Israel

<p>First published in 1978 Israel focuses on the pluralistic structure of Israel and its internal conflicts. The author distinguishes five major plural divisions: Palestinian Arabs in the occupied territories versus Israeli citizens; Israeli Arabs versus Jews; Druze versus Christian versus Muslim Arabs; religious versus nonreligious Jews; and non-European versus European Jews. These divisions differ in culture social structure and resources yielding together a social hierarchy which stands in contradiction to the vision of Israel’s founding fathers.</p><p>From this troubled situation Dr Smooha suggests that Israel dominated by a minority of European predominantly nonreligious Jews is far from reaching an optimal social mix and group harmony. He observes that within Israel’s pre-1967 borders the policies of compromise with the religious Jews control of Israeli Arabs and co-optation of non-European Jews have failed to resolve the tensions. The threat to national integration however will not be realized as long as the Arab Israeli conflict and the benefits of a full-employment subsidized economy continue. Until then Israel will remain a highly controversial and deeply divided society.</p>