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Abstract

Israel as a state has been existing for almost 70 years. Despite of decades of its pres¬ence, the foundation and its struggle for survival and acknowledgement have been constantly challenged including from its own supposedly the backbone of its Israel national identity: intellectuals. This paper argues that the critics from some of Jew¬ish intellectuals represent the fundamental problem of the effort to build a national identity. If nationalism, especially in European context as its birthplace, was usually supported by the intellectuals as the source of imagination of bounded group, the case of Israel shows different direction, at least problematic. Two prominent Jewish intel¬lectuals, Martin Buber and Hannah Arendt, presented here are the examples of the challenge against Jewish domination on Israel nationalism. Although they did not wish to disconnect their identity as Jews and agreed with an authoritative political institution to protect the Jews both were against the idea of Jewish domination and annihilation of Palestinians. As their views were against the principles of pragmatism, lack of at¬tention and support from the Zionist political leaders has made their intellectual ideas relatively isolated from the mass.

Bahasa Abstract

Israel sebagai sebuah negara telah ada selama hampir 70 tahun. Meskipun kehadirannya telah berlangsung selama beberapa dekade, pendirian dan perjuangannya untuk bertahan dan mendapatkan pengakuan telah terus-menerus ditantang termasuk dari mereka yang seharusnya menjadi tulang punggung identitas nasional Israel yaitu kaum intelektual. Tulisan ini berpendapat bahwa kritik dari beberapa cendekiawan Yahudi merupakan masalah mendasar dari upaya untuk membangun identitas nasional. Jika nasionalisme, terutama dalam konteks Eropa yang menjadi tempat kelahirannya, biasanya didukung oleh intelektual sebagai sumber imajinasi untuk pengikat sebuah kelompok, kasus Israel menunjukkan arah yang berbeda, setidaknya bermasalah. Dua intelektual Yahudi terkemuka, Martin Buber dan Hannah Arendt, yang disajikan di didalam tulisan adalah contoh dari tantangan terhadap dominasi Yahudi di Israel nasionalisme. Meskipun mereka tidak ingin melepas identitas mereka sebagai orang Yahudi dan setuju dengan lembaga politik otoritatif untuk melindungi orang-orang Yahudi keduanya menentang gagasan dominasi Yahudi dan pemusnahan Palestina. Mengingat pandangan mereka yang menolak pragmatism politik, kurangnya perhatian dan dukungan dari para pemimpin politik Zionis telah membuat ide-ide intelektual mereka relatif terisolasi dari massa.

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