New Books Network
Israel Studies
Politics & Polemics November 17, 2020

Mythologies Without End

The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020

Jerome Slater

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
The history of modern Israel is a fiercely contested subject. From the Balfour declaration to the Six-Day War to the recent assault on Gaza, ideologically-charged narratives and counter-narratives battle for …

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Israel Studies November 5, 2020

Between Dixie and Zion

Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel

Walker Robins

Hosted by Lane Davis
In Between Dixie and Zion: Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel (University of Alabama Press, 2020), Walker Robins explores how Southern Baptists engaged what was called the “Palestine question”: whether …
Israel Studies October 5, 2020

Women’s Political Activism in Palestine

Peacebuilding, Resistance, and Survival

Sophie Richter-Devroe

Hosted by Josephine Chaet
Dr. Sophie Richter-Devroe’s book, Women’s Political Activism in Palestine: Peacebuilding, Resistance, and Survival (University of Illinois Press, 2018) offers an analysis of the forms assumed by women’s political resistance in …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel September 9, 2020

The Invention of Jewish Theocracy

The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel

Alexander Kaye

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The tension between secular politics and religious fundamentalism is a problem shared by many modern states. This is certainly true of the State of Israel, where the religious-secular schism provokes …
Literature September 7, 2020

The Hilltop

Assaf Gavron

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Mordantly funny and deeply moving, The Hilltop about life in a West Bank settlement has been hailed as “brilliant” (The New York Times Book Review) and “The Great Israeli Novel …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel August 6, 2020

The War of Return

How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace

Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Two prominent Israeli liberals argue that for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to end with peace, Palestinians must come to terms with the fact that there will be …
Israel Studies July 29, 2020

Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East

Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Sports scholars Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek’s edited volume, Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2019), makes a significant contribution to what remains a largely …
Indian Ocean World July 21, 2020

The Gulf Region and Israel

Old Struggles, New Alliances

Sigurd Neubauer

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Gulf scholar Sigurd Neubauer’s The Gulf Region and Israel: Old Struggles, New Alliances makes a significant contribution to our understanding of what drives shifting alliances in the Middle East, an …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 6, 2020

The Good Assassin

How A Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down The Butcher of Latvia

Stephan Talty

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
History that reads like a thriller; The Good Assassin: How A Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down The Butcher of Latvia (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020) by Stephan …
Film July 3, 2020

The Palestinian Idea

Film, Media, and the Radical Imagination

Greg Burris

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
Is there a link between the colonization of Palestinian lands and the enclosing of Palestinian minds? The Palestinian Idea: Film, Media, and the Radical Imagination (Temple University Press, 2019) argues …
Israel Studies May 25, 2020

Polarized and Demobilized

Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine

Dana El Kurd

Hosted by Susan Liebell
What demobilizes a once mobilized society? How does international involvement amplify or suppress these dynamics? In Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine (Oxford University Press, 2020), Dana El …
Israel Studies May 21, 2020

Israel’s Jewish Identity Crisis

State and Politics in the Middle East

Yaacov Yadgar

Hosted by Peter Bergamin
Yaacov Yadgar discusses his new book, Israel’s Jewish Identity Crisis: State and Politics in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2020) with Peter Bergamin. An important and topical contribution to …
Israel Studies May 19, 2020

Theodor Herzl

The Charismatic Leader

Derek J. Penslar

Hosted by Peter Bergamin
The life of Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) was as puzzling as it was brief. How did this cosmopolitan and assimilated European Jew become the leader of the Zionist movement? How could …
German Studies April 7, 2020

West Germany and Israel

Foreign Relations, Domestic Politics and the Cold War

Carole Fink

Hosted by Craig Sorvillo
In her new book, West Germany and Israel: Foreign Relations, Domestic Politics and the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Carole Fink examines the relationship between West Germany and Israel …
American Studies March 30, 2020

The Movement and the Middle East

How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left

Michael Fischbach

Hosted by Zeb Larson
One of the most divisive international issues in American politics today is over Israel and Palestine. The close ties between Israel and the United States are very strong and see …
Israel Studies March 9, 2020

Waste Siege

The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine

Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins

Hosted by Jacob Doherty
Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019) is an ethnography of Palestinian life under occupation that takes waste infrastructures as a starting point for exploring …
Israel Studies February 19, 2020

More Noble Than War

A Soccer History of Israel-Palestine

Nicholas Blincoe

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Nicholas Blincoe’s More Noble Than War: A Soccer History of Israel-Palestine (Bold Type Books, 2019) is a beautifully narrated and written history of a century of conflict between pre-state Jews …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel February 19, 2020

Shadow Strike

Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power

Yaakov Katz

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
With the world’s attention riveted to the nuclear threat from Iran, Yaakov Katz’s new book could not be more timely. In Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian …
British Studies February 3, 2020

Partitioning Palestine

British Policymaking at the End of Empire

Penny Sinanoglou

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Partitioning Palestine: British Policymaking at the End of the Empire (University of Chicago Press, 2019) is the first history of the ideological and political forces that led to the idea …
Israel Studies January 31, 2020

The Making of the Israeli Far-Right

Abba Ahimeir and Zionist Ideology

Peter Bergamin

Hosted by Yaacov Yadgar
Peter Bergamin’s, new book, The Making of the Israeli Far-Right: Abba Ahimeir and Zionist Ideology (I. B. Tauris, 2019), is an intellectual biography of one of the most important propagators …