Dr Avi Shilon

The University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galile, Columbia University

Bio

Avi Shilon is a historian. He is the author of Menachem Begin: A Life, (Yale University Press in 2013). His second book, Ben Gurion: His Later Years in the Political Wilderness, was published in 2016. His recent book, The Decline of the Left-wing was published in 2020. Shilon is the editor of the new book, “To the Right of Zionism: Studies in the History of the Zionist Right: From Jabotinsky to Netanyahu” (Hebrew, Am-Oved, 2025).

A Brief History of 100 Years of the Zionist Right

Abstract

In 1925, just over a century ago, Ze'ev Jabotinsky founded the Revisionist Party, which laid the ideological and organizational foundations of the Zionist right. This paper seeks to analyze the changes, transformations, and enduring elements in the worldview of the Zionist right over time.
In this context, it examines the movement’s evolving attitudes toward the judicial system, Jewish Religion, the Palestinian and broader Arab question, Greater Israel, and key debates on liberalism.