New Books in Middle Eastern Studies

Orit Rozin, "Emotions of Conflict, Israel 1949-1967" (Oxford UP, 2024)

Apr 7, 2025

Orit Rozin, an Associate Professor in Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, discusses the emotional challenges faced by Israelis from 1949 to 1967 in her work, Emotions of Conflict. She uncovers how public sentiment was influenced by conflict and policy-makers' emotional regimes. Rozin examines the roles of fear, resilience, and resistance, revealing how emotions shaped national identity and responses to insecurity. The conversation also touches on the manipulative aspects of emotional governance and the ongoing implications for contemporary discourse.

01:09:34

Episode guests

Orit Rozin

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

The podcast emphasizes how Israeli leadership strategically harnessed emotions like fear and pride to shape national identity during conflicts.

It highlights the development of unique emotional coping mechanisms within communities that fostered resilience and solidarity under external threats.

Deep dives

The Shift to Emotion in Israeli Histories

The importance of emotions in shaping Israeli history is emphasized, particularly during critical periods of conflict. The argument is made that policymakers and cultural leaders carefully curated an 'emotional regime' to manage public perception and response to security threats. This regime fostered feelings of resilience and preparedness among Israelis, with emotions being strategically harnessed to build a national identity. The book illustrates how emotional responses to fear, trauma, and pride influenced major societal changes and political decisions in Israel's formative years.

Intro

2min

Emotions and Resilience in Israeli History

31min

Expressions of Resistance in Emotional Instillment

2min

Emotional Governance in Nation-Building

14min

Emotional Landscapes of Conflict

9min

Exploring the Legacy of Reprisal Policies in Conflict

3min

Emotional Regimes: The Influence of Norms on Conflict Perception

3min

Israel’s citizens have had to cope with the emotional challenges of the threats their country has faced during its first two decades. Emotions of Conflict, Israel 1949-1967 (Oxford UP, 2024) unpacks the history of citizens’ emotions—an analysis of the reports about how they felt and of the emotional regime—the emotional repertoire designed by political leaders and cultural agents wishing to mold the feelings of Israeli citizens. The perspective of the history of emotions leads to hitherto untapped and nuanced insights about the weaknesses and strengths of Israelis, and reveals new connections between identity, morality, state-sanctioned violence, politics, and law, along with a new understanding of the motivations behind policy makers’ decisions.

Orit Rozin is Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University.

Eva Gurevich, PhD, is a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at Brandeis University. Her dissertation was titled, “Reconstituting Israel: The Impact of the Six-Day War on Political Thought in the Land of Israel Movement (Hatenuah Lemaan Eretz Yisrael Hashlemah)."

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