Page 6 - Issue 3

of identity and memory and fundamental values that would give us hope and strength, that would be the
antidote to the waning of mutual trust, of the bonds to the land, that would give some meaning to the
exhausting and despairing struggle for existence .

The fundamental characteristics of the current Israeli leadership are primarily anxiety and intimidation,
of the charade of power, the wink of the dirty deal, of selling out our most prized possessions. In this
sense they are not true leaders, certainly they are not the leaders of a people in such a complicated
position that has lost the way it so desperately needs. Sometimes it seems that the sound box of their
self-importance, of their memories of history, of their vision, of what they really care for, exist only in
the miniscule space between two headlines of a newspaper or between two investigations by the
attorney general .

Look at those who lead us. Not all of them, of course, but many among them. Behold their petrified,
suspicious, sweaty conduct. The conduct of advocates and scoundrels. It is preposterous to expect to
hear wisdom emerge from them, that some vision or even just an original, truly creative, bold and
ingenuous idea would emanate from them .

When was the last time a prime minister formulated or took a step that could open up a new horizon for
Israelis, for a better future? When did he initiate a social or cultural or ideological move, instead of
merely reacting feverishly to moves forced upon him by others ?

…We have been living in this struggle for more than 100 years. We, the citizens of this conflict, have
been born into war and raised in it, and in a certain sense indoctrinated by it. Maybe this is why we
sometimes think that this madness in which we live for over 100 years is the only real thing, the only life
for us, and that we do not have the option or even the right to aspire for a different life .

By our sword we shall live and by our sword we shall die and the sword shall devour forever. Maybe this
would explain the indifference with which we accept the utter failure of the peace process, a failure
that has lasted for years and claims more and more victims .

This could explain also the lack of reaction by most of us to the harsh blow to democracy caused by the
appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as a senior minister with the support of the Labor Party - the
appointment of a habitual pyromaniac as director of the nation's firefighters .

And these are partly the cause of Israel's quick descent into the heartless, essentially brutal treatment
of its poor and suffering. This indifference to the fate of the hungry, the elderly, the sick and the
disabled, all those who are weak, this equanimity of the State of Israel in the face of human trafficking
or the appalling employment conditions of our foreign workers, which border on slavery, to the deeply
ingrained institutionalized racism against the Arab minority .

When this takes place here so naturally, without shock, without protest, as though it were obvious, that
we would never be able to get the wheel back on track, when all of this takes place, I begin to fear that
even if peace were to arrive tomorrow, and even if we ever regained some normalcy, we may have lost
our chance for full recovery .

…Disagreements today between right and left are not that significant. The vast majority of Israel's
citizens understand this already, and know what the outline for the resolution of the conflict would look
like. Most of us understand, therefore, that the land would be divided, that a Palestinian state would be
established .