Rant-of-the-day

I've become so bitter & cynical about politics & public life here in Israel over the past few years. I hate it but don't see any alternative any time soon. It's a sad commentary, I think, that the only real leader this country has (love him or hate him) is laying in an irreversible coma in Tel Hashomer.

Olmert could've been Israel's Chester Arthur. Remember him? He was a lifelong hack & wheeler-dealer. His corrupt buddies in the GOP named him James Garfield's running mate in 1880. Garfield was shot in July 1881 & died the following September. Arthur, as President, proved to be a very different man. He championed civil service reform & broke with the then prevailing spoils system. His former allies in the GOP became his bitter enemies. A prominent publisher said of him, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired...more generally respected." Arthur was basically a hack who, when he found greatness thrust upon him, rose to the occasion.

Olmert, also a hack (he was a lousy mayor of Jerusalem, which now boasts one of the most corrupt & bloated municipal bureaucracies in the country), found greatness thrust upon him (nobody used the words "Ehud Olmert" & "Prime Minister" in the same sentence before Sharon's stroke) & has long since sunken back into hackdom. He's a little man with no vision other than expediency & political survival.

And the really depressing part is: Who are the alternatives? Bibi Netanyahu? Ehud Barak? GROAN!!!! Tzipi Livni stepped up to the plate (after the Winograd Committee issued its interim report) & flinched. Like Brando, she coulda been a contender.

Everyone clings to their own illusions. The Right believes that if we beat on the Palestinians just a little more & hit them just a little harder, then out of the fear in their hearts, they'll leave us alone. The Left believes that if we just give the Palestinians everything they want (just about), then out of the gratitude & goodness in their hearts, they'll leave us alone. Wrong & wrong. Both Right & Left bury their heads in the sand, forgetting that if you stick your head in the sand, another part of the body is rendered very prominent thereby & that's where you'll end up getting it, hard.

So, bitter, cynical and depressed (did I say that?) me, who since first coming here has voted Labor, Likud, Third Way, Center Party & Kadima (never the same party twice) in a vain effort to cling to the ever-shrinking center, would probably either vote for a no-hope list (Tafnit, maybe) or spoil a ballot in disgusted protest, neither of which I've ever done before.

I s'pose, as a "modern orthodox" Jew who wears a knitted kipa, I should consider voting for Mafdal but the religious, non-haredi, right here has long since become a single-issue party. It has abandoned the development towns & poorer neighborhoods to Shas. Mafdal's answer to every ill plaguing this country is: Build in Judea & Samaria, by hook or by crook, probity optional. God forbid, I'm not knocking building in Judea & Samaria and the ease with which some Jews think going up & down Judea and Samaria, shouting Juden Raus! will solve all our problems nauseates me, but building in J & S has to get in line with a list of other, pressing needs.  In the aftermath of the disengagement, the religious, non-haredi, right has pointed the finger in every conceivable direction except at itself; it has shown no inclination to do any kind of introspection or soul-searching  & will never admit that it has done anything wrong or that folks who disagree with it might have a point. It keeps harping on the same note & seems utterly unable to win more than 10-12 seats. It's great at preaching to the converted.

So, what's the solution? Damned if I know. So, I'll just hunker down here on the darkling plain, ignoring the latest corruption/sex scandals & drink more Turkish coffee. We'll muddle through (how exciting).

I still wouldn't live anywhere else & do not regret making aliyah 20+ years ago. I may bitch about the game but I would never dream of going back to watching it from up in the cheap seats.  We'll make it right, eventually.

On that happy note...

L'chaim!

Oxartes