the atheist Zionist claiming God's promise
example · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 3 talks
In debates with pro-Netanyahu Jewish intellectuals, Žižek asks why the land is theirs; they cite the Bible, then, asked if they believe in God, answer 'of course not, I'm an atheist', yet they hold that God gave them the land.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“they say but it's all in the Bible, that's our tradition... do you believe in God? ... no of course not, I'm an atheist. Yet they think God gave them that land.”
“the fiction has to be destroyed from within… it is not enough to prove that God doesn't exist”
“god doesn't exist. they're mostly atheists, but nonetheless, god gave us the land of israel.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
death of God
×1
law has to cheat on itself
×1
symbolic efficiency
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Ignazio Silone1Jean Racine1Julien Offray de La Mettrie1Ephraim Halevy1Václav Klaus1Béla Balázs1Jorge Semprún1J. R. R. Tolkien1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
In debates with pro-Netanyahu Jewish intellectuals, Žižek asks why the land is theirs; they cite the Bible, then, asked if they believe in God, answer 'of course not, I'm an atheist', yet they hold that God gave them the land., illustrating secular messianic entitlement paradox,ideology
Atheist Zionists don't believe in God but believe God gave them the land of Israel, a fiction reduced to reality continues to exert symbolic efficiency, proving it must be destroyed from within, not from without., illustrating ideology,symbolic fiction,death of God
Israeli Zionists are mostly atheists who nonetheless claim God gave them the land of Israel, a neat illustration of how those in power must simultaneously deny and affirm the ground of their authority., illustrating law has to cheat on itself,ideology