Walk into any café in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv as election day approaches, and you will hear a country speaking almost entirely from within dug-in trenches.

Israel’s political conversation has calcified into an unyielding war of attrition. It is “Rak Bibi” versus “Rak Lo Bibi,” bloc against bloc, survival versus doom. In this environment, politics ceases to be an exercise in statecraft; it becomes about unconditional loyalty to our own foxhole. The critical questions, like What is this candidate’s actual track record of effective governance? What are the long-term, second-order consequences of this coalition deal? What ethical compromises am I casually forgiving just so my bloc can scrape together 61 seats? are drowned out by communal sirens and partisan anxiety.

This reveals a profound and painful paradox for a society that prides itself on two great intellectual lineages: the beit midrash and the university lecture hall.

Israel is a nation defined by its love of rigorous study. We are both the People of the Book and the “Start-Up Nation,” a society boasting one........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)