Jewish Terrorism in Israel

PrefaceLife in the CountercultureThe Catastrophic EventThe Dynamic and Causes of RadicalizationMethodBook Structure1. Ancient and Modern History: The Founding MythsHasmoneansTerrorism in JerusalemJewish Political Activism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries2. Early and Mid-Twentieth Century: Ethno-Religious TerrorismThe Split Between the Etzel and the LehiThe Assassination of Lord MoyneFrom the Season to the United Resistance MovementThe Partition PlanThe Assassination of Israel KastnerKingdom of Israel (the Tzrifin Underground)Brit Hakanaim (Covenant of the Zealots)3. The Camp David Accords: The Struggle over the Promised LandThe Attack on the MayorsThe Crisis of the Camp David AccordsThe Jewish UndergroundThe Founding CliqueVengeanceRemoving the AbominationThe Massacre at the Islamic CollegeThe Exposure of the Network and Conclusions4. Meir Kahane and the Kach Movement: Jews Against IsraelisHebron Then and NowFrom Jewish Defense League to Kahanist CountercultureEarly DaysYoel LernerThe Modern Hasmonean RevoltThe Struggle in SinaiTNTThe Committee for the Safety of the RoadsThe DisciplesGod of Vengeance5. The Assassination of Yitzak RabinThe Vengeance UndergroundThe Yigal Amir GroupThe PlotFormation of the Network6. The Second Intifada: VengeanceThe Hilltop YouthThe Bat Ayin GroupThe Withdrawal from GazaGush KatifSa NurKfar TapuachAmona7. Eccentric Cults, Vengeances, and Lone WolvesUzi Meshulam CultThe Jerusalem Groups: The Ein Kerem Group and the Lifta GangSpontaneous VengeanceInterim Summary: The Exceptional GroupsMental Health and External EventsVengeance, Counterculture, and Mental DisturbancesThe Lone AvengersThe Mindset of the Lone Wolves8. In the Name of God, the People, and the Land: Reassessment of the Causes of Jewish TerrorismComparing Jewish Terrorism with Other Manifestations of Religious TerrorismConcluding Remarks: Looking AheadGlossaryChronology of Attacks and Events Related to Jewish TerrorismNotesIndex

Ami Pedahzur received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Haifa in Israel, where he also taught until 2004. From 2000 to 2004, he served as a senior fellow at the University's National Security Studies Center and was a member of its Terrorism Research Project team. In 2004, Pedahzur arrived at the University of Texas as a Donald D. Harrington fellow, and since 2005 he has served as an associate professor in its departments of government and Middle Eastern studies. In 2007, he became a senior fellow at The University of Texas at Austin's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and currently serves as associate editor of the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.Arie Perliger received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Haifa in Israel, where he also taught until 2007. From 2002 to 2008, he served as a fellow at the University's National Security Studies Center. In 2007, Perliger became a Golda Meir Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and currently serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences and an associate at the Combating Terrorism Center, United States Military Academy at West Point.

Jewish Terrorism in Israel addresses a huge lacuna in the field by providing the first systematic, in-depth treatment of Jewish terrorism from ancient times to today. It concludes with vitally important developments in Jewish extremism over the past nine years, making a signal contribution at a moment when interest in terrorism and counterterrorism is high, when more attention than ever is being focused on terrorism motivated by religion, and when we most need insight into the nature of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. -- Bruce Hoffman, author of Inside Terrorism Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger provide us with an intelligent, sensible, and compelling story of terrorism among a people more famously known as historical victims rather than perpetrators. Their use of multiple research methods--including first-hand observations and interviews--is admirable; their insight into the interaction among religious, political, social, and psychological forces is convincing; and their accounts of informal networks and ideological socialization are especially revealing. This book is a model of scholarship on a topic most resistant to dispassionate analysis. -- Neil J. Smelser, University of California, Berkeley This engaging book documents the dark side of Jewish political activism in Israel from ancient times to the present. These gripping accounts, which describe the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the anti-Arab vitriol of Meir Kahane, and the strident opposition of the settler movement, show that terrorism has been in the shadows of Jewish politics in Israel, just as it has been in every other religious tradition around the world. Jewish Terrorism in Israel should be required reading for anyone concerned about the moral dilemmas of Jewish activism, peace in the Middle East, and the rise of religious violence everywhere. -- Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence [Pedahzur and Perliger] provide excellent