The Yemeni Jewish remnants have triggered so much interest on the part of so many western governments and humanitarian organizations, to an extent that is quite rare. The story of the Yemeni Jewish remnants is distinct from that of their brethren who emigrated to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet (1949-51). Before and during Operation Magic Carpet, Yemeni Jews came on their own in overwhelming numbers, many of them on foot, undeterred by the prospects of the trials and tribulations which they knew would await them in the course of their travels. In contrast, the Yemeni Jewish remnants displayed a strong hesitation, if not reluctance, to leave Yemen. Thus, since Operation Magic Carpet and until 1962 - the year of the coup d'état eliminating the autocratic Imamic regime in Yemen and the closing of the Yemeni gates for Jewish emigration - only some four hundred Yemeni Jews heeded the call to emigrate to Israel. It is for this reason that the book is subtitled Carpet Without Magic. A 'red carpet' was indeed spread before the Yemeni Jewish remnants, but the 'magic' was no longer there.

The Yemeni Jewish remnants have triggered so much interest on the part of so many western governments and humanitarian organizations, to an extent that is quite rare. The story of the Yemeni Jewish remnants is distinct from that of their brethren who emigrated to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet (1949-51). Before and during Operation Magic Carpet, Yemeni Jews came on their own in overwhelming numbers, many of them on foot, undeterred by the prospects of the trials and tribulations which they knew would await them in the course of their travels. In contrast, the Yemeni Jewish remnants displayed a strong hesitation, if not reluctance, to leave Yemen. Thus, since Operation Magic Carpet and until 1962 - the year of the coup d'état eliminating the autocratic Imamic regime in Yemen and the closing of the Yemeni gates for Jewish emigration - only some four hundred Yemeni Jews heeded the call to emigrate to Israel. It is for this reason that the book is subtitled Carpet Without Magic. A 'red carpet' was indeed spread before the Yemeni Jewish remnants, but the 'magic' was no longer there.

In Jewish-Muslim Relations and Migration from Yemen to Palestine in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Ari Ariel analyzes the impact of local, regional and international events on ethnic and religious relations in Yemen and Yemeni Jewish migration patterns. Previous research has dealt with single episodes of Yemenite migration during limited spans of time. Ariel, instead, provides a broad sweep of the migratory flows over the 70 year time span during which most of Yemen’s Jews moved to Palestine and then Israel. He successfully avoids the polemic nature of much of the literature on Middle Eastern Jewry by focusing on the social, economic and political transformations that provoked and then sustained this migration.

In Traditional Society in Transition: The Yemeni Jewish Experience Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman offers an account of the unique circumstances of Yemeni Jewish existence in the wake of major changes since the second half of the nineteenth century. It follows this community's transition from a traditional patriarchal society to a group adjusting to the challenges of a modern society. Unlike the perception of the Yemeni Jews as receptive to modernity only following immigration to Palestine and Israel, Eraqi Klorman convincingly shows that some modern ideas played a role in their lives while in Yemen. Once in Palestine, they appear here as adjusting to the new conditions by striving to participate in the Zionist enterprise, consenting to secular education, transforming family practices and the status of women. “The book is an important contribution to the study of Yemeni Jews in Yemen and abroad as well as for Jewish-Muslim relations, relations between Yemeni Jews and other Jews, and gender studies...Many of these issues have not been previously studied, and the use of private archives and interviews greatly increases the value of this study." -Rachel Simon, Princeton University. Princeton, NJ, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, November/December 2014.

Mass Atrocities, Risk and Resilience examines the relationship between risk and resilience in the prevention of genocide and other mass atrocities and explores two broad areas of neglect. In terms of prevention, there is very little research that analyzes how local and national actors manage the risk associated with mass atrocities. In the field of comparative genocide studies, to date there has been very little interest in examining negative cases. Although much is known about why mass atrocities occur, much less is established about why they do not occur. The contributions in this book address this neglect in two important ways. First, they challenge commonly-accepted approaches to prevention. Second, they explore negative cases in order to better understand how local and national actors have mitigated risk over time.

This anthology examines and deconstructs what Israeli security looks like and how its various security identities have evolved both before the establishment of the state and in the years and decades since 1948. It casts light on how aspects of Israel’s foreign relations have been shaped as much by internal politics as by external challenge. Further, not only does it answer the questions surrounding Israel’s past, but examines carefully what type of country it has now become. Compared to much of the turbulence in the region, Israel’s diplomacies have been remarkably resilient and inventive. With the background of 100th anniversary of the Balfour declaration this book is a multidisciplinary study using several different methodological approaches; from discursive analyses, to theories of memories and identity, to interviews with Israeli soldiers in the field, to a legal approach to the topic, as well as International Relations studies and traditional archival studies. South Africa was one of Israel’s main partners in terms of security cooperation and weapons research and development until the fall of the apartheid regime. This has been compensated with Israel opening up diplomatic relations with China (1991) and India (1992) and extending its ties with Japan. While the EU often criticize Israel’s policies against the Palestinians, this is mostly rhetoric as for practical purposes Israel is like a member of the EU. This comprehensive volume studying contemporary Israel is an invaluable resource for students and scholars interested in Foreign and Security Policy, Israel and the Middle East.

In the twenty years that followed the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, 800,000 Jews left their homes in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, and several other Arab countries. Although the causes of this exodus varied, restrictive governmental measures and an outburst of anti-Semitic feeling during and after the war were major factors. Some of these "Mizrahi" Jews, most of whom were not active Zionists, were forced to leave behind property of great financial and ancestral value-property that was sometimes seized by the governments of the countries they fled. In this book, Michael R. Fischbach, who has dedicated years to studying land and property ownership in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, reconstructs the circumstances in which Jewish communities left the Arab world. Conducting meticulous and exhaustive research in the archives of Washington D.C., Jerusalem, London, New York, and elsewhere, Fischbach offers the most authoritative estimates to date of the value of the property left behind. He also describes the process by which various actors, most importantly the State of Israel, linked the resolution of Jewish property claims to the fate of Palestinian refugee property claims following the 1948 war. Fischbach considers the implications of contemporary developments, such as America's invasion of Iraq, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and Libya's attempt to shed its international pariah status, which have impacted pending claims and will affect claims in the future. Overall, he finds that many international Jewish organizations have supported the link between the claims of Mizrahi Jews and those of Palestinian refugees, hindering serious efforts to obtain restitution or compensation.