After all is said and done, the Kibbutz is about people - people living together, and working on it. Pretty much like marriage - and in more respects than one. Your boss at work is also your next door neighbor, you head the committee which has to decide whether to approve the new expansion to his house, his wife is the nurse who took your urine test this morning and you've just lectured his son about leaving kibbutz cars clean after you drive them, thank you very much!

Our lives are all interlaced, on many levels - some very personal and intimate. There are many people who resent that kind of intimacy; It used to be at the core of kibbutz ideology, but as that ideology evolves, so too does the bond that keeps us together.

One thing is clear, though: while many people are talking about the need for change in the kibbutz - some even advocating very radical change - they are all agreed on the need to preserve the unique nature of the relationship between people in this community.