Neo-zionism: Portrait of a Contemporary Hegemony

This article examines the points at which the national logic and the neoliberal logic in Israel have met in recent decades. It analyzes the changes that have occurred in the Zionist paradigm since the 1990s, while sketching the outline and the historical process of the rise of the new paradigm, neo-zionism. The global neoliberal logic had a decisive influence on Zionism and reorganized Zionist society as “a society with no oppositions.” In the article I argue that the neo-zionist common sense coalesced in response to a severe ideological crisis that negated the classic Zionist paradigm and nullified its content. Neo-zionism is not necessarily characterized by right-wing radicalization and the rise of the power of the ultra-nationalist camp; on the contrary, it is organized around shared global myths: the myths of the proven success of a regime of colonialist separation, the myth of Israel’s global economic success, and the myth of the old elites’ success as serving the society as a whole. An examination of the stability of these myths makes possible a critical examination of the thesis regarding society without oppositions. The article concludes that the “new” neozionist logic has not overcome the old intra-Jewish racial tension and that neo-zionism is less able than the old Zionist paradigm to withstand outbursts of criticism of the existing order. The framework of the discussion is influenced by Gramscian and neo-Gramscian theory regarding nationalism, antidemocratic populism, and neoliberalism in the global era.