National Security and Democracy in Israel (An Israel Democracy Institute Policy Study)

The Arab-Israeli conflict in general and the Palestinian intifada in particular have given rise to a wave of critical reappraisals of the Israeli experience - reappraisals that increasingly have come from those who can be described as mainstream Israelis. Situated within this emerging tradition of scholarly criticism, this book addresses a variety of problems that arise from the fact that Israel has been, since its inception, a democracy under seige. The authors offer analyses of Israel's concept of national security, its civil-military relations, Jewish-Arab relations within the boundaries of Israel, the challenge of maintaining a progressive interpretation of the rule of law against the background of a tense security situation, the problem of maintaining freedom of the press in these circumstances, the domestic implications of Israel's opaque nuclear posture, and, finally, the ""saving graces"" of an imperfect democracy.