The End of History

Description

The abstract, ahistorical, and irrational nature of Zionist thought is deeply rooted in the myth of the Promised Land and the Messiah. Zionist thought grew and flourished within the fertile ground of conservative Jewish religious thought, and therefore, the relationship between the structure of Zionist thought and religious myths is strong. Indeed, one could argue that Zionist thought not only exploits Judaism in a traditional manner, but that its very intellectual structure resembles, in many ways, the structure of ancient Jewish myths. This contrasts sharply with its relationship to various political ideologies, which is extremely tenuous, akin to the relationship between essence and its external embellishments rather than its tangible manifestations. Zionism is a political ideology that takes the form of a coherent intellectual structure, not fundamentally different in its composition from Jewish religious myths. This political structure exploits Judaism to acquire a historical and humanistic dimension, and it also utilizes many secular and revolutionary political ideas to lend itself a secular or revolutionary veneer.