Israel's silent majority
needs to rise up against the extremists from both right and left and free
itself of their stranglehold.
You want the truth? We’ve had it. We’ve had it with the delusional
nationalists who are leading Israel to destruction, and we’ve had it with the
visionary leftists who are stoning Israel. We’ve had it with the
skullcap-wearing post-Zionists who are burying Zionism in the hills, and we’ve
had it with the bespectacled post-Zionists who are depicting Zionism as a
series of crimes. We’ve had it with the messianic believers in the entire Land
of Israel, who don’t understand that without dividing the land, there will be
no state, and we’ve had it with the messianic believers in a perfect peace, who
don’t understand Hamas and the Islamic State and don’t know where they are
living.
We’ve had it with the racist right, which destroys the image of
the democratic Jewish state, and we’ve had it with the lamentations of the
foolish left, which has lost any feeling of blue-and-white pride. We’ve had it
with those who live in an immoral world of being only for ourselves, and we’ve
had it with those who live in a warped world of being only against ourselves.
They’re all so childish, the extremists of both right and left; they’re so
pathetic. They resemble each other and deserve each other, and together, they
are bringing disaster upon us.
You want the truth? We’ve been broken. We’ve been broken by the
crude discourse of power and pillars of smoke, and also by the empty discourse
of the Arab peace initiative, the Mahmoud Abbas hope and peace in our time.
We’ve been broken by the moldy slogans of “if we just stand firm,” and also by
the hollow promises of “if we just extend our hand.” We’ve been broken by the
stubborn refusal to understand that the occupation is killing us,
diplomatically, morally and demographically, and also by the refusal to
recognize that Palestine isn’t California and Hamas leader Khaled Meshal isn’t
Martin Luther King. We’ve been broken by those who see bloodthirsty Arabs and
anti-Semitic heirs of the Nazis everywhere, and also by those who refuse to
admit that Arab fascism and Palestinian fundamentalism and anti-Semitic
European Israel-haters exist.
We’ve been broken by those who think we are the only victims, and
also by those who are convinced the Palestinians are nothing but victims. We’ve
been broken by those who haven’t yet learned that if you grab too much, you’ll
end up with nothing, and also by those who have forgotten that in the Middle
East, anyone who doesn’t have power or who doesn’t exercise power won’t
survive. They are so disconnected from reality, the extremists of both right
and left. They resemble each other and deserve each other and, together, they
are bringing disaster upon us.
You want the truth? It has to be stopped. The nationalist right
has been acting for years in an anti-national fashion, weakening the Jewish
nation-state and endangering the Zionist enterprise. The universalist left has
been acting for years in a non-universal fashion, adopting a particularistic
approach that blames Israel (for everything) and forgives the Palestinians (for
everything.) The impassioned stupidity of both poles blinds us from seeing the
fate of our generation, half of which was described by Moshe Dayan at Nahal Oz
almost 60 years ago: to be prepared and armed and strong and hard, but also to
be wise and moderate and just. The stupid spat between the blind zealots is
preventing us from seeing a complicated but clear reality: There is no Zionist
future in this place that isn’t liberal, and there is no liberal future in this
place that isn’t Zionist.
The delusional right currently has the support of less than 30
percent of Israelis, and the delusional left has the support of less than three
percent. The former control the political system and the latter control
significant portions of the media, academia and reports submitted to The Hague,
but neither of them understand Israeliness or reflect Israeliness. They haven’t
internalized the miracle of our existence, the uniqueness of our existence or
the challenge of our existence.
The time has come for the silent 70 percent of Israelis in the
center to rise up against the extremists from both right and left and free
themselves of their stranglehold. The time has come for a broad-based, angry
Israeli rebellion that will return Israel to reality, morality and sanity. We
mustn’t give up this one country of ours without a fight. Our duty now is to
repossess it, redefine it and put it back on track.
