State of Grace? Rethinking Israel’s Founding Myths

Israel's first 50 years, friends and foes would have to agree, have been extraordinary. No state of equivalent size -- indeed, few states of any size -- have as consistently commanded world attention. Israel has been involved in almost every type of U.N. activity, beginning with the 1947 U.N. Special Committee on Palestine, followed in November of that year by the General Assembly resolution calling for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. From 1948 on, actions or reactions by Israel have produced cease-fire regimes, truce supervisions, refugee administration, and mediation efforts by U.N. secretaries-general, special