New Zionism and the Foreign Policy System of Israel (RLE Israel and Palestine)

The invasion of Lebanon was the culmination of an extraordinary change New Zionism created in Israel's foreign policy system. Seliktar examines how New Zionism came to dominate Israeli politics and purshy;sues the implications of this new ideoloshy;gy for the future of the Middle East. He finds that, following the Six-Day war, the ideology of Socialist Zionism was inshy;creasingly discredited and replaced by the New Zionist quest for Eretz Israel. As a result, Begin's Likud came to powshy;er in 1977 and was able to quickly change the basis of Israel's foreign policy. Thus while General Sharon was responsible for the actual conduct of the war, itwas the New Zionist willingness to use military force to introduce a new order in the Midshy;dle East that was responsible for the invasion. Seliktar cautions that it is still too earshy;ly to assess the full impact of the war in Lebanon on New Zionism. While the war failed to validate any of the "grand design" tenets of New Zionism, the violent Shiite response may serve to strengthen the New Zionist hard line.

Ofira Seliktar is a member of the Mid­dle East Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania.