Eye on Israel
Subtitle: how America came to view Israel as an ally
By: Michelle Mart.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
Subjects: Jews -- Public opinion; Public opinion -- United States; Jews in literature; Jews in motion pictures; Israel -- Public opinion; United States -- Foreign relations -- Israel; Israel -- Foreign relations -- United States
Description: "Eye on Israel shows how the seeds of contemporary U.S.-Israeli relations were sown in the cultural narratives of the late 1940s and 1950s, long before American policymakers formed a close political and strategic relationship with Israel. Michelle Mart brings together diverse areas of history and examines the cultural antecedents of this much-heralded relationship. She also tackles the difficult question of the relationship between American Jews and U.S. policy toward the Jewish state. Finally, Mart demonstrates that American images of Israel and Jews were shaped by specific cold war concerns - visible in movies, novels, magazines, and newspapers - and reflect American identity and political mythology in the midst of the struggle against communism.

The result is a unique examination of the intersections of culture, diplomacy, and ethnic and national identity through the specific case of U.S.-Israeli relations and American Jewish identity in the postwar period."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Images of the "new Jew" in postwar culture : building on the legacies of antisemitism and the Holocaust; title: United States and the founding of Israel : a particularist state with a universal mission; title: Views of the new Jewish state : the "Americanization" of Israel; title: The 1950s religious revival and "Christianizing" the image of Israel and Jews; title: Acceptance and assimilation : Jews in 1950s American culture and politics; title: The cold war, Suez, and beyond : cultural images and changing American-Israeli relations in the late 1950s.