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"Israel's Declaration of Independence is the first book-length treatment of the history and political thought of Israel's founding text. Through a presentation of the drafts of Israel's Declaration of Independence in English for the first time, Neil Rogachevsky and Dov Zigler examine the political and theoretical dilemmas faced by the founders of Israel as they prepared to declare independence. The issues at stake began with war, strategy, survival, and great power diplomacy, and ascended to the nature of rights, the relationship of religion and state, and the meaning of political sovereignty. The volume documents how the Declaration of Independence evolved and changed over several drafts. On May 14, 1948, Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared that it "is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State." With those words, he changed the trajectory of a nation and a region"--
List of contents
1. Natural rights; 2. From natural rights to labor Zionism: Tzvi Berenson and the legal department's draft; 3. International law: Herschel Lauterpacht's draft; 4. Diplomacy: Moshe Shertok's draft; 5. Politics and law: debating the declaration; 6. Natural and historical right: David Ben-Gurion and Israel's Declaration; 7. The laws of Israel and the declaration of independence; Conclusion: sovereignty, the Jewish state, and principles of political right.
About the author
Neil Rogachevsky is clinical assistant professor and associate director at the Straus Center of Yeshiva University, where he teaches Israel studies and political thought. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Tablet, Mosaic, Jewish Review of Books, American Affairs, Ha'aretz and other publications.Dov Zigler is an independent scholar and an economics researcher at Element Capital in New York.
Summary
The first book-length treatment of the history and political thought of Israel's Declaration of Independence and its drafting process - a momentous text and a pivotal moment in twentieth-century history. The authors examine the political and theoretical dilemmas faced by the founders of Israel as they prepared to declare independence.
