A Study Of The Trend Of Zionism In Post - Zionism

In1948, Israel was founded, which realized the Jew’s ideal of Zionist movement that they can finally have their own nation after the Diaspora of more than1800years. In several decades after the foundation, the Zionism, as a mainstream ideology, affected various aspects of the Israeli society and dominated the construction process of this nation as well. However, with the development of society and the outbreak of the several Middle East Wars, a series of domestic problems in Israel had emerged, including contradiction between the religious and the secular, divergence between Eastern Jews and Western Jews, conflict between Jews and Arab citizens as well as the constant escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all of which exposed Israel to a serious test. After the Six-Day War, Israel formed the so-called new Zionism represented by the right-wing nationalism and the religious power, which signals the tendency of Israeli society toward right-wing politics, religionization and extremalization. In the1980s and1990s, a group of radical left-wing New Historians began to query the Zionism by researching and investigating numerous declassified documents under the influence of post-modernism, which brought about the introspection of the whole society toward official ideology and induced the formation of a new trend of thought called Post-Zionism.This thesis has conducted a comprehensive review and research on Post-Zionism, which is divided into four parts. The first part analyzed the political and cultural background of the Post-Zionism in such aspects as the transformation of Zionism to become the mainstream ideology, the change of intellectual trend in Israeli society after the Six-Day War, the rise of the Neo-Zionism and the challenge of Post-modernism to the existing cultural context. The second part started from a general introduction of the school of New Historians and further presented the manifestations of the Post-Zionism in the field of history, literature, art and mass media. The third part summarized the main views of the Post-Zionism, namely, the correction of Israeli legitimacy and the official version of history, the subversive interpretation of the nature of Zionism and the query on Israel state nature and its future direction. The fourth part evaluated the function of the Post-Zionism and its influence on Israeli society. The Post-Zionism is escalated from an ideological and cultural debate and an ideological discussion into a comprehensive social ideology with political dissent, which shows the social sentiments of Israeli Jewish intellectuals and brings a flow of fresh air to the Israeli society as well. The Post-Zionism broadened the horizon of the historical research, pushed forward the academic freedom, promoted the secularization and democratization process of the nation. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the criticalness of the Post-Zionism overwhelmed its constructiveness. Some of its proposals are too radical and unpractical and even intensify the instability of the Israeli society to some extent. The everlasting conflict between the Post-Zionism and Zionism shows the tolerance and pluralistic development of the Israeli society on one hand, and displays the contradictoriness and complexity in the camp of Israeli Jews on the other hand.