ABSTRACT
The religious Zionist, commonly called the “national religious” community, constitutes a distinct sector in Israeli life. It consists of about 12%–16% of the entire population and is located throughout Israel and in significant numbers on the West Bank. Formally, it consists of all those who identify with both modern Israeli-Jewish national identity and its project, the State of Israel, and with Orthodox Judaism. It consists of many subgroupings that differ from each other both regarding their construction of Jewish nationalism and regarding the nuances of Orthodox Jewish practice, especially the degree that such practice is conducted severely or in more relaxed or liberal fashion. Nevertheless, it has a definite mainstream to which about two-thirds to three quarters of the sector adhere (to one degree or another) and which is reflected in its major media organs. This consists of a religiously based integral nationalism that holds that there is an organic connection between the individual Jews and the national-religious collective of the Jewish People (Am Yisrael – The People of Israel) and between the national-religious collective and the national territory (Eretz Yisrael). The full realization of these organic ties is held to represent (in some fashion or degree) the Redemption. The theological-political ideas described earlier are embedded in a culture of Romantic religion and nationalism that has given rise to radical politics reminiscent of European revolutionary movements and an emphasis on individual self-expression. The adherents of this mainstream political religious culture are a major component of the Israeli Right and support and participate in the Likud and the right-wing religious Zionist parties. 1
