The Apocalyptic Sting and the Rise of Israeli Unrealism: Toward a Negative-Dialectical Critique

摘要

This paper explores Gershom Scholem's notion of an 'apocalyptic sting'-a messianic political theology which, he feared, haunted Jewish and Israeli politics through the Hebrew language. The paper makes four key moves. First, I unpack Scholem's 'sting' in relation to contemporary Israeli religious radicalism. Second, I tie that notion of a sting to Frankfurt-School discussions of reification and its political effects. Third, I survey attempts to critique this notion of a sting, through the work of Israeli International Relations (IR) Realist Yehoshafat Harkabi. Drawing on the negative dialectics of Theodor Adorno, I then draw out and deepen Harkabi's reflexive stance, with an eye to setting out a vocation for critical IR-realism in the context of contemporary Israeli security discourse.