The religious core is inseparable from Zionism but separable from Israeli Jewish nationalism

Evidence

Disentangling Zionism from the religious claim is as improbable as extricating capitalism from free market or capital, or communism from class struggle; it would be like extricating Hinduism from the Hindutva. But it is not improbable to disentangle Jewish nationalism in Israel from the religious claims, and consequently from settler colonialism, by transforming Israel itself into a state for its citizens in which Israeli Jewish nationalism and Palestinian nationalism are equally recognized. This again can be achieved outside of Zionism. That this opens the doors for a joint broader political future with the Palestinians is evident, but a full discussion is beyond the scope of this chapter. This idea was advanced in the 1990s by a Palestinian intellectual, Azmi Bishara, but within Zionism, it is considered an extreme, even fanatical, political idea. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 564

Categorization

• XREF: Analogizes a nationalism-religion fusion to capitalism-free market and communism-class struggle — a reusable way to distinguish an ideology’s indispensable core from a mutable national identity. — connects to: Rational or moral correction from inside cannot touch Zionism’s founding religious claim — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 563; Secular Zionism reinterpreted theology rather than departing from it; Zionism’s secularization reinscribed the Semitic wedge separating Jew from Arab (+6 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The distinction between an ideology that cannot shed its sacral founding claim and a national identity that could — reframes where correction/de-escalation is even possible.

Broader Connections

• Jewishness was transposed from a nation’s religion into a national religion #expands (0.95) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 836
• Secular Zionism reinterpreted theology rather than departing from it #corroborates (0.85)
• Zionism’s secularization reinscribed the Semitic wedge separating Jew from Arab #expands (0.80)
• Zionist secularism was a European cultural identity by definition #corroborates (0.80) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 663