Israeli Conservative Election Peek

Apparently the politics of Israel has left the everyday voter disillusioned about any government agenda. There are so many choices with mixed bags the electorate has a difficult time choosing a Party that will provide a stable certainty to Israeli adversaries. Both liberals and conservatives are fractured appealing to specialized interests of certain aspects of the electorate. Author Reuven Koret gives a good view of the dilemma of choices he has had to make over the years leaving him feeling fruitless about an Israel established under specific Zionist principles for the survival of Jews in a hostile world.
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Nyet, Nyet, Yvette?
By Reuven Koret
March 27, 2006
IsraelInsider

Dear readers, forgive me for I know not what I have done. Or not done. It has been months since my last confession.

My relative silence perhaps can be traced to the trauma of 10,000 Jewish citizens brutally expelled from their homes, fulfilling the betrayal of the electorate that voted in Ariel Sharon in 2003 against Mitzna, who advocated unilateral withdrawal. All of those who voted for Sharon, or who celebrated his victory, were made to look like fools. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, well....

I wasn't fooled, because I didn't vote for Sharon. I endorsed Sharansky's immigrant party, and then Sharansky up and joined Sharon. Shame on me.

I have not been completely silent. In November I called for the need to reinvestigate the Rabin assassination, since the evidence had become overwhelming that Yigal Amir did not act alone and was just a pawn in a far-reaching conspiracy, a coup that brought Peres, blissfully briefly, to power. After Sharon had his second stroke, we were among the first to report that he was brain-dead, despite all the efforts to conceal that fact. We took some heat after his doctors and inner circle fed false rumors that he would return to the ranch and babble with his grandchildren, but it soon became clear that we were right.

There was one article I didn't write. I was going to call it: Kadima killed its King. It now is clear that the brain-death of Sharon was the result, at the very least, of criminally negligent advisors and close colleagues. "Keep the Prime Minister in public circulation." "Don't show weakness." "Don't admit that his arteries are hardened and weak." "Don't concede that senility and dementia are lapping at his brain cells." "Pretend all is well, at least until an orderly succession to the 'Acting PM' can be secured." And yet, here too, those who killed him, by intent or by recklessness, will get away with it. But at this point, should I even care?

So here we are, less than two days before this somnambulant election. The nation walks like sleepwalkers to a cliff, and most seem quite content -- with iPods and earbuds implanted -- to plunge merrily to their demise by surrendering and abandoning high ground, an ever-increasing Arab birthrate, and a steadily deteriorating Jewish belief in the justice of our cause, our right to exist in our homeland. The willingness to accept the insult of daily rocket attacks is just one more sign that we as a nation are losing our will to survive and fight for our rights.

I have another confession. Last election, though I endorsed Sharansky, since I admired and respected him as a man, in the end I voted Benyamin Elon's National Union party. When I was in the voting booth and those little blue papers were spread around me, I decided that I was going to vote for a man and a party with whom I most resonated ideologically. I was an early protester in the Zo Artzenu anti-Oslo protest movement. I blocked roads with Beni Elon. I locked arms with him. I stood for what he stood for.

Beni Elon had created a kind of manifesto on what he believed. I don't think he has changed very much in his views, and the Arabs now seem to be validating his perspective. Beni Elon says that there cannot be two sovereignties west of the Jordan. He argues that the capital of a Palestinian state is destined to be in Amman. As Hamas and fundamental Islam takes over the "Palestinian Authority" and brings the idea of a two-state solution into disrepute, it is becoming clear that there is no living with such a state and such a people, at least not at close quarters. There is a mere 10 miles or so from the Palestinian cities of Tulkarm and Kalkilya and the Mediterranean Sea, with Israel's low-lying coastal plain lying beneath. That situation cannot persist indefinitely.

Just as withdrawal from Gaza invited rockets of constantly increasing reach to be fired into Israel, so too rockets and other forms of anti-civilian terror will be aimed at Israel's heartland. Last week, one alert cop managed to foil an infiltration of a bomber who might have killed scores. We should not need to live this way. And that means further distancing Arabs from where they can strike and harm us. Beni Elon stands for that.

But I am not sure I can vote for Beni Elon, even if he is one of the few people in the Knesset I can respect, for his morality, eloquence and the courage of his convictions.

I am not sure I can forgive him for not fighting enough for Gush Katif and Samaria. He and his colleagues, in the end, went like sheep. They did not march to the Gush, as they promised. They did not sufficiently struggle for the homes. They lost heart and they did not lead. They played fair and they played by the rules. And look where it got them.

Beni Elon is a unifier, a mensch. He wants a strong and unified right. For that, even as he discovered he was suffering from cancer, he exhaustively sought, and eventually signed, a deal with the National Religious Party, which was even more cowardly and ineffectual when it came to defending the citizens to be expelled. And in making the deal with the NRP, Elon sacrificed a key plank of his party's platform, which calls for the transfer -- a euphemism for expulsion -- of Arabs (with compensation, leave "voluntarily", etc.) from west of the Jordan River to its east, to join the majority-Palestinian nation there.

So how could Beni Elon accept expulsion of Israeli Jews and give up the idea that expulsion of Palestinian Arabs, bent on destroying the Jewish State, is a moral and necessary act?

Now it has become clear that there is no negotiating partner on the other side. The Palestinian Authority under Arafat, and then Abbas, faked removing the clause of the PLO Charter calling for Israel's destruction. Hamas does not even bother faking it.

Still, the Labor party, and the Yahad-Meretz party to its left, say they will enter into immediate negotiations with the Palestinian government. And the Olmert government says it will either negotiate a peace deal or, if that doesn't work out, it will order retreat from more than 90% of Judea and Samaria, expelling tens of thousands more Jews from their homes, handing over control to the Hamas-led Palestinians. Even though Olmert says the IDF will keep operating in the areas from which Israel retreats, everyone knows this is either a lie or a band-aid.

Israel is on the brink of abandoning forever its Biblical heartland -- communities like Shilo, Beit El, Ofra, Elon Moreh -- the hills where the patriarchs walked and the highlands which command our population centers. That is not only stupid but unforgivable. It is a sin of Biblical proportions, which will not go unpunished.

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, leader of the Likud, says that he would not make unilateral withdrawals until the Palestinians take specified security steps. I voted for him in 1996. His dedication to the principle of reciprocity was admirable, and it produced results. But Bibi in Wye collapsed under American pressure, and went along with hardly a whimper as a key member of the Sharon Cabinet. Bibi may be able to talk the talk and walk the walk, but when push comes to shove, he too has proven himself a wimp.

So where does that leave us? Well, there is one (relatively) new star in the firmament: Avigdor (Yvette) Lieberman. An immigrant hailing from Moldova, a former bouncer and wrestler, and more recently the leader of the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Homeland) party, he recruited the services of long-time Bibi political adviser Arthur Finkelstein. The result has been a slick, smart campaign targeting his core base with a simple message. "Olmert. Nyet. Netanyahu. Nyet. Lieberman. Da!"

Beyond sound bites, Lieberman advocates attaching the "Arab triangle" near Israel's coastal plain to a future Palestinian state and annexing areas of Judea and Samaria, denying disloyal Arab citizens of Israel a vote in future elections. The issue of "Palestinian Arab citizens of the State of Israel" is an oxymoron that has long distorted the political character of Israeli democracy. I don't identify with Lieberman's personality, but he does project strength, and intelligence, and political power. I believe he is committed to what he believes is right to keep Israel Jewish and strong. Yet, like Olmert, he is another wheeler and dealer.

My faith in the "Jewish Democratic State" has been broken by the betrayal of the electorate engineered by Sharon and his successor, ready to run the country into the ground and leave it for Hamas. I am not against creating borders for our borderless nation. But those borders should be forged in strength and power, not in fear and flight.

Who will draw the borders of my homeland? Shall I give Beni another chance? Can I entrust my vote to a man named Yvette? Will my vote matter a whit?

A final confession: I cannot escape the feeling that things will get worse before they get better. The Kadima bubble will be burst by reality, releasing only hot air.

So my "writer's block" has yet to lead me to a voting bloc. I am not alone. A day before the election, I identify with the fastest-growing sector of the electorate, maybe even a majority: disenchanted, floating voters.

Can someone or something restore my faith in the future of Israel? I love living here. I hate its politics. I resent the politicians for stripping Zionism of its content.

Perhaps by tomorrow this disillusioned floater will drift to earth.

At least they give us a day off to think about it.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
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