Rabinfest 2005: The Left's War Against Religious Zionism

Caroline Glick writes in the Jerusalem Post:

The Left has been waging its culture war against religious Zionism at least since Menachem Begin's ascension to power in 1977. Since the enactment of the Oslo process with the PLO in 1993, that war has become the main objective of the Left. It is an objective that eclipses the importance of attaining either security for the state or peace with the Arabs.

This war is nowhere more apparent than in the commemoration of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin 10 years ago today. Indeed, as the years have gone by, in the service of the culture war against religious Zionists, Rabin himself - who he actually was and what he stood for - has been all but forgotten.

Orit Shohat proves Carline Glick's point:

Rabin's assassination was a consolidating event for the hard core of the secular left, those who had loathed the religious right all along. This hard core sought a probing clarification, a creative hatred, a civil war over the future path of Zionism, and had no patience with explanations, justifications and movements for reconciliation like Tzav Piyus.