1. A man wakes up in the morning and suddenly decides that hes the prime minister. That was my impression of Shaul Mofazs public appearances in recent months. Its okay for him to think this way. Really. But what was particularly irksome was the series of egregiously narrow-minded statements that Mofaz blurted out during every interview he gave. It quickly brought me back to my old music lessons, listening to the somewhat monotonous answers that Mofaz gave, as if he was reading from a script. He was inflexible and rigid. It didnt matter what he was asked; the answers were all similar. Nu, he is being aided by the services of advertising gurus Eyal Arad and Lior Horev. All of a sudden, its deja vu for All the Campaigns Men, the film by Anat Goren which documented the 2006 general elections and revealed the shocking, appalling terminology which Arad and the rest of the notorious Ranch Forum (employed by Ariel Sharon) used to describe Benjamin Netanyahu. One particular scene always comes back to haunt me whenever Eyal Arad and his friends return to the political arena. It is a scene in which this clique is captured discussing its campaign strategy. When one of the forum members asks, Strategically, where do we need to go beginning Thursday- Arad replies: Im like a shark that smells blood in the water. We need to dismantle Bibi ... I want to finish him off completely. Hes bleeding in the water. What does a shark do when he senses that someone is bleeding in the water? Attack! He kills him. So lets kill him. Lets press our foot right here (he places his right hand up against his jugular vein). Ahhh. Ahhh. Just like that. This will be the countrys new national pastime. People hate Bibi. We have an opportunity to dismember him limb from limb. Am I the only one who recognizes this kind of talk for what it is: violent, criminal lingo more suited to the streets and certain clubs? Nonetheless, the question remains: Who is managing whom? Is the politician the leader, or is it his gang of mass media experts, which is nothing more than a euphemism for mass engineering? And what does all this say about the electorate? I was also reminded of the following statement: I make this personal appeal to you as a member of Likud, in order to ask for your support in restoring hope to the movement. The Likud is home to all of us ... Only I could bring home the voters who left for our key rival Kadima ... As you know, I chose to remain in Likud, despite the fact that I was presented with an offer to leave in exchange for a promise that I would receive the Defense Ministry. I chose to do this because one does not leave his home, and I am convinced of the need to stay in Likud under all circumstances and to fight for its ideology! ... A united Likud is a victorious Likud. This letter, dated Dec. 5, 2005, and addressed to registered Likud voters, was signed by Shaul Mofaz, who was defense minister at the time. Last week, Tzipi Livni gleefully recalled Mofazs one does not leave his home speech. For a party like Kadima, it looks as if this tactic is a badge of honor. In that same letter, Mofaz pledged to fully fortify and thicken settlement activity in Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights, and, of course, to preserve the wholeness and unity of Greater Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel. If only this were so. We are dwelling among our people, and, in particular, in an Israeli media landscape in which statements of this kind are met with contempt by most of its inhabitants. So how do Mofaz and his advisers plan on differentiating his party from the Likud and Labor? Kadimas main reservoir of votes is on the left side of the political spectrum. Are we about to bear witness to a dovish Mofaz waging an all-out war with left-wing parties over who can offer the most extreme diplomatic concessions just so that the winner can gain adoring headlines in Haaretz or Yedioth Ahronoth while as an added bonus earning the label of moderate and rational- 2. This week, Professors Zohar and Yaacov Shavit co-authored an op-ed in that subversive newspaper known as Haaretz (which is translated as the land, yet one should ask, Whose land exactly-). The piece advocated splitting the country into two states the state of Israel and the state of the Land of Israel. In the Land of Israel, they lump in all of those who dont think like they do, and in their state the state of Israel they reserve space for themselves and a couple of hundred families from Tel Aviv. The foundations of the new state were laid in 1967, they wrote. Since then, it has developed and gained extensive autonomy. It has built for itself an independent system of rule, a separate system of laws, and very soon it will have its very own university ... a unique identity, a special system of logic, and a unique kind of Hebrew. They do not recognize the system of law and justice in the state of Israel while wilfully enjoying the benefits of the vast budgets that are so generously lavished upon them. It is important to familiarize oneself with this bizarre line of reasoning, because it reflects a philosophical attitude to which most citizens of Israel are not exposed. Still, the contempt, alienation, loathing and patronizing attitude toward the majority of Israelis are part and parcel of their spiritual world view. Heres another expression filled with hatred and sick-minded stereotypes uttered by this group which once led the Jewish pre-state yishuv and some of whose members are today preoccupied with destroying it and slandering it to the entire world: A new academy of the Hebrew language will purify Hebrew ... Courts will deliberate according to a set of laws that will be known as the Halachah of the Land of Israel, Hellenistic television broadcasts from the neighboring state will be blocked. The national theater ... will only permit Jewish and kosher, Zionist productions. The libraries will offer titles such as Danny Din in the Cave of the Patriarchs and kindergarten children will begin the morning by singing, On every abandoned hill the almond tree grows. Guess which university these professors belong to. Bingo. These are not a few wayward weeds. Rather, this is the heart and soul of the Israeli Left. This is how they regard fundamental truths that were once widely accepted by the Labor Party and the Zionist left. The Land of Israel has been rendered a loathed, politically loaded term. The Cave of the Patriarchs has become synonymous with extremist apartheid. These extremists are fueling the campfire of the Israeli left, including the moderates in that camp. What is ridiculous about this is that we had already seen and heard these statements in the 1980s. What am I talking about? This kind of chatter can be heard on a daily basis on news and current events programs. It can also be heard on that allegedly satirical program, Its a Wonderful Country. As if nothing has changed. 3. On March 10, a group of Israeli and Palestinian women met in Beit Umar for a conference under the banner, Women for Civil Revolt and Nonviolent Resistance to Occupation. How nice, especially the nonviolent part. One of the attendees, Professor Nurit Peled-Elhanan, said the following: The other aspect of the Judaization project is the liquidation of the Palestinian people. She cited the recent findings of an international tribunal in Cape Town which determined that Israel was an apartheid state that is committing apartheid crimes, discriminating and liquidating an entire people on the basis of racism and doing do systematically and institutionally, and for this one cannot cooperate with it anymore. We created ... a unique strand of feminine, humane and moral Palestinian resistance to the evil that is Israeli military control over millions of Palestinian citizens, said Ilana Hammerman. We symbolize, with our actions here today, the refusal to obey bad laws, illegal and dangerous laws. Singer Rona Keinan performed in solidarity with the event, drawing loud applause from those in attendance. MK Hanin Zoabi was the only one who couldnt make it. Not to worry. She couldve asked the professors from the House of Shavit to take her place.
