City on a hilltop: The participation of Jewish-American immigrants within the Israeli settler movement, 1967--1987

This dissertation investigates how and why Jewish-American immigrants participated within the Israeli settler movement between 1967 and 1987.;The first question my dissertation confronts is: Who are the American-Israeli settlers in the occupied territories? My project begins by constructing a demographic profile of Jewish-American settlers after 1967. My original findings help dispel many stereotypes about this group. I also quantify the number of Jewish-American settlers in the occupied territories, concluding that this group comprises approximately 15% (45,000 individuals) of the approximately 300,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank today.;Next, this project explores how Jewish-American immigrants participated, as both settler cadres and leaders, in the establishment of the Israeli settlement enterprise. In particular, the narrative examines the appropriation of the classic Zionist settlement model of the garin [seed colony], where groups of Jewish-Americans formed cooperative organizations to collective immigrate and settle beyond the Green Line. This dissertation also analyzes the dynamic and shifting quadrilateral relationship between Jewish-American immigrants, the Israeli government, the native Israeli settler movement, and the Palestinians.;The centerpiece of this project is three in-depth case studies based upon archival materials, the periodical press, and oral history never before brought to light, that reconstruct the narratives of the American-Israeli settlements of Yamit, Efrat, and Tekoa for the first time in the scholarly literature.;Further, this dissertation addresses why Jewish-American immigrants sought to participate within the Israeli settler movement. I argue that their activities were both an expression of a religio-political imperative to live in the whole of the land of Israel and part of a uniquely American secular vision of pioneering and the creation of new, utopian, suburbanized communities in the occupied territories that would serve as a city on a hill(top) to both Israel and the United States. This discourse analysis challenges popular views that Jewish-American settlers were uniformly inspired by messianism or violence and helps problematize the left-right dichotomy of contemporary analysis.;This dissertation will underscore the unique historical legacy of Jewish-American settlers and make a new and original contribution to our historical knowledge of the Israeli settler movement and Jewish-American immigration to Israel.