Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1968, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This dissertation is a postcolonial study of selected writings of the Palestinian intellectual, journalist, political activist, and author, Ghassan Kanafani. Using postcolonial theory to create a single framework for the study of selected writings of Kanafani, this dissertation will also contribute to the analysis of the postcolonial Palestinian novel. This study hopes to achieve these goals by investigating the ways in which Kanafani's literary works can serve as means to explore the importance that Palestinians attach to the history of their struggle for freedom and cultural preservation. It is within this postcolonial context that Men in the Sun (1963), All That's Left to You (1966), and Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories (1969) will be discussed in this dissertation. The novellas and short stories are prime examples of traumatic experiences that Palestinian refugees faced during Kanafani's lifetime. The writings reflect Kanafani's understanding of the permanent exile, fear, isolation, loneliness, and despair that he and many Palestinians experienced during major parts of the twentieth century as results of Zionist occupation of Palestine. Kanafani's realistic depictions of these harsh situations are key factors that make his works ideal for postcolonialist analysis.

Committee: Babacar M’Baye Dr. (Committee Chair); Ali Erritouni Dr. (Committee Member); Ryan Miller Dr. (Committee Member); Joshua Stacher Dr. (Committee Member); Ann Heiss Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Literature; Middle Eastern Studies

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, History

Freya Stark was a British traveler, author, and propagandist who authored two dozen books on her experiences in the Middle East and along the Mediterranean coast. Stark's decades of experience in the Middle East provided her with a unique vision for the future of the region, which she saw becoming an area containing modern, independent nations after the end of World War II. Stark's 1943-1944 tour of the United States of America provided her with an opportunity to explain this perspective. Yet, due to the timing of the tour coinciding with the increased tension surrounding Zionism in the United States and abroad, Stark faced personal criticism that was both inappropriate and avoidant. Freya Stark is now a neglected figure in history, whose vision for the Middle East and experiences in defense of this vision merit examination.

Committee: John Broich (Advisor) Subjects: History; Middle Eastern History

PHD, Kent State University, 2017, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

The historiography surrounding the role of the United States in relation to the creation of Israel is wide-ranging and covers a variety of perspectives. The voices of Arab Americans, however, are largely absent, due in part to a belief that the Arab American population was too small, fragmented, and disinterested in politics to have tried to influence American politics. This dissertation challenges that idea by examining the rhetoric, imagery, and messages of Arab American groups and their supporters in comparison with those of Zionist organizations and their proponents, with a specific focus on the efforts of the Institute of Arab American Affairs. By doing so, this work shows that members of the Institute viewed the United States as a reference culture and sought to convince Americans that the Arabs of Palestine were the best reflection of American identity and ideals. This work is thematically organized, examining how the Institute engaged with issues such as race and religion, democracy and justice, national security, and modernization to challenge previously held stereotypes regarding both Arabs and Jews and their respective claims to the Holy Land. Thus, this work shows that not only were Arab Americans politically active prior to the June War of 1967 between Israel and its Arab neighbors, they had a sophisticated understanding of what issues and ideas were important to a (white, Christian) American audience and sought to win that audience's support in order to influence policy makers, while combating Zionists' use of similar arguments to gain American support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The failure of the Institute and other Arab organizations during this time period to secure U.S. recognition of an Arab state in Palestine was not, therefore, due to inaction or indifference by the Arab American community, but rather to its inability to break through the dominant frames promoted by Zionists and their supporters that a Jewish state i (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mary Ann Heiss (Committee Chair); Timothy Scarnecchia (Committee Member); Janet Klein (Committee Member); Julie Mazzei (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1974, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: History

Undergraduate Honors Program, Malone University, 2016, Honors Thesis

This paper explores potential links between interpretation of scripture and actions towards Israelis and Palestinians, with a particular focus on the interpretations associated with the Antichrist and the Third Temple. The evidence presented here seeks to demonstrate that dispensationalist and Jewish interpretations of scripture are indeed hindering peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Committee: Scott Waalkes (Advisor) Subjects: Bible; Biblical Studies; History; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Studies; Peace Studies; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2016, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis examines the ways evangelical Protestant views of Israel shaped perceptions of the Middle East among the wider American conservative movement during the second half of the twentieth century, as well as the centuries-old ideas underlying their idiosyncratic worldview. Motivated by God's promise to Abraham to “bless those” who showed favor to his progeny and fascinated by Israel's role in End Times prophecy, politically conservative evangelical Christians worked tirelessly to promote the cause of the Jewish State to their American audience. As they gained influence within the American conservative movement, the rhetoric of New Christian Right activists like Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye, and Pat Robertson helped redefine Israel in the conservative imagination. In crafting an apocalyptic worldview that translated Israel's spiritual significance into secular politics, the New Christian Right transformed American conservatism in ways still visible today.

Committee: Kevin Mattson (Committee Chair); Chester Pach (Committee Member); Paul Milazzo (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Middle Eastern History; Religious History

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Art

This thesis builds a conceptual, theoretical, and cultural framework for the works I presented in my MFA thesis exhibition entitled Pillar of Cloud and Shamayim (there are waters). To this end, I utilize a blend of personal narrative, expository writing, and critical analysis that explores the various facets of our complex relationship to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and our search for the divine. Through this lens, this paper addresses the conceptual and material nature of my process, from how I gather and edit video footage, to how I find way to give physical form to the videos in an exhibition. I consider this writing to be a mechanism to frame and project working strategies that will continue to fuel my artistic practice in the coming years.

Committee: Alison Crocetta (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2012, History (Arts and Sciences)

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 committed the British government to supporting the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but it also represented key shifts in the empire as a whole in the wake of World War I. Political changes enacted after the war, such as the creation of the League of Nations and later the British Commonwealth, were mirrored by a shift in the rationale for Britain's imperial holdings and allowed Zionist supporters to institutionalize their ideology. Many in Whitehall believed that the Zionist program would aid in creating a stable Middle East friendly to British interests; policies originating from the Colonial Office often reflected this belief. These edicts did not always translate into viable policies on the ground in Palestine, however, as the High Commissioner had to reconcile them with complex regional tensions. British rule in Palestine underscores both the power and pitfalls of an ideologically-motivated grand strategy.

Committee: John Brobst PhD (Committee Chair); Patrick Barr-Melej PhD (Committee Member); Paul Milazzo PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; History; Middle Eastern History; Modern History; World History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2012, History

This dissertation explores the origins of the “special relationship” between the United States and Israel and documents the early American support for the Zionist project in Palestine from the late nineteenth century through the Arab uprising in August 1929 and illustrates how the West privileged the Zionist narrative over arguments emphasizing the Palestinian Arab right to self-determination. The question central to this dissertation is how and why the United States came to identify with the Zionist movement during the first half century of Jewish colonization in Palestine. This dissertation focuses on how the Zionists presented their arguments for the Jewish colonization of Palestine to the West in pamphlets, books, speeches, petitions, interviews, and meetings with officials. In the early stages, Zionists and their supporters presented their colonial movement to the Western powers as an extension of the Western civilizing mission, adopting the idealistic rhetoric of benevolent imperialism and the Biblical justifications of earlier settler colonies such as the United States. Zionists presented their movement as congruent with the history of white Americans, essentially characterizing Jewish pioneers and the Jewish colonization of Palestine in such a way so as to remind white Americans of how they understood themselves and their history of settlement, conquest, and expansion. Consequently, Zionists and white Americans understood the indigenous population of Palestine as congruous with Native Americans, which simply compounded the already negative attitude Americans often exhibited toward Islam and the peoples of the Orient. The Jewish colonization of Palestine began during the final stage of the U.S. conquest of Native Americans, and white Americans justified the removal, expropriation, and extermination of the natives on the prevailing ideologies of civilization and race. Zionists would adopt a similar ideology and strategy of conquest regarding the Palestinian Ar (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gary Hess (Committee Chair); Timothy Messer-Kruse (Committee Member); Beth Griech-Polelle (Committee Member); Tiffany Trimmer (Committee Chair) Subjects: History

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2006, History

This thesis examines the phenomenon of political Christian Zionism and its influence on U.S. policy toward Israel from 1977 to 1998. While there is a vast literature on America Middle East policy and the relationship between the U.S. and Israel; relatively little attention has been given to the actions of Christian evangelicals on behalf of Israel. Motivated by an eschatological system called dispensationalism, these Christian Zionists supported Israel through a variety of activities, including direct lobbying at the congressional level. Forming alliances with the Jewish pro-Israel lobby and the Israeli Likud party, Christian Zionists were active in pressuring Congress to oppose arms sales to Arab countries and gaining recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The rise to political prominence of the Christian Right during the 1980s and 1990s facilitated the growth and influence of Christian Zionist efforts, connecting dispensationalism to political power as never before. While scholars in the field of diplomatic history have noted the strategic and economic concerns that drove U.S. policy toward Israel, as well as the influence of the American Jewish community and its lobby, they have failed to adequately understand or integrate the profound political actions of Christian Zionists. By examining the role that Christian Zionism has had in the myriad of factors that have influenced U.S. policy toward Israel a more complete understanding of the dynamics of the U.S.-Israeli relationship is gained. In short, this thesis adds Christian Zionism to the matrix of factors currently identified as underlying the unique partnership between the United States and Israel.

Committee: Gary Hess (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2013, History

This paper examines Leopold von Mildenstein, the chief of the Judenreferat of the SD, the intelligence service of the Nazi SS and his attempt to solve the so-called Jewish Question through Zionist emigration in prewar Nazi Germany. Mildenstein's Zionism was contingent upon the German Zionist movement's success in effecting Jewish emigration to Palestine. When international factors such as the Arab revolt made this impossible, Mildenstein left the SD and joined the Propaganda Ministry where he worked to undermine his former policies by inciting Arabs in Palestine against British rule and Jewish colonization. Mildenstein's story is exemplary of the broader radicalization of Nazi Jewish policy. It demonstrates the importance of international factors as well as the reluctance of the SD and its parent organization, the SS, to implement more radical measures to solve the Jewish Question.

Committee: Jay Geller Phd (Advisor); Kenneth Ledford Phd (Committee Member); John Broich Phd (Committee Member) Subjects: History