Israel and Its Mediterranean Identity

DAVID OHANA Professor at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

• PART I: IDENTITY ISRAEL TOWARDS A MEDITERRANEAN IDENTITY Mediterranean Multi-Culturalism A Bridge Over Mediterranean Water PART II: SPACE Between Levantism and Mediterranism Mediterranean Humanism Camus and the Israelis PART III: POLITICS Mediterraneans or Crusaders? Mediterranean Myths Politics of Political Despair or Mediterranean Dialogue? PART IV: SOURCES David Ben-Gurion: Israel and the Sea Jacqueline Kahanoff: Reflections of a Levantine Jew

"An able historian, Ohana...makes a well-researched case for both why Israel needs a new identity and how his proposal might work. At the intellectual level, this is first-rate." - Choice "David Ohana offers an insightful and original look at Israeli society, its past, present, and future. Ohana is more than a historian and the book provides a new and inspiring way of looking at Israel and its cultural options, one that is very much worth reading." - Yaakov Ariel, professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill