There is unmistakable similarity between the Stalinist society laid bare by Koestler in his Darkness at Noon and the post-Zionist Israel. The defining characteristic of Stalinist society was a suppression of common morality now for the sake of attaining high ideals later. The ideals have to be sufficiently abstract so that the people won’t be able to evaluate whether the ends justify the means; besides being shiny, the ends are not clear. So in Israel. Zionists plunged to the depths of immorality such as hunting the fellow Jews (Kach, etc) without ever clarifying what they want to achieve. Just like their Russian counterparts spoke of the ultimate “worker’s state” while robbing and denigrating those same workers, Zionists declared a goal of the Jewish state without ever clarifying what “Jewish” means to them. Russian bureaucracy usurped the power in the name of workers; Zionist bureaucracy usurped the power while pushing religious and nationalist Jews onto the society’s persecuted fringes. Communists and Zionists were unable to formulate their goals because they had no clear goals. A short logical argument immediately demonstrates that planned socialist economy benefits the state rather than workers, and socialist Zionism opposes Judaism and Jewishness.

Koestler convincingly shows how the good communists were persuaded to submit to evil communists because the evil communists had currently the best chance of furthering the goals of communism. And so in Israel. Common Israelis believe the top political echelon, though corrupt and treacherous, works to uphold Zionist goals, and they submit to its rule. In the case of, for example, Baruch Goldstein it is evident that he could not have shot 150 Arabs with four cartridges. The guards, however, were persuaded to retract their testimonies so that the government could blame Goldstein for the “massacre” and disband the Kach party he belonged to. In another episode, many people in the sterile zone saw Rabin standing up and walking to his car after being “fatally shot” by Amir; dozens of medical personnel in the hospital knew that Rabin was fatally shot in the surgery room. All of them kept silent. It is impossible that all of them are cowards, submitting to Shin-Bet’s threats. Just like during the Soviet witch hunt trials, all of them were persuaded that temporary injustice justifies the shining ends of Zionism. Probably, just like the Koestler’s hero, they were offered an escape for their conscience: a possibility that at some remote date the truth will be allowed to stand and the non-guilty – acquitted. Israeli establishment can now afford to acquit Amir or Goldstein: Kach is dead, and the image of right-wingers stained irreparably. Indeed, they are all but formally acquitted: a majority of Israelis, polls show, don’t buy the official version of Rabin’s assassination. They, however, still don’t vote for the smeared right-wingers. Decades later, Kahane and Goldstein will be national heroes, just like today David Raziel and Avraham Stern, hunted by Zionists during their lifetime, became the official heroes; dead heroes don’t threaten the establishment.

Russian communists like the Koestler’s hero worked for the system. To rebel against the system was to admit one’s entire life efforts wrong. That was too much to bear. And so in Israel. Israelis suffer for the system from their early age. They risk their lives in buses, on the streets, and in the army. They see they dear ones killed or maimed. They suffer heavy taxation and international hostility. For common Israelis, to doubt the system is to admit their lifetime sacrifices futile.

Just like the communism, Zionism evolves. One notion having been discredited, the ruling clique embraces another. From Jewish state to a state with many Arabs to the state with looming Arab majority. From socialist state to atheist state to the state were the Supreme Court and the government direct rabbinical affairs. From zealously Jewish state to the state with affirmative action for Arabs and police pogroms in Jewish religious neighborhoods. It’s never possible to prove that the rulers betrayed their own goals because the goals are continuously adapted to the ongoing treachery.

Russia has never abandoned its Stalinist stature. Common Russians were silent in the face of their government blowing the houses in Moscow to instigate the war with Chechnya. They accepted transparent lies by the government just like their grandfathers accepted the ridiculous witch hunt trials. So does Israel. Jews were silent when Ben Gurion’s agents killed Arlozoroff or bullet-sprayed Altalena. Israelis, even conservatives, didn’t protest the government murdering Kahane or Zeevi.

Both communists and Zionists scored early successes by mobilizing near-free labor for ideologically inspired economic projects. Russian industrialization and Israeli agriculture leapfrogged due to the selfless labor efforts. But ideology quickly exhausts its economic potential as the societies grow, become diversified, and economic activities evolve too complex for straightforward planning. Initially more efficient than the conservative market-oriented economies, ideologically driven economies quickly fall behind, burdened by systemic distortions and lack of economic stimuli. Artificial ideologies are dangerous to minds, but also to pockets.

Israel has to abandon shining Zionism for the old-fashioned Judaism. The only alternative is communal death.