Zealotry and Vengeance Quest of a Religious Identity Group

by Peleg, Samuel

• ISBN13: 9780739103326
• ISBN10: 0739103326
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-09
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

On November 4, 1995 the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin left Israeli society shocked and bewildered by the reemergence of religiously motivated political violence in an age of secularism. In Zealotry and Vengeance Samuel Peleg analyzes the social, political, and structural motivations and conditions that have encouraged this resurgence of religious violence. It profiles the rise of the Zionist messianic movement from protest and activism to assassination, and asks whether the killing of Rabin was a fluke or a harbinger of things to come--based on Israeli society's extensive support for the proclivity to violence. The book provides students of political behavior and participation with both a scientific study of the extremist state of mind and an acute analysis of the cycle of violence and tolerance threatening to once again engulf the Middle East.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
Propagating the Wrath of God	9	(28)
A Guide for the Perplexed: Religious-Political Violence	37	(22)
The Wrath of God: Who Propagates It?	59	(30)
The Wrath of God: Why Is It Propagated?	89	(18)
The Wrath of God: How Is It Propagated?	107	(36)
The Revitalized Identity Group as Actor	143	(8)
Religious-Political Violence in Israel-Where Is It Heading?	151	(10)
Postscript: The Abyss Looks Back	161	(12)
Bibliography	173	(12)
Index	185	(4)
About the Author	189