Formation of Distance‐Based Orientation: Political Identity through Relational Positioning in Israel

Distance‐based orientation describes how pejorative labels may serve as anchor points for political identity. Existing research on political labeling has largely emphasized stigmatization, overlooking how labels may acquire durability and orienting capacity without losing pejorative force. Drawing on publicly circulating discourse, we trace positioning typologies around the label “Bibist” that render it an interactional achievement through repeated positioning rather than semantic transformation. This analysis extends personalized affective politics beyond top‐down populist strategy, showing how political actors orient themselves relationally to a persona‐based anchor rather than to traditional partisan ideology.