This article surveys the areas of traditional extremism and violence in Israeli politics. It shows that the recent intensification of political violence, culminating in the 1994 Hebron massacre and the 1995 Rabin assassination, was caused by the post-1967 rise of religious messianic politics in Israel and the difficulties of messianic settlers in coping with the realities of the peace process. Muslim terrorism, conducted by the Palestinian opposition to the peace process, is shown to be an additional incentive for Jewish religious terrorism. The article concludes that the Rabin assassination has traumatized the messianic Right and has contributed to a significant decline in its political violence.
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References
1.
1. Ehud Sprinzak, Political Violence in Israel (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for the Study of Israel, 1995), chap. 2.
2.
2. Ibid., chaps. 4-5.
3.
3. Shlomo Nakdimon, Altalena (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Edanim, 1978).
4.
4. Katy Marton, A Death in Jerusalem (New York: Pantheon Books, 1993).
5.
5. Isser Harel, Security and Democracy (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Edanim Press, 1989), pp. 179-196.
6.
6. Michael Bar-Zohar, Ben Gurion (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1977), 2:922-923.
7.
7. Tom Segev, The Seventh Million (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Keter, 1991), chap. 5.
8.
8. Ehud Sprinzak, “Extreme Politics in Israel,”Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 5, pp. 35-37 (1977).
9.
Ehud Sprinzak , The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), chap. 2.
10.
10. Ehud Sprinzak, “Gush Emunim: The Tip of the Iceberg,”Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 21 (Fall 1981).
11.
11. Sprinzak, The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right, chap. 7.
12.
12. Ibid., pp. 87-93.
13.
13. Ibid., pp. 94-99.
14.
14. Ehud Sprinzak, “Violence and Catastrophe in the Theology of Rabbi Kahane: The Ideologization of the Mimetic Desire,”Terrorism and Political Violence, 3(3) (Autumn 1991).
15.
15. Ibid., pp. 54-59.
16.
16. Maariv, 4 Mar. 1994.
17.
17. Leon Festinger, “When Prophecy Fails,” in Extending Psychological Frontiers: Selected Works of Leon Festinger, ed. Stanley Schachter and Michael Gazzaniga (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1989).
18.
18. David Rapoport, “Messianic Sanctions for Terror,”Comparative Politics, 20(2) (1988).
19.
19. Report of the State Investigation Committee in the Matter of the 1994 Massacre in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, p. 76.
20.
20. Meir Kahane, Forty Years (Miami: Institute of the Jewish Idea, 1983).
21.
21. Report in the Matter of the 1994 Massacre, pp. 76-80.
22.
22. Report of the State Investigation Committee in the Matter of the Assassination of Prime Minister, Mr. Yitzhak Rabin, 1996, pp. 88-89.
23.
23. Dov Lior, Daniel Shilo, and Eliezer Melamed, “What Is the Rule About This Bad Government?” (in Hebrew), in Religion and State in Israel, 1994-1995, ed. Dana Arieli-Horowitz (Jerusalem: Center for Jewish Pluralism, 1996), pp. 120-123.
24.
24. This information is included in the undisclosed and confidential part of Amir's investigation. The author was allowed to see the document under the condition that no specific references are made.
25.
25. Num. 25.
26.
26. This information is included in the undisclosed and confidential part of Amir's investigation.
27.
27. The author conducted interviews with several Gush Emunim rabbis in December 1995 and January 1996.
