During the past two weeks a process of delegitimization of Israeli artists has been going on, which is reminiscent of the bad times in the 1950s in the United States, when Senator Joseph McCarthy launched a witch hunt against cultural icons whom he suspected were endangering the ideology of the administration. Although Israel's behavior is a far cry from McCarthy's aggressiveness, there is a disturbing similarity between the cases. The government, which is having difficulty dealing with a phenomenon it has described as dangerous - although its true dimensions are quite negligible - is setting a goal that will have absolutely no chance of affecting the relevant processes, but which will provide it with maximum publicity and will give rise to a consensus among laymen.

The problem of people avoiding service in the Israel Defense Forces should disturb our society, but it is not clear why such a numerically negligible group has been marked as a stumbling block that must be removed right away. Instead of the army authorities examining why they found it proper to release some of said artists from their duties, they choose to present them as a factor that could destroy other people's willingness to undertake the obligation of doing their service.

It's true that cultural icons are widely admired and become well known, but for the most part that happens thanks to their creative or cultural activity, not because they boasted of something related to their military service. Whether through education or due to the use of sanctions, the State of Israel has succeeded in getting the public to see exemption from service as a mark of Cain. But now it finds itself facing a critical and ethical society, which dares to cast doubts on some of the goals of the army, and on the genuine contribution that one individual or another can bring to the largest organization in the country.