Abstract
This article looks at the conditions for the appearance of conspiracy theories following and surrounding the Rabin assassination. The article does not address the theories themselves nor does it try to prove or disprove their validity. Nor does it discuss the assassination itself as an historic event or the conditions that led to the assassination of an Israeli prime minister. Rather, the article looks at the social conditions that generated the emergence of conspiracy theories at a certain point in time, and why it was precisely the assassination the give rise to such theories. I argue that the appearance of neoliberalism in the 1990s provided the groundwork for the growth of conspiracy theories. Through the specific case of the Rabin assassination, the article offers an explanation for the way that conspiracy theories operate, the organizing principle that generates them, and the inherent paradox they carry, based on the assumption that conspiracy theories aspire to discover what cannot be discovered. Using the concepts of cognitive disruption, desire and fantasy, the article lays out the connection between conspiracy theories and populism, and the rise of the new right in Israel.
| Translated title of the contribution | You Can Never Be Conspirative Enough: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Desire of Conspiracy Theories in Israel |
|---|---|
| Original language | Hebrew |
| Pages (from-to) | 58-86 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | תיאוריה וביקורת |
| Volume | 58 |
| State | Published - 2023 |
IHP Publications
- ihp
- Amir, Yigal
- Conspiracy theories
- Expectation (Psychology)
- Will
- Neoliberalism
- Right and left (Political science)
- Israel -- Social conditions
- Populism
- Israel -- History -- 1993-