“Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-Statehood
<p class="first" id="d55420e70">This essay seeks to explicate a tension that lies at the very root of our discourse on Israel as a Jewish state. I argue that the academic and political fields tend to confuse and conflate two different, often contradi...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pluto Journals
2020-09-01
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| Series: | ReOrient |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/reorient.6.1.0020 |
| _version_ | 1797834084623319040 |
|---|---|
| author | Yaacov Yadgar |
| author_facet | Yaacov Yadgar |
| author_sort | Yaacov Yadgar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p class="first" id="d55420e70">This essay seeks to explicate a tension that lies at the very root of our discourse
on Israel as a Jewish state. I argue that the academic and political fields tend to
confuse and conflate two different, often contradictory understandings or constructions
of the very meaning of Jewish politics. Schematically labelling these as Jewish politics
versus the politics of Jews (and derived from these, the outlook of Israel as a “Jewish
state” versus the notion of it being solely a “state of Jews”), I argue that the conflicting
political and ideological constructions are nourished by different readings of Jewish
identity and authenticity, which were first developed in Europe by leading (self-identified
secular) Zionist ideologues, and later shaped mainstream readings of Israeli politics.
The essay outlines the basic contours of this conceptual distinction, traces its roots
in Zionist ideology (as developed in Eastern and Central Europe), and concludes with
a consideration of the playing out of the tension at hand in contemporary Israeli
politics.
</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:34:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c55b3b430424417dbc459eba048c0b33 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2055-5601 2055-561X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:34:04Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | Pluto Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ReOrient |
| spelling | doaj.art-c55b3b430424417dbc459eba048c0b332023-05-03T14:17:07ZengPluto JournalsReOrient2055-56012055-561X2020-09-0161204610.13169/reorient.6.1.0020“Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-StatehoodYaacov Yadgar<p class="first" id="d55420e70">This essay seeks to explicate a tension that lies at the very root of our discourse on Israel as a Jewish state. I argue that the academic and political fields tend to confuse and conflate two different, often contradictory understandings or constructions of the very meaning of Jewish politics. Schematically labelling these as Jewish politics versus the politics of Jews (and derived from these, the outlook of Israel as a “Jewish state” versus the notion of it being solely a “state of Jews”), I argue that the conflicting political and ideological constructions are nourished by different readings of Jewish identity and authenticity, which were first developed in Europe by leading (self-identified secular) Zionist ideologues, and later shaped mainstream readings of Israeli politics. The essay outlines the basic contours of this conceptual distinction, traces its roots in Zionist ideology (as developed in Eastern and Central Europe), and concludes with a consideration of the playing out of the tension at hand in contemporary Israeli politics. </p>https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/reorient.6.1.0020 |
| spellingShingle | Yaacov Yadgar “Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-Statehood ReOrient |
| title | “Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-Statehood |
| title_full | “Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-Statehood |
| title_fullStr | “Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-Statehood |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-Statehood |
| title_short | “Jewish” Politics or the Politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli Nation-Statehood |
| title_sort | jewish politics or the politics of jews on israeli nation statehood |
| url | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/reorient.6.1.0020 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT yaacovyadgar jewishpoliticsorthepoliticsofjewsonisraelinationstatehood |