Theoretical Framework

This chapter delineates a framework for analyzing Rabbi Meir Kahane’s militant religious nationalism, situating it within theories of historical negotiation and palingenetic restoration. It characterizes the ideology as a project of radical purification and return to a glorified antiquity, powered by restorative nostalgia that treats the past as a distant country whose perceived unity must be reconstructed in the present. The framework distinguishes neurological memory from socially produced myth, showing how Kahanism elevates a rigid governing narrative that claims absolute truth and denies historical fragmentation. Within this narrative, selected glories of ancient Jewish power and selected traumas are mobilized to structure a polarized collective identity of us versus them. The chapter specifies how this mythic synthesis legitimizes vigilant action, sacralizes political goals, and frames national rebirth as both imperative and imminent. By clarifying these mechanisms, the framework enables precise differentiation between doctrinal content, mnemonic construction, and the mobilizing functions of myth in Kahanist discourse.