WOCMES – Seville, Spain, July 2018

Why a Jewish State in the Middle East? Challenges & Objections

On July 18, 2018, ICMES President, Norton Mezvinsky, and ICMES Board member, Ghada Karmi, participated in a panel session entitled “Why a Jewish State in the Middle East? Challenges and Objections,” at the 2018 World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), held in Seville, Spain on July 16-22, 2018. Also participating on the panel was Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro of New York City and Yakov Rabkin, Professor of History at Université de Montréal. The panel focused upon Israel’s existence as a Jewish state in the Middle East. The discussion considered and questioned Zionism, the reigning philosophy of the state of Israel, and scrutinized Israeli Zionist policies that affect Jews, Palestinians and others. Dr. Karmi’s presentation, titled “An Arab View,” considered the Zionist proposition to establish an exclusive state for Jews in an already inhabited country, Palestine. Her paper reviewed the history and analyzed the consequences for the indigenous, Palestinian population and the Middle East region. Rabbi Shapiro’s presentation, titled “Why a Jewish State in Israel?” questioned Israel’s referring to itself as the nation-state of the Jewish people and will explore how Zionism incorrectly arrogated to itself the authority to represent the Jewish people. Prof. Rabkin’s presentation, titled “The State in Judaic and Christian Theologies,” examined some of the effects of Zionism on Judaism and Christianity. His presentation also looked at the opposition the political movement evoked in different intellectual, social and religious circles, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Dr. Mezvinsky’s presentation, titled “Definitions of and Reactions to a Jewish State,” considered varying definitions of the Jewish state and specified certain objections to Israel from other parts of the Middle East and the wider world.

WOCMES – Barcelona, Spain, July 2010

Religion & the State

This panel reflected some of the religion and state emphases of ICMES. ICMES Board member Ibrahim Abu-Rabi‘ gave a paper which considered Islamism as a multifaceted phenomenon in the contemporary Arab world intent on challenging the post-World War Two political order.  Abu-Rabi‘ argued that Islamism is anti-imperialist in nature and utilizes terminology and concepts of the radical Left.  ICMES Secretary Issam M. Saliba gave a paper discussing the legal foundations of constitutional theory articulated by certain scholars in support of the Islamic State, reviewed some historical evidence, and pinpointed minority views that do not subscribe to the integral connection between political governance and divine dictates.  ICMES President Norton Mezvinsky gave a paper which presented an overview and analysis of differing positions within traditional Judaism regarding belief in a biblical promise of land to the Jews.  Mezvinsky related these differing emphases to the current State of Israel and the Palestinian–Israeli conflict.

Ending an Iraqi State

This panel, chaired by Tareq Ismael, provided a critical assessment in both theoretical and policy terms of the U.S. objective of “state-ending” in Iraq. The panel focused on this concept and its unforeseen but foreseeable consequences for Iraqis and the region.  Attention was given to the ways “state-ending” challenges standard ways of understanding foreign policy and provides a reasonable metric for ascribing responsibility for the high human and cultural costs of the American-led invasion. The invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein is now routinely spoken of as a U.S. foreign policy success that provides a model for action elsewhere in the region. The panel assessed the costs and consequences of a policy of state-ending.  The first paper, “State-Ending: What the Iraqi ‘Success’ Really Means,” by ICMES Board member Raymond W. Baker, aimed to bring this animating concept of “state-ending” into full view and to use this clearly articulated U.S. war aim as a measure for the “success” of the U.S.-led Iraqi invasion. Particular attention is paid to the human and cultural consequences of the invasion and post-invasion remaking of Iraq, alongside the standard geopolitical assessment.  The second paper, “Ruination: Cultivating Sectarianism in the Ruins of Iraq,” by Tareq Ismael, explored a major consequence of the U.S. invasion and devastation of Iraq: the rise of militant sectarianism. The implications of the new sectarianism were explored in its Iraqi, regional, and global implications. What exactly has U.S. policy wrought and with what implications for Iraqis and the region? This paper aimed to critically examine the standard account of Iraqi political culture and to distinguish differing forms of sectarianism in Iraqi political history, separating the phenomenon of social or folkloric sectarianism from political sectarianism.