Introduction: Israel before Israel
Résumé
Not a day goes by that Israel is not discussed in the media. Most of the time newspapers and television images associate Israel with violent events: Palestinian attacks, army bombings, rocket launches, "targeted assassinations," hostage taking, airplane hijacking, tank battles... and the list goes on, for the State of Israel has been engaged in a conflict with its Arab neighbors since its birth sixty-five years ago. It has been first and foremost a conflict with the Palestinians that has ebbed and waned, but has not yet reached any definitive conclusion. In fact, the conflict even precedes the birth of Israel in 1948 since the entanglement began at the dawn of the twentieth century with the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants bearing a national project and encountering the local Arab population which was also aspiring to political independence...