Dartmouth Events

The all-important Israeli elections of April 9, 2019, ought to be interpreted within the broader context of Israel’s prolonged identity crisis. Israel has witnessed over the last few decades the emergence of internal conflict between universalists and particularists, liberals and conservatives, promoters of majoritarianism versus the promoters of minority rights, and those who prioritize Israel’s Jewishness versus those who emphasize the country’s democratic quality. This conflict is no less than a full-fledged “Kulturkampf” (cultural war) over the Zionist vision and reality, and it applies to practically all issues facing the country—the relationships with the Palestinians, the nature of the Israeli society, and the place of the country in the world at large.

Professor Ilan Peleg is the former president of the Association for Israel Studies and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of its scholarly journal.  Among his 12 books are Democratizing the Hegemonic State (2007) and Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (2011), both published by Cambridge University Press, as well as a political biography of M. Begin, a book on neo-conservatism & George W. Bush’s foreign-policy, and a volume on human rights on the West Bank (Syracuse). Peleg is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law at Lafayette College and a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC.

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