The purpose of the article is to review the dynamics of the Orientalist agenda in Israeli modernism from the 1920s to the 1970s as the establishment of sign-object relations(semiosis)in the national art and music.The article considers,as a key issue,the phenomenon,which was not explicitly voiced as such,but was present at a conscious level in the artistic palette of the first and second generation of Israeli artists and composers.This refers to rather Eastern than Jewish narratives(or at least the delicate balance between them)in Israeli visual art and music created over the decades following World War I and up to the postmodern era.The main milestones in this process are reviewed based on the analysis of several selected artifacts.The scope of the topic begins with artists’acquaintance with the local motif and proceeds to the work with(and conceptualization of)various Eastern,Jewish,and Israeli symbols.