Authors: Ira Sharkansky
ISBN-13: 9780765802774, ISBN-10: 0765802775
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Date Published: June 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Israeli politics and policymaking reflect themes long embedded in Jewish culture. In Governing Israel Sharkansky discusses three central issues in Israeli public affairs: religion, national security, and social policy. He describes how policymakers relate to these issue and themes. Major problems may not be solved, but they are managed in a way that is tolerable. It is in this trait that Israel resembles other western democracies. In sum, biblical themes affect Israel's political rhetoric more than they affect the way officials actually work out their problems. Pragmatic coping with worldly realities generally overcomes emotional expressions that convey ingredients of spirituality.
1 | The chosen people in the promised land | 1 |
2 | The prophetic tradition | 27 |
3 | A politicized economy, a cumbersome giant | 55 |
Governing a country with unlimited aspirations, severe problems, and limited resources | 73 | |
4 | Religion : contentious from the time of the Bible to yesterday and today | 75 |
5 | Palestinian terror, external constraints, and domestic dispute | 101 |
6 | Misplaced hyperbole : traffic deaths and social policy | 127 |
7 | University management : aspirations and problems in the promised land | 149 |
8 | A place with too much history | 163 |
9 | Decision rules : coping, simplicity, and non-decision | 183 |