ABSTRACT
NOT unlike the practice in other nations, Israeli writing of its contemporary history initially focused on what seemed vital for nation- and state-building rather than on meticulous search for the historical truth. Any contemporary historiography, particularly of a national formative significance, tends to be generally uniform and instrumental. It aims at establishing constitutive myths, symbols and values on which a coherent group identity can be based, and to legitimize past actions and policies. As such, collective- and nationally-driven historiography tends to be consensual, creating an agreeable continuity between a formative past and the present and thus serving as an instrument of social and political mobilization.
