Me? I’m slow to anger. Usually. When bad things are on their way, I tend to peek around the corner to find the good somewhere. And then as I pass around the corner, it hits me like a ton of… Bibis winning an election on a platform of fear.
Unlike me, usually, I was pretty cynical the months leading up to Israel’s latest election. For all the people who really believed there was a chance for some fresh government, I smiled politely. Either way, Bibi would be prime minister again – and the fact is, the right wing numbers are just significantly larger than the center or left. The question would be, what would the drama be around coalition building?
And, disappointingly enough, there was no drama. We went to bed expecting to wake up to drama and we woke up to same old.
So here’s why I’m angry.
There’s so much more to Bibi – to any human – than one-dimensional fear mongering. Deep down inside the man – hell, inside Likud – there are more issues than just security.
I’m angry because we are not just Israel, the defensive state. We’re not just a bunch of riot police with shields in the air. Underneath our riot gear, we are going to work every day – well, most of us. We are buying groceries at the supermarket, calculating how to make it work. We are choosing charities to donate to; there are just so many people in need. We are wondering why our taxes are this high, and how could the economy be a little more balanced.
We debate how religious this state is vs how democratic. We debate where we can be both. We debate whether our kids will go to the army. We debate who should be getting secular education.
We debate.
There are a lot of dimensions to us.
And every year that we get fed that Iran is attacking us next year, is another year we are not solving our army/national service problem. Another year we haven’t sorted out our housing issues. Another year there are still groups of people here who don’t have all their rights realized.
Tell me, who is going to fight Bibi’s wars in ten, fifteen years? How and when are we going to solve our scalablity problem with regard to our demographics?
So here we are, electing a government based on fear, conflict, the Other. Again. There is nothing creative, refreshing, imaginative, out-of-the-box about the latest coalition being built.
I’d argue we’ve regressed.
And because the anger is setting in, I’m starting to twist uncomfortably in my chair. And rant at people. So I wrote it all here.
I just want to look forward to the next debate, if anyone who is not afraid to move forward, to be creative, to consider something new – can get a word in.
Is there a word for the despair one feels at no longer knowing who or what to believe?
