Israeli Neo-Revisionism and American Neoconservatism: The Unexplored Parallels

Abstract

The similarities between the American Neoconservative movement and the Israeli Neo-Revisionist movement (followers of Vladimir Jabotinsky, including Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Binyamin Netanyahu, and to some degree Ariel Sharon) have not previously been systematically explored. The two movements share a Hobbesian worldview, confidence in the efficacy and frequent necessity of force, xenophobia, cultural pessimism, and belief in the “exceptionalism” of their respective societies. The article compares and analyzes their ideologies and their political dynamics, as well as their similar trajectories of rise and decline. It demonstrates their political relevance for the contemporary situation in the Middle East and beyond.