Israel Since 1980 Guy Ben-Porat, … [et al.] Israel is no longer the country it was. Over the last quarter century, a radical demographic, economic and political transformation has been taking place from within . Israelis are beginning to ask some fundamental questions about the country they live in and what it means to be an Israeli. These questions receive different answers, which reflect the changing nature of Israeli society and its fragmentation into different groups. This book, written by five Israeli academics, considers the deep rifts in Israeli society caused by ethnic, cultural, class and religious divides over the last quarter century. It looks at political and economic changes and how the welfare state has been undermined by the moves to privatization. It questions the role of the military in the light of the wider social and economic changes. Finally, and crucially, it asks whether new political initiatives can offer a realistic alternative to the inadequacies of recent governments. This is an informative account of Israel's recent past and the challenges it faces in the twenty-first century. About the Authors Guy Ben-Porat is Lecturer in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. His publications include Global Liberalism, Local Populism: Peace and Conflict in Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland (2006). Shlomo Mizrahi is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. He is the co-author of Public Policy between Society and the Court in Israel (2006). Arye Naor is Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University, specializing in the Israeli right, Chair of the Academic Committee at the Jabotinsky Institute in Israel and a former Secretary to the Cabinet (1977-82).[…] Erez Tzfadia is Lecturer in the Department of Public Policy at Sapir College, Israel. He is co-author of Policy and Identity in Development Towns: The Case of North-African Immigrants, 1952-1998 (1999). Yagil Levy teaches in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author of From 'People's Army' to 'Army of the Peripheries' (2007, in Hebrew) and Israel's Materialist Militarism (2007).