An examination of policy-making, implementation and evaluation of public policies in Israel. The volume covers the institutional as well as the political and the bureaucratic framework within which public policies have been made and implemented. Contributors to the volume critically examine public policies in the areas of housing, health, education, social welfare, citizen participation, water and transporation. The changing roles of the supreme court, the state controller, and of think-tanks in the policy processes are also systematically examined.

The 1999 Israeli elections focused on the character of the main political contenders for prime minister - Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. Along with Barak's victory, the Israeli public made important statements concerning the shape and direction of Israeli political culture with a hope of a centrist vision. Leading Israeli political scientists discuss the revival of the Israeli left and the increased strength of ethnic Sephardi, Russian and Arab electorates. They also examine the place of foreign policy, media, and other socio-economic factors on the outcome of the election.

This is the story of the cultural and political struggle between Christians and Muslims, and of the rapid Islamicization of Nazareth - the birthplace of Christianity - ironically, under the rule of the Jewish State of Israel. Until the creation of Israel in 1948, Christians formed the majority in the township of Nazareth. However, as Muslim refugees fled adjoining villages for the safety of the city during Israel's War of Independence, the demographic balance began to shift. By the year 2000, Christians had been reduced to a mere 30 per cent of the city's population of 60,000. Nazareth has...

In this volume, the author seeks to fully reconstruct the process by which the Kennedy administration decided to sell to Israel Hawk surface-to-air missiles. He argues that such domestic considerations as the approaching congressional elections, and such political calculations as the administration's desire to promote a Palestinian settlement, were all part of a highly complex decisional setting which affected the thinking and behaviour of members of Washington's high policy elite on the very eve of the Hawk decision, albeit not to the same degree. Ultimately, a winning coalition was formed...

The "Israeli History, Politics and Society" series comprises multidisciplinary studies that range from elections and the Yom Kippur war to the search for a true Israeli identity and the various initiatives to foment or prevent the peace process. This volume brings together a set of articles that try to estimate the direction of developments in Israeli public administration: whether ministries will remain under the ambit of the Weberian model, follow the New Public Management model, or move towards a mix of the two. Each essay focuses on a specific factor which may inhibit reforms, such as the...

One of the most crucial issues to affect national policy in the state of Israel is that of relations between its Jewish and Arab citizens. The confrontation of October 2000 demonstrated the explosive potential of the unresolved dilemmas posed by these relations.

This volume provides a wide ranging historical survey of the special relationship between the Zionist movement and Israel with the Hashemite family and its far-reaching implications for Middle Eastern affairs in general, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. It includes chapters on Transjordan and the Yishuv, and the history of covert relations between Jordan and Israel.

Examines the unique challenges which Israel has faced - Addresses the renewed constitutional framework - Focuses on political developments since the early 1990s During the past decade many dramatic changes have influenced the basic characteristics of the Israeli democracy, including the environmental and existential circumstances that dictate the country's' future. The Last Days in Israel examines the challenges and circumstances this country has faced and addresses both the public's and leadership's singular goal of 'peace and security'. The book also investigates the renewed constitutional...

Based upon the author's own experiences this study explores the Israeli government's attitude to the West Bank and Gaza over a period of 30 years. The fools in the book's title refers not only to the Arabs who rejected Israeli peace offers but to the Israelis themselves.