Neo-Zionism is a right-wing, nationalistic
and religious ideology that appeared in Israel
following the Six-Day War in 1967 and the
capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Neo-Zionists consider these lands part of
Israel and advocate their settlement by Israeli
Jews.
Some advocate the transfer of Arabs not only
from these areas but also from within the
Green Line.
The term "Post-Zionism" entered Israeli discourse
following the publishing of a book by Uri
Ram in 1993.
In the same volume, Gershom Shafir contrasted
Post-Zionism with what he termed Neo-Zionism.
In a widely cited 1996 essay, sociologist
Uri Ram used the term Neo-Zionism to describe
a political and religious ideology that developed
in Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War.
He considers it as an "exclusionary, nationalist,
even racist, and antidemocratic political-cultural
trend" in Israel that evolved in parallel
with, and in opposition to, the left-wing
politics of Post-Zionism and Labor Zionism.
== Ideology ==
Uri Ram contends that Neo-Zionism is not a
new phenomenon, instead arguing that it emerged
from the Six-Day War in 1967 and the conquest
of Jerusalem.
Ram contends that Jerusalem is the symbolic
capital of Neo-Zionism, while Post-Zionism
is orientated around Tel Aviv.
It rose with the anxiety following the near
loss of the 1973 war.Neo-Zionists consider
"secular Zionism", particularly the labor
version, as too weak on nationalism and that
it never understood the impossibility of Arabs
and Jews living together in peace.
Neo-Zionists claim that the Arab attitude
to Israel is inherently rooted in anti-Semitism
and that it is a Zionist illusion to think
living in peace and together with them is
possible.
They consider Arabs in Israel to be a fifth
column and to pose a demographic threat to
the Jewish majority in Israel.
From their point of view, the only solution
for achieving peace is through "deterrence
and retaliation" or preferably "transfer by
agreement" of the Israeli Arabs and the Palestinian
population of the occupied Palestinian Territories
to neighboring Arab states.Uri Ram characterizes
both Neo-Zionism and Post-Zionism as reactions
to the post-nationalist environment.
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".
Neo-Zionists consider all areas under Israeli
military control to be part of "the biblical
Land of Israel".
Neo-Zionists 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.
For Uri Ram, Neo-Zionism is a reinterpretation
of Zionism that is religious rather than secular.
Judaism, instead of being a peripheral cultural
tradition, is a core element in his definition.
In Ram's formulation, Post-Zionism is globalist
and liberal, while Neo-Zionism is local and
ethno-religious.
Asima Ghazi-Bouillon challenges Ram's classification
of Neo-Zionism as anti-globalist.
He instead sees some strains of Neo-Zionism
as globalist, similar to Neo-Conservatism
and Neo-Nationalism.
Whereas Post-Zionism was a largely unsuccessful
direct challenge to Zionism, Neo-Zionism is
instead a challenge to Labour Zionism.
Asima Ghazi-Bouillon argues that Neo-Zionism
is not entirely an ethno-religious movement
but also incorporates a national security
discourse.Ilan Pappé sees four currents which
have contributed to Neo-Zionism’s rise:
The conversion of the Haredim to Zionism;
the settler movement combined with the state
funding of Yeshivas; the culturally insular
and economically deprived Mizrahi community;
and finally the integration of Israel into
the global capitalist system.
== Representation ==
Neo-Zionism ideology was promoted by the banned
Kach and Kahane Chai or the Jewish Defense
League.Uri Ram uses the Movement for Greater
Israel and the Gush Emunim settler movement
founded in 1974 as examples of Neo-Zionism
and its precursors, Gush Emunim being a hybrid
of religion and nationalism.
Ram also labels parts of Likud and the National
Religious Party, as well as other, smaller,
splinter parties including Yisrael BaAliyah,
Moledet, Tehiya and Tzomet as Neo-Zionist.In
the media Neo-Zionism is associated with Arutz
Sheva.
According to Yishai Fleisher, Arutz Sheva
director of programming and founder of the
Kumah neo-Zionist lobby, "Zionism is the yearning
of the Jewish people to come back to the land
of Israel with the creation of the Jewish
commonwealth and the era of the third Temple.
It's a renewal of lost values, and an answer
to post-Zionism.
If post-Zionism is the theory that Israel
was created and the project is now finished,
then neo-Zionism states that we are far from
done with the project.
The Jewish people are not yet back home, and
we have yet to educate Jews to the concept
of living a Torah life in the land of Israel."Some
associations in Israel, such as Im Tirtzu,
defend Neo-Zionist ideology.
Ronen Shoval, founder of the association states
that "We need every Jewish heart and Zionist
soul.
Coordinators and activists of Im Tirtzu are
hereby called to the flag.
(...) [W]e will turn the Hebrew University
into a Zionist society, and continue the second
Zionist revolution!"
His aims are "to restore Zionism to the center
- for poets to poetize Zionism, for the writers
to write Zionism, for academia to support
Zionism and for the Ari Folmans (...) to make
films about our ethos.
Just as there are movies about gladiators,
we will have movies about Judah Maccabee.
What's wrong with that?"
== Critics ==
According to Uri Ram, "Neo-Zionism (...) is
an exclusionary, nationalist, even racist,
and antidemocratic political-cultural trend,
striving to heighten the fence encasing Israeli
identity"; a point of view also reported by
Gilbert Achcar.According to Dana Eyal, "[her]
country is hijacked by a group of racist religious
Jews, who are much more of a threat to Israel
than any Arab or Muslim country, including
Iran".
She gives the example of children of illegal
immigrants born and living in Israel for years
and that neo-Zionist groups want to see expelled
because their presence is un-Zionistic.
She thinks that "[t]his very narrow definition
of Zionism dictates that Israel is and will
remain a racist Jewish state" but also "that
in Israel itself there is a (lazy) majority
that is far from this.
Zionism for us equals patriotism much like
it does to Americans; wanting the best for
your country, believing in its principals
and defending it when necessary.
Only we don't believe in many of the neo-orthodox
principals popping out like mushrooms in the
rain.
For that matter, we no longer feel very Zionistic
in an environment that embraces totality and
purity of race (a calamitous similarity to
things that should not be named)".Post-Zionists
have argued that Israel must choose between
a Post-Zionist future and a Neo-Zionist future.
Today, Israeli opinion has come to view both
"Post-Zionism" and "Neo-Zionism" as pejorative
slogans.
== See also ==
New antisemitism
Political ideology
Self hating Jew
== References ==
== Further reading ==
=== Journalistic views about Neo-Zionism ===
Gershon Baskin, "Neo-Zionism, Religion, and
Citizenship" Foreign Policy in Focus, September
26, 2007.
Cobi Ben-Simhon (June 5, 2009).
"Neo-Zionism 101".
Haaretz.
David Breakstone, "Zionism isn't what it used
to be" The Jerusalem Post, June 21, 2009
Dana Agmon, "Neo-Zionism -- Israel's True
Threat" The Huffington Post, October 12, 2010.
=== Neo-Zionist authors ===
(in English) Eliezer Don-Yehiya: "Memory and
Political Culture: Israeli Society and the
Holocaust".
;;Studies in Contemporary Jewry 9, 1993.
(in Hebrew) Eitan Dor-Shav: Israel Museum
and the Loss of National Memory, Tkhelet,
1998.
(in Hebrew) Avraham Levit: Israeli Art on
the Way to Somewhere Else.
Tkhelet 3, 1998.
(in Hebrew) Hillel Weiss: Defamation: Israeli
Literature of Elimination.
Beit El, 1992.
=== Neo-Zionist lobbies ===
Kumah
Im Tirtzu
