Coca-Cola, Black Panthers, and Phantom Jets: Israel in the American Orbit, 1967–1973 with Oz Frankel

Hosted by the Helen Diller Institute and the Center for Jewish Studies.Co-sponsored with the Magnes, Center for Jewish Studies, Department of History, and Department of American Studies at UC Berkeley.

In this book talk, historian Oz Frankel examines the period of the late 1960s as a unique moment when Israel became more closely entwined with the United States not just as a strategic ally but also through its intensifying intimacy with American culture, society, and technology. Taking an expansive view of Israeli–American encounters, historian Oz Frankel reveals their often unexpected consequences, including, for example, the ripple effects that the rise of Black Power had on both extremes of Israeli politics.

Monday, March 10, 2025 | 4:00-5:30 pm

In person at Room 141 in the Berkeley Law Building

Introduction by Professor Emeritus of History, Sheldon Rothblatt.

A light reception begins directly after the lecture in the front courtyard of Freehouse Berkeley, 2700 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704.

If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact rlgolbert@law.berkeley.edu or call (510) 664-7024 with as much advance notice as possible.

About the author

Oz Frankel is Associate Professor of History at the New School for Social Research.

About the book

In the late 1960s, Israel became more closely entwined with the United States not just as a strategic ally but also through its intensifying intimacy with American culture, society, and technology. Coca-Cola, Black Panthers, and Phantom Jets shows how transatlantic exchanges shaped national sentiments and private experiences in a time of great transition, forming a consumerist order, accentuating social cleavages, and transforming Jewish identities. Nevertheless, there remained lingering ambivalence about, and resistance to, American influences. Rather than growing profoundly “Americanized,” Israelis forged unique paths into the American orbit. As supporters and immigrants, American Jews assumed an ambiguous role, expediting but also complicating the Israeli-American exchange.

Taking an expansive view of Israeli-American encounters, historian Oz Frankel reveals their often unexpected consequences, including the ripple effects that the rise of Black Power had on both extremes of Israeli politics, the adoption of American technology that fed the budding Israeli military-industrial complex, the consumerist ideologies that ensnared even IDF soldiers and Palestinians in the newly occupied territories, and the cultural performances that lured Israelis to embrace previously shunned diasporic culture. What made the racial strife in the US and the tensions between Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews in Israel commensurable? How did an American military jet emerge as a national fixation? Why was the US considered a paragon of both spectacular consumption and restrained, rational consumerism? In ten topical chapters, this book demonstrates that the American presence in Israel back then, as it is today, was multifaceted and contradictory.

Purchase the book here.