From Rabin to Netanyahu
Israel's Troubled Agenda

This book examines what Benjamin Netanyahu's 1996 election victory means both domestically and internationally.

The May 1996 election of Benjamin Netanyahu, the 46-year-old leader of the right-wing Likud Party, as Israel's youngest ever prime minister provides further proof of the volatility of Israeli politics. Only a few months earlier Netanyahu's political career seemed all but finished. The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin at the hands of a Jewish zealot sent an unprecedented tremor throughout the nation, raising a tidal wave of sympathy with the slain prime minister and his quest for peace - and revulsion with the perceived culprits of his killing, not least Netanyahyu who had spearheaded a fierce campaign against the Labour-led peace process. Yet Netanyahu managed to win the elections by a hair-breadth margin. What are the sources of Netanyahu's victory and what are its domestic and external implications? Does it spell the demise of the nascent peace process between Israel and the Palestinians? Or will Netanyahu be the leader to rally the Israeli public behind the territorial concessions attending the attainment of comprehensive peace? A distinguished group of specialists from Israel, Great Britain and the United States address these questions.

Introduction: from Rabin to Netanyahu, Efraim Karsh. Domestic issues: the forming of the Netanyahu government - coalition formation in a quasi-parliamentary setting, Gregory S. Mahler
ideo-theology - discourse and dissonance in the State of Israel, Clive Jones
Israeli identity in transition, Lilly Weissbrod
elections 1996 - the de-Zionization of Israeli politics, Danny Ben-Moshe
towards a new portrait of the (new) Israeli soldier, Stuart A. Cohen. The peace process: peace despite everything, Efraim Karsh
from war to peace -the Middle East Peace Process, Mohammed Z. Yakan
Israel's peace-making with the Palestinians - change and legitimacy, Yaacov
Bar-Siman-Tov
the potential for ambiguity - the case of Jerusalem, Ira Sharkansky
attitude change and policy transformation - Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian issue, 1967-95, Hemda Ben-Yehuda
the Golan Heights - a vital strategic asset
for Israel, David Eshel
labour. Likud, the "special relationship" and the Peace Process, 1988-96, Jonathan Rynhold. Israel and its neighbours: Arab responses to the assassination
of Yitzhak Rabin, Gil Feiler
rethinking Israel in the Middle East, Elie Podeh
continuity and change in Egyptian-Israeli relations, 1973-97, Kenneth W. Stein
myopic vision - whither Israeli-Egyptian relations? Shawn Pine.