An American Political Scientist in Israel: From Athens to Jerusalem

by Paul Eidelberg

Overview

An American Political Scientist in Israel recounts the author's meetings with some of Israel's political and intellectual leaders after he immigrated to Israel in 1976. His book reveals, for the first time, the flawed mentality of these elites and how this affects their foreign policy. As a political scientist and student of the America's Founding Fathers, he provides a professional critique of Israel's ideological and institutional flaws.
Eidelberg also provides a detailed account of Israel's economic and technological contribution to the United States. Contrary to conventional opinion, dollar for dollar, the United States receives more from Israel than Israel receives from the United States! Finally, Eidelberg offers a remedy for Israel's woes. He first shows that although Israel, is a democracy from a sociological perspective, it is not a democracy from a political-institutional perspective. Not only does Israel lack a written Constitution with institutional checks and balances, but members of the legislature are not individually accountable to the voters in constituency elections. Operating in Israel is not representative government so much as multi-party cabinet government dominated by the prime minister. Eidelberg has therefore drafted a Constitution that empowers the people and is consistent with basic Judaic principles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739148907
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	08/20/2010
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Professor Paul Eidelberg is the founder and president of The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy and on the Advisory Council of the Ariel Center for Policy Research.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Prologue: What Israel Means to Me xi

1 My Talks with Israeli Leaders: A Question of Truth 1

2 Sadat's Strategy 15

3 Camp David and Statecraft 37

4 Self-Determination 47

5 The Fixation of Israel's Elites on "Land for Peace": Five Interpretations 59

6 Demophrenia 91

7 The UN-PLO Axis of Evil: Part I 117

8 The UN-PLO Axis of Evil: Part II 131

9 Ideological and Political Dissonance 147

10 Politics, the Art of the Possible 163

Bibliography 185

Index 191

Editorial Reviews

What can America teach Israel? And what can Israel teach America? Thirty-five years ago American political scientist Paul Eidelberg chose to live and teach in Jerusalem, placing himself physically and intellectually at the center of these questions. Weaving together his characteristic clear-headed analysis and constructive policy recommendations with accounts of his conversations with high-ranking Israeli officials, he offers the conclusions of a lifetime's work on behalf of his two countries, just as they have reached a crisis in their longstanding alliance.

Will Morrisey

In An American Political Scientist in Israel Paul Eidelberg powerfully illuminates the problems and deficiencies of contemporary Israeli politics. According to this thoroughgoing inquiry, the deficiencies are deeply rooted in both ideological and institutional weaknesses. A pervasive moral relativism infects policy- making, leading to unprincipled decisions on vital matters, and a dysfunctional multi- party system renders the government incapable of coherent and decisive action. Eidelberg views the subject from two perspectives: his devotion to the historic promise of Judaism, and his political science profession. Readers will find much to think about on questions theological, philosophic, and psychological.

Harry Clor

This book is full of brilliantly unfashionable and often simply indispensable advice for both Israel and America. Eidelberg is justly celebrated for his singular, erudite, and deeply serious insight—one that brings together politics, philosophy, and theology into a humanly worthy whole. And this book is surely the most and masterful of his contributions to a political science adequate to the crises of our times.

Peter A. Lawler