How are Israelis able to see themselves as victims while victimising others?Israel's founders sought to create a nation of new Jews who would never again go meekly to the death camps. Yet Israel's strength has become synonymous with an oppression of the Palestinians that provokes anger throughout the Muslim world and beyond.Arthur Neslen explores the dynamics, distortions and incredible diversity of Israeli society. From the mouths of soldiers, settlers, sex workers and the victims of suicide attacks, Occupied Minds is the story of a national psyche that has become scarred by mental security barriers, emotional checkpoints and displaced outposts of of victimhood and aggression.It charts the evolution of a communal self-image based on cultural and religious values towards one formed around a single militaristic imperative: national security.
An insight into the diversity and contradictions of Israeli identity
Introduction1. Into The Kur Hitukh2. Soldiers And Sabras3. Strangers In The Land Of Their Fathers4. Strange Orthodoxies And Quantum Secularities5. Believers And Apostates6. The Home Front7. The Forgiven And The Forgotten8. Business As Usual9. Across The Green Line10. Away From ZionGlossaryIndex