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FROM THE SECULAR TO THE SACRED: THE RISE OF JEWISH FUNDAMENTALISM SINCE 1967
Since its establishment in 1948 the Israeli state, which had been built by secular and atheist Labour Zionists, has undergone a gradual process of sacralization and clericalization, with leading Labour Zionists and founding fathers of the state seeking an alliance with religious Zionism – thus cementing the alliance between the sword and the Hebrew Bible, between the secular establishment of Zionism, which created the state and dominated the Israeli army for decades, and the Zionist religious parties (Cygielman, 1977: 28–37). As Mark LeVine observes,
Prime Minister Ben-Gurion granted orthodox Judaism sole authority over Jewish life in the new state, which meant that large sums of money were directed to yeshivas and other religious institutions that helped lay the foundation for the “religious revival” that occurred after 1967.
(LeVine, 2009: 189–90, n.23)This partnership between secular Labour Zionism and the forces of Jewish religious nationalism, Zeev Sternhell observed, was much deeper than appeared on the surface (Sternhell, 1998: 335).
Several Israeli scholars have documented the ongoing process of sacralizing Israeli state policies since 1948 and the growth of messianic Zionism since 1967. They have also observed a strong element of growing religious coercion in public life.
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