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"The era of 'the tribes of Israel are together' has ended. We will no longer sing 'Brothers Sitting Together.' We will no longer dance 'Let us toast this nation, and how good it is that it is like this' - not even at weddings. The process was long, but the moment of awareness has been short and cruel and is taking place right now. The tribes of Israel are more divided than at any time in the biblical or modern age. The collective has become the separate. There is no one nation in any sense, neither national nor civic. From a loose but durable federation of aspirations and points of view, the nation has become an arena for clashes, cursing and imposing one's will. It's terrible that this has happened.

In the entire history of the Jewish people, it's hard to find more hostility, disintegration, obscene language and mutual abhorrence. Very rarely in Israel's history has solidarity been so weak. Never in the country's history has such tension existed between the Diaspora and Israel. Israel's renaissance in its land is collapsing under the weight of internal disagreements that this nation had been so good at restraining during all the years of the exile and the best years of Zionism and the state."

Fania Oz-Salzberger im Kommentar "The collective has come apart", Haaretz (22. Juli)