"Israel is a Mediterranean society-in-the-making. This book is a detailed and comprehensive work which reviews the origins of Israel's Mediterranean identity, starting with its Zionist ideological origins and tracing the path up to the present, as Israel struggles with what it means to be a post-ideological Mediterranean country. How do Israelis define their collective identity in the region? Are they modern crusaders? Do they belong to the Middle East? to Europe? to the global village? Or perhaps theydo not have to choose between the local and the global? Many Israelis could easily identify with a Mediterranean consciousness and represent a complex synthesis of east and west. "--