Neo-Zionism

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Neo-Zionism is a movement that appeared in Israel after the Six Days War and that evolved in parallel with Post-Zionism. Both developed during the "fundamental shaking of the dominant national ethos, Zionism, that generate[d] the historical revision and debate in Israel".[1]

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[edit] Ideology

Neo-Zionism emerged in the 1970s.[2] It is mainly constituted of settlers and members of the "national camp" in Israel. It is politically represented by the Mafdal and the Likud and other small parties such as Tehiyah, Tzomet and Moledet[2]

Neo-Zionists consider that "secular Zionism", particularly the labor version, was too weak on nationalism and never understood the impossibility of Arabs and Jews to live together in peace. They claim that Arab attitude to Israel takes its root in their antisemitism and that it is a Zionist illusion to think living in peace with them is possible. They consider Arabs in Israel to be a fifth column and pose a demographic threat. From their point of view, the only solution to achieve peace is "deterrence and retaliation".[3]

For Neo-Zionism, "the weakness of Israeli Nationalism derives from his alienation of Jewish sources and culture (...). Only a new national-religious and orthodox coalition [could] cure Zionism of this moral bankruptcy".[3] Neo-Zionists view the land of Israel as the natural and Biblically mandated home of the Jewish people and assert that the goal of Jewish statehood is not only about creating a safe refuge for Jews but also about the national-historic destiny of the people of Israel in the land of Israel.

Neo-Zionism is promoted by members of the Kumah organization and journalists at Arutz Sheva for a Zionist stream based on what its adherents call authentic Jewish spiritual foundations.

For Chan & al., "Neo-Zionism (...) is an exclusionary, nationalist, even racist, and antidemocratic political-cultural trend, striving to heighten the fence encasing Israeli identity.[2]

[edit] Comparison with post-Zionism

The traits of both neo-Zionism and post-Zionism are not entirely foreign to "classical" Zionism but they differ by accentuating antagonist and diametrally opposed poles already present in Zionism. "Neo Zionism accentuates the messianic and particularistic dimensions of Zionist nationalism, while post-Zionism accentuates its normalising and universalistic dimensions".[2]

Main orientations of neo-Zionism and post-Zionism according to Baruch Kimmerling[1]
Neo-Zionism Post-Zionism
Concept of membership Ethnic Civic
Self identity Jewish Israeli
Normative identity Collectivisit Individualistic
Spatial identification Land of Israel (biblical land) State of Israel ("green line")
Temporal identification Ancient times and far future ("our ancestors") Present and near future ("our kids")
Cultural identification Particularistic ("chosen people") Universalistic ("normalization")
Political culture Fundamentalist-messianic Utilitarian-pragmatic
Political manifestation Gush Emunim Yesh Gvul

[edit] Neo-Zionist authors

  • (he) Hillel Weiss, Defamation: Israeli Litterature of Elimination, Beit El, 1992.
  • (en) Eliezer Don-Yehiya, Memory and Political Culture: Israeli Society and the Holocaust, Studies in Contemporary Jewry 9, 1993.
  • (he) Eitan Dor-Shav, Israel Museum and the Loss of National Memory, Tkhelet, 1998.
  • (he) Avraham Levit, Israeli Art on the Way to Somewhere Else, Tkhelet 3, 1998.

[edit] About neo-Zionism

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Jeffrey K. Olic, States of Memory Continuities, Conflicts, and Transformations in National, Duke University Press, 2003, p.241.
  2. ^ a b c d Steve Chan, Anita Shapira, Derek Jonathan, Israeli Historical Revisionism: from left to right, Routledge, 2002, pp.57-58.
  3. ^ a b Uri Ram, The Future of the Past in Israel - A Sociology of Knowledge Approach, in Benny Morris, Making Israel, pp.210-211.

[edit] See also

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