Neozionism: portrait of a contemporary hegemony

This article analyzes Zionism in the twenty-first century as an embattled hegemony, driven and rearticulated by new power elites in Israel. The analysis, informed by the settler-colonial paradigm, contextualizes and deconstructs the continued relevance of Zionism to its core constituency. Neozionism stems from both internal and external pressures on ‘old’ Zionism generated, among other things, by conditions of neoliberal globalization and the emergence of a new settler-capitalist alliance. Neozionism is not displacing Zionism but departs from it as an ex-territorial sensibility, which is reinvested in Europe, albeit for different purposes. Neozionism is specifically examined in relation to the neoliberal regime in Israel, the Mizrahi question, the reorientations of the Zionist mission, and its changing paradigms with respect to the diaspora. The paper highlights the racial content of Neozionism, and argues that its relevance to society is questionable, thereby enabling the reimagining of conditions for de-colonization through de-Zionification of Israeli society. Beyond Israel Palestine, considering the strengths and limits of neoliberal Zionism, this article hopefully contributes to a broader understanding of ultra-nationalisms of the neoliberal age.