Fundamental Surprises Zvi Lanir Decision Research 1201 Oak ...

scorned Diaspora relic emerges much more fit to cope with the new realities and thus
succeed the founding fathers of the kibbutz and state. The novel ends with the hero
accepting reality and returning home without his Sabra visions.
Yitzhak’ Orpaz’s 29 heroin “Young Youth” presents the destruction of a young
urban North Tel Aviv man who has attempted to practice his Zionism by joining a
group that tries to build a pioneer settlement, but fails because its founders do not have
the will power to continue this endeavor. He returns to Tel-Aviv, falling into nihilism
and suicide. Violent motorcycle groups ravage a central plaza in Tel Avib. Filling the
vacancy left by the suicide—a symbol of the new power myth taking over the dead
Sabra myth. 30
This Literature represents a generation that lost its visions, on that is occupied
with day to day materialists problems. 31 This type of individualism, which in most
countries is considered natural, in Israel’s reality (where the survival of the state is in
doubt) is viewed as decadence. This perception of decadence reflects on Israel’s
problematic “self” no less than the two ideological solutions of Gush Emumin and
Peace Now. The danger of rational pragmatism divorced from an ideological guidance
and commitment is highest in current Israeli literature, poetry and art. It indicates that
the greatest danger to Zionism and the state of Israel may be not in the following the
wrong ideological path but in nihilism and individual decline.
By and large, intellectuals by themselves do not create fundamental change in a
country’s social and political concepts, let alone its political policies. (Even Voltaire
failed in doing so.) They do, however, have a vital role in such processes by
introducing metaphors that illustrate and clarify the essence of crisis. When without
accompanying political leadership, however, such actions lead to nihilism and
dissolution. In Israel, they have induced a decline in the optimistic national spirit and
deep social concern over Israel’s ability to solve its national crisis. Questions have been
raised, concerning both the justice of the Zionist ideology and enterprise and the
country’s chances of survival. Waves of religious-mystic emotion and regression to
ethnicity have risen from this distress. Politicians from Various parties have applied to
these emotions, transforming them into a key force in Israel’s political power struggles.