Israeli Identity, In Search of a Successor to the Pioneer, Tsabar and Settler (Innbundet (stive permer))

Israelis are unique in having changed their identity three times in only one hundred years and in being in the process of doing so once again. The changes in their self-image have been brought about by contradictions or expansions of their territorial boundaries and by inconsistencies in their ongoing identity formulations. The self-image of the Pioneer related to the boundaries of Mandatory Palestine, that of the Tsabar to those of the State of Israel until the 1967 War and those of the settler to unspecified boundaries expanded beyond the preceding ones. When signing the Oslo Accords, Israel voluntarily relinquished this right, thereby producing the present unresolved crisis of Israeli identity. The Palestinian Arab identical claim to land has created these inconsistencies in Israeli self-image. Through examining the short history of Israel we can trace these transformations, thus establishing a link between ideology and identity.

The pioneer - an ambivalent identity; the Tsabar - a self-defensive identity; the erosion of the Tsabar identity; the settler - a quasi-religious identity; blurry boundaries; fracture; concluding remarks.