By Bambi Sheleg | 05/08/2010
This issue of Eretz Acheret deals with a burning social problem: Why have large portions of a public that was once known as a "serving elite" lost the feeling that they must serve Israeli society? Why have they begun to do what the "global elite" around the world is already doing – namely, following an agenda that is built on what is euphemistically called a "me-first" mentality?
Photo: Danny Eshet
This new development has several aspects, the principal one being: Israeli society simply does not interest this group as a society. For the new local elite, Israeli society is merely a convenient springboard for business, academic, or telecommunications activity whose goal is to enable the members of the new Israeli elite to become an integral part of the global elite that has been steadily growing over the past decades and to provide the members of the Israeli elite with a prestigious place in the new international crème de la crème.
Israeli society – with all the wealth of its human resources, with all its painful problems and all its challenges – just does not interest the new local elite, many of whose members are agenda-setters in the economic, telecommunications and academic spheres, are dubbed success stories and are thus considered smarter and "better" than more ordinary Israelis. The new local elite genuinely believes in its built-in superiority and, deep-down, actually feels nothing but contempt for many of the groups constituting contemporary Israeli society.
Although they are prepared from time to time to give charity to less fortunate Israelis, the members of the new local elite are gradually severing their ties with day-to-day life here in Israel as they draw closer and closer to American WASP society, which they so passionately long to join and which can turn them into permanent members of the most important, most influential group in the world. How could the inhabitants of the Levant who have gathered together once more in Zion, especially those who do not have much money or status and who are certainly not celebrities, possibly interest the new local elite?
Since Israeli society does not really interest the members of the new local elite unless they can derive some practical benefit from it and since they still occupy key positions in significant decision-making junctures, we actually find ourselves in the position of a headless society.
The nation has invested so much of its intellectual, cultural and economic assets in this group, which was earmarked to become the moving force in Israel but which displays no concern for the other parts of the Israeli body politic. To a certain extent – since the matter is so serious, harsh things must be said – the new local elite is looting society and is thus acting like many of the other new elite groups throughout the world. These are the new economic rules of the game.
That is why Israel's education system is in such a dismal state, as are all of the country's agencies and institutions. That is why the media is in such a dismal state: It is already waist-deep in the sewer system of the rating Molekh.
In our travels the length and breadth of Israel, we kept on encountering the same paradox: In every segment of society, we met extraordinary people who were convinced that Israeli society was in a serious state of decay. The good news is that this is simply not true. The bad news is that there are some people who actually benefit immensely – in terms of financial gain and in terms of status - from the promotion of this idea, which is inciting one segment of Israeli society against another.
Before we try to solve this grave problem, I want to ask you a question that has been bothering me for quite some time: Why has this new elite group, which has been so carefully nurtured by Israeli society, lost its sense of unconditional commitment to the future of the nation? Has nothing remained of all the love for the Zionist enterprise, which is so unique in human history? Has nothing remained of the feeling of being privileged to live in a generation and in a place where a Jewish state, the cherished dream of generations of Jews, has become a reality? What are the roots of the alienation and contempt that are displayed toward the really important tasks of Israeli society in the fields of education, culture, social welfare, mutual assistance, and immigrant absorption, and with regard to the issue of establishing peaceful, fraternal relations with the Arab minority in this country? Why did no one want to be minister of social affairs in the government that was set up a few months ago?
The claim that everything can be blamed on the occupation is merely an excuse whose goal is to allow the continued neglect of the additional real issues that Israeli society must deal with. A solution for the issue of our relations with the Palestinians is a national challenge of supreme importance; however, it cannot serve as an alibi for destroying all the other spheres of life in this country. That is why it is our aim to make the public see issues more clearly so that our citizens can ask the right questions, chief of which must be: When and how can we establish another elite that will, however, have a sense of commitment?
