Ben-Ami, Shlomo 1943- (Shlomo Ben Ami)

PERSONAL:

Born July 17, 1943, in Tangier, Morocco; immigrated to Israel, 1955, became citizen, 1959; son of Yaakov (a worker) and Alegria (a homemaker) Ben-Ami; married Ruth Simhony (a teacher), August 7, 1966; children: Ronen, Yotam, Aner. Education: Tel-Aviv University, B.A., 1970, M.A., 1971; Oxford University, D.Phil., 1974.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Kfar-Saba, Israel. Office—School of History, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

CAREER:

Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel, lecturer, 1977-79, senior lecturer, 1979, associate professor, 1979-80, head of school of history, 1982—. Military service: Israeli Defense Forces, 1962-64.

MEMBER:

Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Research fellowship at St. Antony's College, Oxford, 1980-82.

WRITINGS:

Sefarad ben diktaturah le-demokratyah, 1936-1977 (title means "Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy, 1936-1977"), Am Oved (Tel-Aviv, Israel), 1977, revised edition published in Spanish translation by Bar Kojba Malaj as La revolucion desde arriba: Espana, 1936-1979 (title means "Revolution from Above: Spain, 1936-1979"), Riopiedras Ediciones (Barcelona, Spain), 1979.

The Origins of the Second Republic of Spain, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1978.

Historia de estado de Israel: Genesis, problemas y realizaciones (title means "A History of the State of Israel: Origins, Problems, Achievements"), Ediciones Rialp, 1981.

(Contributor) Yoram Dinstein, editor, Models of Autonomy, Transaction Books (Edison, NJ), 1981.

(Contributor) Jose Andres Gallego, editor, Historia de Espana y America, Volume 16: Revolucion y restauracion, Ediciones Rialp, 1981.

(With Adam Doron) Bet Berl: Toladot U-ve ayot, Bet Berl (Israel), 1981.

Fascism from Above: The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain, 1923-1930, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1983, revised edition published in Spanish as La Dictadura de Primo de Rivera, 1923-1930, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1983.

(Contributor) Christian Abel and Nissa Torrents, editors, Spain: Conditional Democracy, Croom Helm (London, England), 1984.

(Contributor) Paul Preston, editor, Studies on the Second Republic in Spain, Methuen (London, England), 1984.

(Contributor) Mehkarim Beteror Veleumiut (title means "Studies on Terrorism and Nationalism"), Manahem Begin Centre for the Study of Underground Movements, Bar Ilan University (Tel-Aviv, Israel), 1984.

Italyah—mi-liberalizm Le-fashizm, Matkal/Ketsin hinukh rashi/Gale Tsahal (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1985.

Kelim Sheluvim: Hevrah Bitahon U-mediniyut Be-Yisrael, ha-Makhon li-yehasim benleumiyim a. sh. Leonard Daivis (Jerusalem, Israel), 1997.

Makom Le-khulam: Eli Bar-Navi Mesoheah im Shelomoh Ben-Ami, ha-Kibuts ha-meuhad (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1998.

Ve-eleh Toldot—2000 Historyah Yehudit, Yediot aharonot (Tel-Aviv, Israel), 1999.

(Editor, with Yoav Peled and Alberto Spektorowski) Ethnic Challenges to the Modern Nation State, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Quel avenir pour Israel?, Presses Universitaires de France (Paris, France), 2001.

Hazit Le-lo oref: Masa El Gevulot Tahalikh Ha-shalom, Yediot aharonot: Sifre hemed (Tel-Aviv, Israel), 2004.

Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Also contributor to Identidad y testimonio: Anejo del olivo; Documentacion y estudios para el dialogo entre judios y cristianos (title means "Documentation and Studies for the Dialogue between Jews and Christians"; proceedings of the Fourth Spanish-Israeli Symposium), 1979. Contributor of articles and reviews to scholarly journals, including Journal of Contemporary History, European Studies Review, Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, Revista de Departamento de Derecho Politico, Zmanim, Economic Journal, Durham University Journal, Journal of Modern History, and Revista de Occidente.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his third book on modern Spanish history, Fascism from Above: The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain 1923-1930, Shlomo Ben-Ami compares General Primo de Rivera's government, from its origins in a 1923 military coup to its collapse seven years later, with other dictatorships in southern and eastern Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. He gives special attention to the Italian fascists under Mussolini who, like Primo de Rivera, began with conservative and royal support. Reviewer Martin Blinkhorn of the Times Literary Supplement deemed Ben-Ami's book "both welcome and important," noting that the Spanish general's reign has received little attention from historians. The critic also praised the Israeli scholar's book as "exhaustively researched and constantly stimulating." He concluded: "Ben-Ami's exploration of … serious themes makes his book rewarding reading for specialists in Spanish history. Even they are made to work hard, however, so dense is the author's material, so oblique at times his manner of presenting it…. The uninitiated may thus find Ben-Ami's study somewhat awkward to use with profit but it is in most respects a fine book."

In Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, Ben-Ami writes about the ongoing strife in the Middle East and the dispute over whether Israel truly holds the right to occupy the land they claim. As one of the negotiators involved in trying to broker peace between Israel and Palestine in 2000—an attempt that ultimately failed—Ben-Ami has a unique viewpoint on the situation. Over the course of his book, Ben-Ami offers readers some historical perspective regarding the long-term antagonism between the Israelis and their Arab neighbors, addressing such issues as the original motivation for creating the state of Israel, which, for most American and European politicians, was looked upon as a way of making amends for the atrocities of the Holocaust. However tragic the circumstances during World War II, Ben-Ami notes that they are now many decades old and the horror tends to fade when the memories of the brutal bloodshed being carried out in Israel are far more recent. Instead of stressing the Holocaust, Ben-Ami traces the history of the Jews and their persecution across Europe for centuries, illustrating the myriad reasons for ultimately granting them their own land and for allowing them to keep it. L. Carl Brown, in a review for Foreign Affairs, noted of Ben-Ami that "his tough, even harsh, criticism of ‘his’ side makes even more acceptable his unblinkered analysis of the other."

Ben-Ami is fluent in English, Hebrew, Spanish, and French; he reads Italian.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Foreign Affairs, May 1, 2006, L. Carl Brown, review of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, p. 169.

Times Literary Supplement, February 10, 1984, Martin Blinkhorn, review of Fascism from Above: The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain, 1923-1930.