What are the key factors that have transformed the Israeli political center and how will they shape Israel's role in the Middle East in the 1990s? Well-known experts join the editors, Reich and Kieval, in giving a unique picture of current and future trends in Israeli politics, focusing on the movement of the Israeli body politic to the right-of-center and the growing hold of Likud. They define future prospects, taking into account foreign policy, economic, and demographic issues. Academics, policymakers, and journalists will find this volume indispensable to understanding the critical role that Israel will play in the Middle East in the next decade and how domestic politics in Israel will define that role.

This survey of political developments by eleven authorities is based on a study of the latest events, on long reflection, and on two conferences that brought together sixty of the most knowledgeable experts on the Middle East today, drawn from the academic world and from various U.S. government departments and agencies. This analysis of political trends assesses Likud's centrality in the governmental system, the role of religious and settler movements, the linkage of domestic politics to the question of Arab-Israeli peace and the future of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and demographic, attitudinal, and other factors that affect political leadership and decisionmaking. The influx of Jewish immigration to Israel from the Soviet Union is viewed in terms of future implications as well. A detailed bibliography is provided.