ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that of all the poetry written in Israel since its establishment, there is probably no other corpus that can be likened to Yehuda Amichai's poetry insofar as its potential political significance and influence are concerned. It presents several general aspects of Amichai's poetry that can be viewed as the factors responsible, to one degree or another, for the possible political influence attributable to this poetry. The chapter describes the general direction and subject matter which this political influence attempted to affect. Cultural and political establishments prefer to ignore it and often succeed in pushing it out to the margins of the public arena. The weight, influence, and political significance of Amichai's poetry do not rest on any explicitly political poems or from any directly political statements that an assiduous reader might cull from his work. Words and ideas which carry a political or ideological significance in the Israeli, Jewish, and Zionist context, overturn their accepted status.
