"Israelism": Hassan Barari and Why He Gives Me Hope

(Times of Israel) Ed Rettig - Dr. Hassan Barari, a Jordanian-born professor of political science at the University of Nebraska, is committed to "peaceful coexistence and historical reconciliation between the Arabs and the Israelis." His new book, Israelism, addresses "the underdevelopment of Israeli studies in the Arab world." Barari divides Arab academic work on Israel into three overarching "hegemonic discourses" - Marxist, pan-Arabist, and Islamist. He shows how scholars in each sector fail to account for Israeli resilience, not to mention success, because they set out to make a case rather than to investigate a subject. He also points to the connection between shallow analysis by scholars and bad decision-making in the Arab world. The writer is director of the American Jewish Committee's Jerusalem Office.


2012-04-20 00:00:00

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