Israel, Mired in Ideological Battles, Fights on Cultural Fronts

The latest was an attack on Wednesday by a far-right group on beloved leftist literary icons including Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua and David Grossman, writers who have been considered the voice — and conscience — of the state for years. The group, Im Tirtzu, began a poster campaigncalling the writers “moles in culture,” which prompted accusations of McCarthyism and worse, even from many on the right.

..The previous round was the brainchild of Miri Regev, the divisive and conservative minister of culture and sport, who wants to deny state money to institutions that do not express “loyalty” to the state, including those that show disrespect for the flag, incite racism or violence, or subvert Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

.. “It’s not just a culture war, it’s political, demographic and social at the same time,” said Nahum Barnea, one of Israel’s most influential columnists. “The core of the struggle is: Who is the dedicated elite, who are the legitimate heirs to the Zionist movement that built the state?”

.. Mr. Bennett, for his part, overruled ministry experts to ban from high-school reading lists a novel about a romance between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, apparently out of fear that it promotes assimilation.