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ABSTRACT
Biblical tales resonate powerfully with Israeli Jews who live with, in and through their religious past, occasionally re-experiencing it, even as they resist it. The article considers the political sentiments of Israeli Jews through the life and death of the biblical Samson in order to revisit the emotional and moral drivers of their public beliefs, behaviors, and identities. I identify the biblical story's main facets and show how they resonate with Israel's political sentiments: the fantasy of a sacred supremacy; the mistrust of adversaries from within and without; a fear of humiliation and isolation; and recourse to sacrificial revenge. I suggest that while the Bible has become a bone of contention between secular and religious Zionists, Israel's "Samsonian" qualities exist in a dialectical process of divergence and convergence over meaning-making. If Israel is Samson in chains, it may be time for liberation in life rather than death after bringing down the Philistine temple.
Keywords: Israel, Zionism, Israel Religion, Nationalism, State, Bible, Samson, Collective Memory, Myths, Political Sentiments, Religious Experience, Phenomenological Sociology, Reanimated Communities, Déja Vécu, Mythic Contemporaries.
INTRODUCTION
Israel's Jerusalem day is a paradoxical occasion: while commemorating the unification of east and west Jerusalem in 1967, it continues to reveal, year after year, the sharp divisions that exist within the city. Jerusalem Day of May 10, 2021, pushed the paradox to its violent edge, ushering in a bloody confrontation between Jews and Arabs in Israel/Palestine. At the height of it, a video went viral, fomenting discord among Israeli Jews and violence between Jews and Arabs. The video shows the Temple Mount in flames (the result, in fact, of fireworks thrown by Palestinian protesters, sparks from which set a tree alight in the courtyard of Haram ash-Sharif) while below, in the Western Wall Plaza, thousands of religious Jews dance with Israeli flags, chanting in unison the biblical words that echo through the ages (Judges 16:28): O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God, that I may be this once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.1 How could matters have come to this?
I shall try to offer some clues in answer, although I cannot fully account for the escalation in the...