Messianic Religious Zionism Confronts Israeli Territorial Compromises

Description

The Six Day War in 1967 profoundly influenced how an increasing number of religious Zionists saw Israeli victory as the manifestation of God's desire to redeem God's people. Thousands of religious Israelis joined the Gush Emunim movement in 1974 to create settlements in territories occupied in the war. However, over time, the Israeli government decided to return territory to Palestinian or Arab control. This was perceived among religious Zionist circles as a violation of God's order. The peak of this process came with the Disengagement Plan in 2005, in which Israel demolished all the settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank. This process raised difficult theological questions among religious Zionists. This book explores the internal mechanism applied by a group of religious Zionist rabbis in response to their profound disillusionment with the state, reflected in an increase in religious radicalization due to the need to cope with the feelings of religious and messianic failure.

Mordechai ('Motti') Inbari is the author of Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple?, which won the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise Best Publication Award in Israel Studies (2008) and the Ben Shemesh Best Dissertation Award for the Study of Zionism and the State of Israel (2007). His work has appeared in Israel Studies, Hebrew Union College Annual, Nova Religio, Modern Judaism, Journal of Church and State and Studies in Contemporary Jewry. Prior to his appointment at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke, he served as a Post-Doctoral Associate at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

'Motti Inbari's book is an insightful introduction into Messianic Religious Zionists' (MRZ) evolving worldviews as they relate to political negotiations over land compromises. Inbari is particularly insightful in his discussion of the changes in approach since the Oslo period in the 1990s ... [he] effectively synthesizes significant secondary sources with available primary sources to provide a stimulating and much-needed analysis of the changing attitudes of MRZ rabbis and followers toward violent responses to territorial compromises.' H-Judaic 'An extremely valuable book that should be read by anyone interested in the role of religious Zionism in Israel.' Politics, Religion and Ideology