Scholarly and public engagement in jewish politics: A journey through liminal space in ten short chapters

This article interrogates the question of what it means to be a scholar-commentator in the digital age. Deploying an autoethnographic style, the essay asks about the role of power and responsibility in teaching, research, and public commentary, particularly in the context of studying and engaging in Jewish politics. The article addresses questions about the proper role of the scholar in the academy and the role of subjectivity and political commitments in structuring scholarship, pedagogy, and public engagement. It also examines how one’s view of the profession can seem to shift through the emergence of new writing outlets and new forums for public engagement. Finally, the author investigates how a scholar’s own political commitments can shift over time, how one seeks to shore up identification on social media while trying to change hearts and minds through the op-ed pages, and how community identification can serve as a buffer and motivator for particular forms of research and political action

The international self: Psychoanalysis and the search for Israeli-Palestinian peace

Uses a social-psychoanalytic model to argue that collective identity shapes foreign policy changes. The International Self explores an age-old question in international affairs, one that has been particularly pressing in the context of the contemporary Middle East: what leads long-standing adversaries to seek peace? Mira M. Sucharov employs a socio-psychoanalytic model to argue that collective identity ultimately shapes foreign policy and policy change. Specifically, she shows that all states possess a distinctive role-identity that tends to shape behavior in the international realm. When policy deviates too greatly from the established role-identity, the population experiences cognitive dissonance and expresses this through counternarratives-an unconscious representation of what the polity collectively fears in itself-propelling political elites to realign the state's policy with its identity. Focusing on Israel's decision to embark on negotiations leading to the 1993 agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Sucharov sees this policy reversal as a reaction to the unease generated by two events in the 1980s-the war in Lebanon and the first Palestinian Intifada-that contradicted Israelis' perceptions of their state as a "defensive warrior." Her argument bridges the fields of conflict resolution, Middle East studies, and international relations

Values, identity, and Israel advocacy

What do we care about-or pretend to care about-when we try to sway hearts and minds through political action? The question of values and value trade-offs in International Relations is understudied. By examining Diaspora-based Israel advocacy (the set of political and educational activities at the school, campus, community and formal political levels designed to increase support by Diaspora Jews, their co-citizens, and their governments for Israel), this paper interrogates the idea of "Jewish values," and theorizes about how actors negotiate among sentiment, aspiration, and values. The evidence suggests that Jews are more likely to invoke "Jewish values" when engaging in in-group critique, whereas Israel advocates are more likely to draw on universal values to defend Israeli goals and actions to others. The essay identifies five value clusters that appear to structure Israel advocacy activities: nationalism and sovereignty, democracy, science, history, and peace, identifies some potential value conflicts that may result, and raises questions about the strategic use of values in social mobilization

Narratives in pencil: Using graphic novels to teach Israeli-Palestinian relations

This article argues that using graphic novels is an effective and valuable pedagogical tool to enhance the teaching of international relations, and specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Graphic novels combine the best of film and prose in delivering a cognitive and affective experience that allows students to access the subject matter in a manner that complements the use of more conventional textbooks. Three such novels-Palestine, by Joe Sacco (2001), Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (2007), and Waltz with Bashir, by Ari Folman and David Polonsky (2009)-raise a number of important and relevant themes such as life under occupation and the shadow of terrorism, the intractability of conflict, the sources of violence, tensions within Israeli society, and collective memory and identity. After reviewing these three novels, this article discusses the benefits and challenges associated with using graphic novels in the political science classroom

Teaching Israel studies: Using Op-ed writing to Teach Israeli-Palestinian relations

Drawing from the authors' experience teaching op-ed writing across a variety of subjects as well as teaching Israeli-Palestinian relations using a range of methods, this article describes the benefits of using op-ed writing assignments in an Israel-Palestine course. The authors demonstrate the value of showing students how to develop concise, research-based prescriptive arguments that can complement what is often an explanatory-only approach to understanding Israeli-Palestinian relations. The article lays out the challenges and opportunities of helping students master a public commentary form that is becoming increasingly central in the digital age