The Israeli peace movement's course of development, characteristics, and fate were deeply influenced by three main features of the Israeli sociopolitical terrain through which it made its way: the legacies of the troublesome Jewish historical experience as reflected in the Zionist narrative and the Israeli national ethos; the sociopolitical cleavages across Israeli society, and the political opportunity structure (POS) facing grassroots activism in general. The first two features are touched on only briefly herein because they have already been thoroughly examined in numerous other studies of Israeli society and polity. The less-investigated issue, that of the national repertoire of political modes of operation, is reviewed more closely in this section.

Historical-Ideological Legacies

The troublesome history of the Jewish people, culminating in the Holocaust, and its framing by the Zionist ideology, were basically not fertile ground for the emergence of vibrant peace activism and movements. This is mainly because both fostered a negative reading of the intentions of the other nations toward the Jewish people, a reading that to this day is a cornerstone of the Israeli Jewish cognitive and emotional frames of reference.

The highly influential “victim motif” of this historical experience and framing was strengthened and not lessened by the complex situation created by the violent Arab-Jewish struggle over Palestine/the land of Israel. One of the main aims of early Zionism was normalization of the Jewish people from what was perceived here as an unnatural exilic state of mind and existence, to a normal, “healthy,” territorially based one.