Contenu du sommaire : État démocratique ou état confessionnel ? Autour du conflit israël-palestine

Gilbert Achcar, Zionism and the Peace : From the Allon Plan to the Washington Agreement In the light of the Zionist strategy outlined in the Allon Plan in 1967, a plan involving the colonization and partial annexation of the occupied territories of Palestine, the repressive mission given to the PLO by the Washington agreement seems to be more of a pact between leaders than a reconciliation between two peoples. Israel and the United States seem to have succeeded in displacing the conflict between the Zionist state and its neighbors to an internal confrontation in the Arab countries between state governments and popular opposition movements.

Michel Warschawski, State, Nation and Nationalism. Zionism Today The debate over Zionism today is not theoretical or simply over semantics. It has direct implications on Israeli policies and on the meanings of the Oslo peace agreement. The Oslo declaration is in fact the most striking victory of Zionism because it allows continued Israeli control over the occupied territories as well as the continuation of Israeli settlement activity in them. At the same time it contributes to a separation of the two communities that is not imposed upon the Palestinians, but rather accepted by the Palestinian National Authority as an element of the liberation and of national sovereignty.

Norman Finkelstein, Reflections on Collective Responsability in the Arab-Israeli Conflict Contrary to widespread belief, Israeli citizens accept the repressive measures carried out against the Palestinian population. Not only do the Israelis share responsibility for the policy of a democratic state, but also for the acts of those directly implicated in the implementation of that policy. Israeli public opinion has not, however, been more unanimous in its support for the American war on Iraq than has Palestinian opinion in its support for the Iraqi missiles launched in the direction of Israel.

Simona Sharoni, Homefront as Battlefield : Gender, Military Occupation and Violence against Women The processes of military manpower acquisition are gendered processes. Military forces past and present have not been able to get, keep and reproduce the sorts of soldiers they imagine they need without drawing on ideological beliefs concerning the different, stratified roles of women and men. To ignore the social construction of femininity and masculinity and the relations between them, makes it impossible to explain adequately how the military establishment has managed to capture and control so much of society's imagination and resources.

Issa Wachill, Religion and Power in Lebanon The Lebanese National Pact is a political system that attempts to maintain a status quo that is constantly called into question. Far from constituting a framework for national integration, the arrangement contributes to divisiveness and instability. These centrifugal political tendences have been aggravated by the Palestinian presence and the Israeli intervention in Lebanon.

Abdellatif Hermessi, Islamic Fundamentalism and the Tunisian State In deciding to impose social changes from the top, political leaders in Tunisia have upset established beliefs and patterns of socialization. In doing so, they have destabilized the society in a long-lasting way. Although Tunisia has not experienced the conditions that led to the separation between Church and State in some European countries, the neo-Destour party did not hesitate to incorporate the idea in its modernization program. The Islamic movement which was created partially in reaction to it has been strengthened by a fusion of religious and social opposition to these changes.

Mohammed El Ayadi, The Image of the West in Islamic Discourse The image of the Occident possessed by Muslims, characterized by the idea that Islam is superior to all aspects of western human understanding, is profoundly rooted in the popular imagination as a result of a long and consistent work of religious instruction. This fact explains the rapid success of "Islamic" influences over masses of people in the Arab countries as well as the easy assimilation of this discourse by broad strata in Islamic societies.

Georges Drettas, State and Religion in Greece and Bulgaria, or the Impossible Secularization The creation of the nation-states emerging out of the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Europe and the Middle East was complicated by the millet. Characteristic of the political culture of societies formed during the time of Ottoman hegemony, the system regulating the relations between confessional groups was remarkably resistant to socio-historical change. Today it represents one of the cultural traits that most obstructs the process of modernization.