Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for JusticeBen-Yehuda presents an in-depth inquiry into the nature and patterns of political assassinations and executions by Jews in Palestine and Israel. Extensive empirical evidence is used to analyze the social construction of violent and aggressive human behavior, using a sociology of deviance perspective. Political assassinations and executions are placed within their particular cultural matrix to describe how this specific form of killing has been conceptualized as part of an alternative system of justice. "The taking of a human life is generally regarded as the ultimate evil. Given this fact, it is important to examine and understand how it is explained, justified, and cloaked in a 'vocabulary of motives.' Such acts are, in the author's words, 'socially constructed and interpreted,' dependent on the observer's location in a specific 'symbolic-moral universe.'Moreover, such acts (political assassination specifically) are manifestations of struggles that represent attempts to legitimate these world-views, rhetorical devices that serve to define 'boundary-markers' between such universes — moral crusades that attempt to validate one view vis-a-vis another. This general approach to political assassinations is original. Its application to assassinations by Israelis is original. The fact that the book is empirical marks it off from many speculations on the subject. A number of the author's findings make a distinct contribution. |
Other editions - View all
Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice Nachman Ben-Yehuda Limited preview - 1993 |
Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice Nachman Ben-Yehuda Limited preview - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Stern activities actors April Arab arrested Assassination Attempt assassination plot Aviv Avneri Banai Be'ery Bernadotte bomb British intelligence British police chapter Cohen commander court cultural Davidesku death decided decision to assassinate deviance Eliav Etzel fact February Giladi Ha'aretz Hagana Haifa Hashomer Hebrew Hence Hilewitz homicide ideological Illin interpretation involved Israel Israeli January Jerusalem Jewish underground Jews June justice Kasztner killed later Lehi Lehi's Lehi's members MacMichael major March members of Lehi military moral Moshe Mossad Moyne murder Nazi Nedava November NUMBER October organization Palestine Palmach political assassination events political executions Pritzker probably reasons revenge rhetorical devices Schiff sentence September Shamir shooting shot Sicariis social sociological sociology of deviance specific squealers Stern symbolic-moral universes target Tel Aviv terror tion took traitors trial Tubianski underground groups unsuccessful victim weapons wounded Ya'acov Yair Yediot Aharonot Yehoshua Cohen Yellin-Mor Yevin Yishuv Zerony Zionist