Overview

"In The Crack-up of the Israeli Left, Dr. Mordechai Nisan delves into the disturbing case of cognitive dissonance, virtual thought-terror, and political disloyalty that emerged and mutated in the leftist camp in Israel. This cumulative deviance became the spring-board for the Oslo Agreement wager, a sham peace between Israel and the Palestinians which proved to be a colossal and bloody political blunder. With academic skill and an extensive familiarity with the Israeli political scene, Nisan dissects the rise of the political Right and the decline of the Left in the corridors of power. Yet, a variety of social and institutional levers of influence remained in the grip of the leftist elites, at once set to delegitimize and hound the Likud party's electoral successes; while promoting the leftist bias, as in the media, against the ""settler community"" and the nationalist parties on the Right. The left-leaning governments adopted irrational and irresponsible policies for territorial withdrawal, and all pullbacks proved disastrous. Anti-Zionism became a conventional discourse, the democratic choice of the people was thwarted by Supreme Court interventions, Prime Minister Netanyahu was vilified. These were diversions from some of the acute internal problems facing Israel: the extremist anti-Israel Arab citizenry, the arrogant ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jewish sectarians, and the illegal African migrant workers threatening the safety of Jews in southern Tel Aviv neighborhoods. The malaise of the Left, and especially its radical extreme fringes, expressed solidarity with the Arab-Palestinian enemy at home. This filled their ideological vacuum with a purpose. Leftists fired their moralistic arrows against ""the occupation."" For some, the Israelis were like Nazis. Jewish self-hatred was an old disease that mutated in Israeli Left circles - at the universities, in the media, and in cultural forums. This book sets the historical record straight about who, in Israel and beyond, was loyal to the Jewish state and its hallowed mission; and who strayed dismally from the path. It examines the cultural war at the root of the political battle-lines. It is about telling the unalloyed truth in a radical and explicit fashion. But it also points the way for intra-Jewish reconciliation among all in Israel. The book may scandalize some readers, but offer enlightenment and solace to the embattled nationalists and level-headed Jews and gentiles everywhere. No one will remain complacent to its tone and text in these days of constant political tremors striking the Jewish state."

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9781927618110

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Reviews

A compelling unveiling of the malice, totalitarian bent and national betrayal of the Left in the Jewish state. Dr. Mordechai Nisan has delivered a masterful achievement. ---Dr. Jamie Glazov, author of Jihadist Psychopath: How He Is Charming, Seducing, and Devouring Us. ------------ Mordechai Nisan has demonstrated in this elegantly written book that the disease of the Left has penetrated even to Israel. ---R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator. ----------- An important, hard-hitting and at times horrifying read, this book also sees and shines the light at the end of the seemingly dark societal tunnel, with the truth and beauty of the emerging 'New Israel' prevailing. ---Ruthie Blum, American-Israeli author and columnist. ------------

Author Information

Mordechai Nisan was born in Montreal in 1947. He earned a doctorate in Political Science from McGill University and, after moving to Israel, taught Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1976-2010. He has been affiliated with a number of academic and public institutions in Israel, as teacher and consultant. Among the books he authored are: American Middle East Foreign Policy (1982); Toward a New Israel: The Jewish State and the Arab Question (1992); Identity and Civilization: Essays on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (1999); Minorities in the Middle East (2002); The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr/Abu Arz (2003); Only Israel West of the River: The Jewish State and the Palestinian Question (2011); and Politics and War in Lebanon (2015). He published articles in journals and the press in Israel: in Nativ, Ha-Umma, Segula, Mida, The Jerusalem Post, Kivunim, Israel National News, and Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs; and abroad in Middle East Quarterly, Global Affairs, Middle East Journal, Midstream, Political Studies, FrontPage, and The Levantine Review. Dr. Nisan was also active in public affairs, especially in the cause for Jewish settlement in the territories of Judea and Samaria, and in forging ties between Jews and other communities in the state of Israel.

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