Comparative Politics Commons^™

National Identity Without Intellectual Bases: Israel’S Practical Zionism In Developing A State For The Jews, Syahrul Hidayat

Jurnal Politik

Israel as a state has been existing for almost 70 years. Despite of decades of its pres¬ence, the foundation and its struggle for survival and acknowledgement have been constantly challenged including from its own supposedly the backbone of its Israel national identity: intellectuals. This paper argues that the critics from some of Jew¬ish intellectuals represent the fundamental problem of the effort to build a national identity. If nationalism, especially in European context as its birthplace, was usually supported by the intellectuals as the source of imagination of bounded group, the case of Israel shows different direction, at least problematic. Two …