By all indications, we are in for six months of campaigning, rhetoric, maneuvering, nonsense, and assorted political machinations. Parties will combine, split, disappear or generate, allegiances will change, and jockeying of all kinds will take place.
And at the end of it all, Israel will be left with more of the same. The Oslo process, the most destructive ideological mistake in history, will continue. Peace will continue to elude the nation most singularly devoted to its pursuit in the history of mankind. Israel’s students will continue to be poorly served by the Jewish government. The sick and frail and elderly will continue to receive sub-standard treatment. The disadvantaged will continue to experience hardship. Zionism will continue to be the target of attack from historical revisionists. Academia, the judiciary, and the media will continue to maintain the bias of the extreme left, with politically-motivated studies, rulings, and opinion. Religious and secular segments of the community will continue to strive mightily against each other, and the threat of a society in tatters will continue to be the leading buzzword of the next few years.
All this is because there are no real alternatives to the policies that have guided successive Israeli governments of any stripe.
Make no mistake. I am ecstatic that Barak’s government has finally imploded. He pledged to be the “Prime Minister of everyone”, and instead has left this country in measurably worse shape than when he inherited it, in every issue area that exists.
But the right wing should take no pride in causing Barak’s downfall. For the past two months Israel has been trying hard not to fight a war. Our Palestinian partners in peace have been killing and maiming Israelis at every opportunity with nary a response from our most decorated military hero.
And while all this has been going on, Israel’s right wing parties, the National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu, have collectively uttered not one word against Israel’s restraint or against continued negotiation with Arafat. MK Benny Elon of the National Union did make a stand at the Western Wall during Rosh Hashana, but beyond that they have been eerily silent. Likud leader Ariel Sharon, for all his bluster, did not bring Barak down. Even the right-wing movements such as the Yesha Council could organize only a few demonstrations in major centers, but nothing sustained.
Israeli citizens are angry. They have been attacked, murdered, maimed, orphaned and widowed by Israel’s partners in peace. They have seen their own military emasculated by their own government. They have seen inept, wimpy responses by the Prime Minister, and nonsensical utterances by other so-called political leaders. Barak has plummeted lower in the polls than any other sitting Israeli prime minister. Opposition leaders have never even dreamed in this kind of living color. And yet, those same opinion polls show most Israelis support continuing negotiations with the PLO and reaching a final agreement.
This is due to an ideologically bankrupt and unimaginative political leadership, which has caused the nation to slumber when it should be standing to its own defense.
I place the blame for this more on the right than on the left. For years, the right wing has offered no credible policy alternatives to those dictated by the left. It is little wonder that the media can run roughshod over the right. There is nothing stopping them.
The parties that should take all the credit for bringing down Barak’s ill-conceived government are those identified with the political center. The National Religious Party, Shas, and Yisrael Ba’aliya. These three parties, whose centrism is bothersome to most right-wingers, are the reason that right-wingers today can celebrate.
But in another few months, when it comes time to vote, right-wingers will still be left with no alternative. Rather than continuing to spout ideologically empty rhetoric only when it is convenient, the right wing should learn a few lessons from the center. Natan Sharansky knows how to appreciate Jewish pride and Jewish freedom. His lessons in the Gulag give him a unique understanding of the problems that plague Israel. And what he saw from Barak he could not accept.
Shas is the only party that truly understands the voters’ real needs. They have continued to emphasize for 16 years that the real problems facing Israel are social and economic, and that only by instilling national pride in all Israelis can the other, more notorious problems be solved.
Until the right wing can learn these lessons, there will be no one for the true nationalist Israeli to vote for. That is a shame, because the obvious alternative is more of the same.
Copyright 2000. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
