Kibbutznik

The kibbutzniki of Gesher yearn for the old days, before 1967, when they exchanged pleasantries with the Arab farmers across the river. “We could talk to them then,” Mrs. [Edna] Solodar said thoughtfully.

They have found it necessary to employ outside labour—a fundamental departure from the ideology of the movement, for which my host’s kibbutz was regularly berated by the central organisation by which it was affiliated. […] There is a movement the other way, too—some of the young kibbutzniki go into town to work each day.

But he [Saul Bellow] also foresees with horror that the Arab States will get rapidly more powerful, that even if the next ‘round’ is once again ‘won’ by Israel, the one after that, or the one after that, will be the fatal last round which will lead to the annihilation of that fine and lovable country; of all those civilised and charming intellectuals; those hard-working kibbutzniki; […]

Which tasks will Israeli society set for the young kibbutzniki? Exhaustion after heavy physical efforts, growing “pragmatism”, de-ideologization of the entire society, the deep crisis of classical socialism – both reformist and revolutionary, disappointment with the Soviet Union and other factors may cause an ideological vacuum, a lack of ideals and utopias.

When a banker and a developer arrive to find that the commune has not been evacuated, the spirit of resistance is awakened in the old kibbutzniks.