ABSTRACT
Frontiers denote the "twilight zones" at the edge of a collective's control; they delineate directions for expansion and growth, and provide basic symbols, legends, challenges, and myths used for the construction of national identity. The delineation and practices of internal frontiers therefore signify an ongoing attempt to define and redefine the goals and values of settler and settling societies, and to reproduce patterns of ethnic and class dominance, disparities, and inequalities. The existence, "invention," and promotion of frontier regions has formed a central pillar of identity-building projects in most settler societies, such as the United States, Australia, Israel, and Canada. Israeli nation-building was a project designed to establish an ethnonational-territorial identity, based on a reconstructed "imagined" Jewish past and unity. Israeli state-building is a complementary project intended to establish territorial and institutional infrastructures for "reviving" the nation, affecting all state residents, including the marginalized Arab minority. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
