Raphael Israeli

Raphael Israeli (born September 15, 1935[1]) is an Israeli academic, Professor of Islamic, Middle Eastern and Chinese history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a member of the steering committee of the Ariel Center for Policy Research.[2]

Israeli was born in Fes, Morocco and emigrated to Israel at the age of 14.[3] He received a degree in Arabic and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and became a fellow of the Center of Chinese Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned an M.A. degree in East Asian History and a Ph.D in Chinese and Islamic History. Israeli is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Chinese.[3]

Contents

"Islamikaze"

In 1997, Raphael Israeli coined the term islamikaze as a proposed description for Islamic suicide bombers.[4] According to Israeli, he made up the word "Islamikaze" in an effort to signify that the primary goal of "suicide bombers" is not suicide but the infliction of damage to the enemy.[5] The term has not entered into widespread usage.[6] Primarily, it continues to be used in Israeli's own publications and in works discussing Israeli's publications. For example, the most prominent usage of the term is probably Israeli's 2003 book.[7] However political analyst Stephen Blackwell has criticized Israeli's coinage as a "flippant phrase" that "demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of Islamic culture",[8] and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn has discussed whether Israeli's concept of "Islamikazes" as motivated by military rather than suicidal goals may be helpful in profiling possible suicide bombers.[9]

Publications

References

  1. ^ International Who's Who in Asian Studies (Asian Research Service, 1975), p. 110.
  2. ^ Bio from the Ariel Center for Policy Research
  3. ^ a b Bio from Benador Associates at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Israeli, Raphael (Fall 1997). "Islamikaze and their Significance". Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence 9 (3): 96–121. ISSN 0954-6553.  See also Israeli, Raphael (2002-05-01). Green Crescent Over Nazareth: The Displacement of Christians by Muslims in the Holy Land. Routledge (UK). 70, fn.23. ISBN 0-7146-5258-X. , in which Israeli repeats the claim that his 1997 article coined the term "Islamikaze."
  5. ^ Israeli, Rafael (2002-04-15). "Poison: The Use of Blood Libel in the War Against Israel". Jerusalem Letter / Viewpoints (476): fn.3. http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp476.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-20. 
  6. ^ Eikelman, Dale; James Piscatori (2004-07-26). Muslim Politics. Princeton University Press. pp. ix. ISBN 0-691-12053-6. "In this environment, Islamikaze, a term proposed by an Israeli colleague of Moroccan origin (Israeli 2003), is unlikely to catch on." 
  7. ^ Israeli, Rafael (2003-08-30). Islamikaze: Manifestations of Islamic Martyrology. Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-8391-4. 
  8. ^ Blackwell, Stephen (May 2005). "Between Tradition and Transition: State Building, Society and Security in the Old and New Iraq". Middle Eastern Studies (Volume 41, No. 3): 445–452. 
  9. ^ Nunn, Sam (2004). "Thinking the Inevitable: Suicide Attacks in America and the Design of Effective Public Safety Policies". Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (Volume 1, Issue 4, Article 401): 6. 

External links