Uri Misgav : The State of Israel, the State of Judea and the Israeli Democratic Party


 
 
 
 
From Likud's Yaalon to Meretz's Galon: The State of Israel has just one weapon left in its struggle against the State of Judea – establishing a new movement based on…
haaretz.com


A cold civil war is brewing in Israel, igniting from time to time. It will not disappear.

The State of Judea and the State of Israel face off on either side of the barricades. Except that the State of Israel avoids showing up in full force on the battlefield. It has a variety of reasons: Fear, hesitation, blindness, apathy, weakness and despair.

Add to those the fact that many politicians refuse to pick a side and try to maneuver between the raindrops. They cry out for the nation’s love, without recognizing the fact that there no longer is just one nation. There are at least two.

Benjamin Netanyahu chose a side this past year. He sold his soul to the State of Judea. The continuum was stretched between “The Arabs are coming out in droves on buses” and the frightened, flattering phone call to the home of the soldier who shot dead a Palestinian at Tel Rumeida.

The lot has been cast. The message has been sent. Naftali Bennett and “The Shadow” are doing the rest of the work. Under Netanyahu’s leadership, the State of Judea continuously subdues the State of Israel. It is not clear at all if the tables can ever be turned back. One thing is for sure. We will never know, as long as the State of Israel doesn’t unify and fight back.

Fascism always achieves its goals gradually and thrives in the face of weakness and division on the opposing side. Fascism can be stopped, but only through struggle and forcefulness. There is no compromising with fascism. You don’t form unity governments with it.

The mathematician and Rothschild Prize winner Nati Linial summarized this beautifully in his speech to the Knesset last week, when he said, “Fascism succeeded precisely in those places where decent people didn’t find in themselves the emotional strength to stand up against it due to laziness, weakness or just plain fear.”

The State of Israel has just one weapon left in its struggle against the State of Judea – establishing a public-political movement under the name “The Israeli Democratic Party.” Its borders are broad but clear, from Moshe Ya’alon to Zehava Galon; from Shaul Mofaz to Zouheir Bahloul; from Dan Meridor to Ayman Odeh.

There is no need to be alarmed by this variety. It must be this way. The model is the American Democratic Party, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt reconstituted it in the 1930s.

It will find its dominant center of gravity over time – the bloc of parties of the Zionist Union, Yesh Atid and Kulanu which spend their time fighting over the same electorate and competing for the dubious right to bolster the changing governments of Judea.

A prime ministerial candidate who can garner a consensus must be parachuted onto to this platform; someone like Benny Ganz or Reuven Rivlin. Stef Wertheimer and Aharon Barak can serve as honorary presidents.

I published this detailed proposal (in Hebrew) on the Haaretz Internet website at the beginning of the week. I was flooded with reactions of all kinds – support and opposition, admiration and scorn, belief and skepticism, excitement and cynicism. All of them, to the very last, strengthened my feeling that this is the only solution. It arouses fear and loathing in the State of Judea and a similar revulsion among the fringe streams, like the Mizrahi ethnic professionals and the Jewish supporters of Balad. That’s a good sign.

I am at heart an optimist. I would like to live in peace in a world without nationalities, religions and countries, but there is a difference between dreams and hallucinations. And there is reality.

Plans for uniting forces are always based on compromise and pragmatism. They seem full of holes and are complicated to implement.

Their time arrives only when facing an existential threat, when the sword is held to your throat. The Joint Arab List is an excellent, real-time example to learn from. The sword is being held to our throat. We can’t go on this way.
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Uri Misgav

Haaretz Contributor
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.714147

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