But the relief comes with pain. Such spiritual escapism is an unhealthy and dangerous phenomenon in any individual. These tortured, alienated souls are also self-destructive. They search for physical or emotional escape but encounter only crushing failure. In short, Israeli literature is about estranged, emotionally detached figures who impose internal exile on themselves.
Israeli literature imitates life for at least part of Israel's elite.
The new bon ton for many young Israelis is, indeed, to escape, if not physically, then at least mentally, into an ignorance blissfully detached from the pressures of daily Israeli life. The new Israelis don't want to know what is going on. They don't listen to the news. Retreating into an intensely self-absorbed and narrowly concerned world, these new Israelis consider life wonderful as long as you and your loved ones are not victims of the reality you flee, as long as you survive every day without being hurt in a terrorist act. The new escapism is also expressed through abandoning the big city for rural locations.