defining Israel: The Jewish State, Democracy, and the Law is the first book in any language devoted to the controversial passage of Israel's nation-state law. Israel has no constitution, and though it calls itself the Jewish state there is no agreement among Israelis on how that fact should be reflected in the government's laws or by its courts. Since the 1990s a number of civil society groups and legislators have drafted constitutions and proposed Basic Laws with constitutional standing that would clarify what it means for Israel to be a "Jewish and democratic state." Are these bills liberal or chauvinist? Are they a defense of the Knesset or an attack on the independence of the courts? Is their intention democratic or anti-democratic? The fight over the nation-state law-whether to have one and what should be in it-toppled the 19th Knesset's governing coalition and, even after its passage on July 29, 2018, remains a point of contention among Israel's lawmakers and increasingly the Israeli public. Defining Israel brings together influential scholars, journalists, and politicians, observers and participants, opponents and proponents, Jews and Arabs, all debating the merits and meaning of Israel's nation-state law. Together with translations of each draft law, the final law, and other key documents, the essays and sources in Defining Israel are essential to understand the ongoing debate over what it means for Israel to be a Jewish and democratic state.

Amnon Rubinstein and Alexander Yakobson explore the nature of Israel's identity as a Jewish state, how that is compatible with liberal democratic norms and is comparable with a number of European states.

In what may be the most controversial book on Zionism and Israel published in the last twenty years, Yoram Hazony graphically portrays the cultural and political revolt against Israel's status as the Jewish state. Examining ideological trends in academia, literature, media, law, the armed forces, and the foreign policy establishment, Hazony contends that Israelis are preparing themselves for the final break with the Jewish past and the Jewish future. In a dramatic new reading of Israeli history, Hazony uncovers the story of how Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Hannah Arendt, and other German-Jewish intellectuals bitterly fought against the establishment of Israel, and later used the Hebrew University as a base for deposing David Ben-Gurion and discrediting Labor Zionism. The Jewish State is a must-read for anyone concerned with Israel's present and future.

A revisionist account of Zionist history, challenging the inevitability of a one-state solution, from a bold, path-breaking young scholar The Jewish nation-state has often been thought of as Zionism’s end goal. In this bracing history of the idea of the Jewish state in modern Zionism, from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century until the establishment of the state of Israel, Dmitry Shumsky challenges this deeply rooted assumption. In doing so, he complicates the narrative of the Zionist quest for full sovereignty, provocatively showing how and why the leaders of the pre-state Zionist movement imagined, articulated and promoted theories of self-determination in Palestine either as part of a multinational Ottoman state (1882-1917), or in the framework of multinational democracy. In particular, Shumsky focuses on the writings and policies of five key Zionist leaders from the Habsburg and Russian empires in central and eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl, Ahad Ha’am, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and David Ben-Gurion to offer a very pointed critique of Zionist historiography.

What is a homeland and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest-running national struggle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand’s account dissects the concept of “historical right” and tracks the creation of the modern concept of the “Land of Israel” by nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.