Coping with Terror: An Israeli Perspective - Hardcover

Sharkansky, Ira

9780739106846: Coping with Terror: An Israeli Perspective

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0739106848 ISBN 13: 9780739106846

Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc., 2003

A resurgence of worldwide terrorism threats has become a major problem for Israel, the United States, and numerous other countries. While citizens, politicians, and commentators demand a solution, the Israeli experience suggests that there are limits to the effectiveness of "heroic" action in solving this problem. A level-headed examination of a deeply unsettling topic, Coping With Terror argues that strategic responses to terrorism must focus on managing terrorism and its effects on the population rather than on solving it outright. It describes personal and collective stresses associated with terror and examines the idea of coping as the key to understand how policymakers, military personnel and ordinary citizens deal with these stresses. A non-polemical approach to a sensitive and serious topic, Coping With Terror provides new perspectives on this global problem.

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About the Author:

Ira Sharkansky is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Review:

How can they stand it? Every Israeli lives with the threat of being blown to bits at any moment. Each of them knows someone to whom it has happened. In clear and convincing terms, Ira Sharkansky coolly lays out the terms by which he and his countrymen cope, both as individuals and as a political system. Sharkansky's heart is in this book, but emotion never overcomes analytical coherence. (Richard Hofferbert, Binghamton University)

Ira Sharkansky's new book is an anti-utopian, but sadly, realistic, perspective on how Israelis cope with the continuing threat of terror, its impact on Israel's society and economy, and its impact on the lives of Palestinians. Believing that peace plans offered as permanent solutions are mirages, the author focuses on how the inherent ambiguities of life in a zone between all-out war and peace require strategies of adaptation to its inherent stresses. Coping with Terror makes for both compelling and illuminating reading. (Bert A. Rockman, Ohio State University)

Ira Sharkansky casts a broad and bright light on how Israelis and Israel attempt to cope with terrorism. It covers broad territory: psychological, social, and political. Although he is far from detached—Sharkansky lives in Jerusalem, teaches at the Hebrew University, and identifies with the victims of terror rather than its perpetrators—he is analytical and fair-minded in his attempts to understand and portray the Palestinian situation as well as the Israeli. (Eugene Bardach, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley)

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