The Future of the Left

Bibi is not to blame - he merely accelerates the processes of disintegration and internal contradictions that were embedded in the Zionist entity from the outset. He is not the cause but the catalyst. How will the great explosion of the right and left in Israel look? In the Land of Israel, two Jewish peoples arose, where their spiritual, religious, and political character was shaped

What will the left take with it into exile from Israeli culture?  (Source)

When today's individual waits in line at the polling station, they undergo an unpleasant experience and feel humiliated: why is their individual, unique vote equal to the votes of all others in line (whom they don't really appreciate)? Since the ballot is the same ballot as everyone else's - they must find at least an individual rationale for their decision (they're probably voting for the same left-wing party as always - but at least the reasoning is original, or the deliberation, or perhaps... they've found a new mood party? A scent of renewal in the air!). For why should an individual participate in a ritual that lowers their self-esteem and narcissistic equilibrium? They of course know that their influence on the outcome is zero: so maybe that's really their value? Is the value of their opinion equal to others? Democracy is, after all, the worst form of government (except for... dictatorship) - for recognizing their value as an individual.

In contrast, the collective type approaches the ballot box with joy and elation. They feel they are part of something. Part of their group. They haven't lost the primitive ability to be part of a collective - and voting is a ritual that confirms their belonging, just like going to synagogue, attending a performance, or watching a football match (or in our days: watching television). There's no doubt that this is an inferior type compared to the individual (not to mention being a right-wing voter). But what can be done? Individuals don't win elections - collectives do.

What will the individual do when the collective slips from their grasp? Individuals will never produce children at the same rate as the collective types, and the collective rather despises them (it's mutual). In the absence of the ability to consolidate individuals into a majority, the left currently faces three options, all three rooted in different stages in our people's history. The most preferable option for it is the First Temple option: if the left were life-hungry, it would simply split from the right, refuse to continue funding the State of Israel (which is a state where the left funds the right in every sense), and launch a widespread protest to establish a state between Haifa and Rishon [Lezion] with Tel Aviv as its capital, without a border with the Arabs, with equal civil rights, one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world, and proper relations with the nations of the world. In short: a state that doesn't embarrass itself - not Bibi's state. The Western Democratic (and wealthy) State of Israel would live in peace with the Eastern Jewish (and poor) State of Israel, which would live by the sword. This split would only do good for the Jewish people's public relations, as it would divide Israel into an enlightened state and a backward state, allowing economic and diplomatic foreign relations to be conducted through a proxy of an entity accepted in the world, which is our beautiful face, and does not bear the hump of occupation on its back. In such a scenario, the wall of mutual hatred in hearts that Bibi built would materialize into an actual border - in a disengagement and separation plan between the two camps. The united kingdom, whose days were short even in the First Temple period, would end - and long live the split between the kingdoms. Each man to his tents, O Israel. This is, of course, the only way in which the people of the left will return to control their destiny and not become captive in the hands of the people of the right, that is, their last chance for sovereignty.

Why is this obvious solution not feasible, and doesn't even cross the left's mind? Because it is, of course, a very collective solution, requiring the building of an ethos on the scale of Zionism, including a shared dream and broad organization, and therefore individuals will never be able to realize it. Therefore, in the absence of the ability to translate protest and frustration into independence, the left faces the Second Temple option. True, power is not in its hands and will not be, and its political-state fate has been expropriated from it, as was the situation of the Pharisees. True, the zealots and Sadducees and Romans will eat each other (and probably even bring destruction in the end), and it is their captive and of their whims. But instead of engaging in politics - it can engage in Torah [Jewish learning]. It can establish a new culture, a Hebrew culture, for in culture, qualities determine, not quantities. After the destruction - its culture will win, and maybe even Rome (eventually... through Christianity). In such a situation, the left would seclude itself, alienate itself from the state, and engage in establishing a shared cultural enterprise (Haredim [ultra-Orthodox]... anyone?). In this way, the secular left would internalize that its advantage over the religious right is actually a spiritual advantage, while the other side has the material and quantitative advantage (and therefore power), and give up on trying to communicate with it and influence it (i.e., on attempting to forcefully recruit culture, which turns it into an inferior culture), and adopt an ideology of "Torah for its own sake" - culture for its own sake. For this purpose, it would have to abandon the obsessive preoccupation with occupation and Arabs - that is, with power - or with money, and completely despair of the material dimension of life, in favor of developing spiritual life (morality is not spirit! - just as preaching morality is not prophecy). A central step in such an enterprise would be an attempt to create, edit, and consolidate an exceptionally high-quality literary corpus - a new Bible, or a new Talmud, or a new Zohar (but not pale "secular" copies of all these - a new form is also needed!) - that is, a masterpiece that can leap across periods and cultures. The Renaissance path is also open to it: an attempt to create a new Sistine Chapel and a structure with exceptional artistic qualities at the world level. Even the model of German world culture before the Holocaust could work: a sequence of creators of unique stature in all fields, who fertilize each other.

Why does this solution also seem lost? Because the ethos of "culture" is not identical to the individual ethos, and as long as the individual does not prefer their culture over themselves - we will get at most narcissistic culture, that is, at a low level. Therefore, the likely solution will stem precisely from the third, and closer, stage in Jewish history: exile. To go into exile, you don't need a mass movement, you don't need organization, and you don't even need a dream - just its shattering. Because going into exile is not necessarily an exodus from Egypt, and exile is a flow of individuals, dispersion, disintegration. Exile is not of collectives but of individuals. No one will exile the left, it will simply exile itself, from a combination of ideological, economic, and cultural reasons. It's not fun to live in Bibi's state (which will remain Bibi's state even when there's no Bibi. The people are the problem - not the leader). But even for such a movement, it's better to formulate an ethos, and such an ethos will probably look like this: The "Return to Exile" movement is a movement for a return to Jewish normality, it is a movement against occupation, and it is a movement for a return to the great (and always individual) achievements of Jewish genius. The symbol of this exile will be the aspiration to stop creating as part of Hebrew culture - and in the Hebrew language - and reconnecting to world culture. A central and worthy challenge for the new and ideological exile will be the establishment of Jewish communities in China, Japan, Korea, and India, and the spread of Jewish culture in the Far East - on the way to a particularly original cultural synthesis that we have not yet seen in the history of Judaism.