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Photo: Ofer Amram
Peace Now - Time to fight back
Photo: Ofer Amram

Guide for the frustrated leftist

Time has come for left-wingers to stand up for themselves

What's the difference between a cannibal and a liberal? A cannibal doesn't eat his friends.

 

This joke is told by James Carville, media advisor to former U.S. President Bill Clinton and other democratic candidates, when he meets with party voters.

 

His message: Stop devouring each other and start devouring your enemies.

 

Carville and his democratic friends feel George Bush stole not only the presidential election of 2000, but also their legitimacy.

 

Nowadays, they are forced to defend themselves against charges of being unpatriotic, defend their economic outlook, and defend their liberal worldviews.

 

Carville published his "A Handbook for Fighting Back," in which he calls on Democrats to stop apologizing and start fighting the Right.

 

Left must fight back

 

The principles in this book are also appropriate to the Israeli Left, which was destroyed by Ariel Sharon once-and-for-all in the 2003 elections.

 

Since then, the Left has seemed irrelevant, pathetic, and even illegitimate.

 

The Labor Party now sings back up vocals for the Likud, and Meretz changed its outlook from Peace Now to Peace Yesterday.

 

Sharon's victory at the Likud Central Committee last month, following the infamous microphone scandal, will not just silence Benjamin Netanyahu for a few months, but could also bury the Left for a few more years.

 

"And what would be so bad about that?" ask the commentators. "After all, Sharon is really Meretz in disguise."

 

Sharon still a right-winger

 

But Sharon, especially after his victory at the Central Committee, was and remains the head of a right-wing party. To paraphrase the Torah, "The voice sounds like Jacob, but the hands feel like those of Esau."

 

The Likud remains a party that values most of the Whole Land of Israel over compromise. The very partial disengagement from the Palestinians does not stem from a humanistic world outlook, but was rather a mere tactic.

 

The Likud remains a party whose voters prefer the ancient graves of our sages over the fresh graves of our sons.

 

For some, the Supreme Court and the media are considered enemies, and human rights and gender equality are fundamentally opposed to their religious beliefs.

 

Survival guide

 

This survival guide for frustrated leftists is not intended merely to save important political parties, but also to protect an essentially liberal outlook.

 

Politically - don't apologize for your world view! You offered "one land for two peoples" against "Two banks of the Jordan River" (a traditional right-wing anthem), and won.

 

With regard to security - don't agree that you are not patriotic! Opposition to occupation is not an expression of physical weakness, but rather of moral strength. You have said that patriotism that relies on controlling the Palestinians will be the downfall of justice.

 

Economically – don't deny that you are socialists! The Right wants to privatize everything, and would have you believe that free competition is the breath of life for a democracy. You claimed that without a welfare state, the poor will get poorer and the rich will get richer. And again, you were right.

 

With regard to values – don't be embarrassed to be democrats! Israel of the 21st century is still struggling between becoming a Western democracy and a rabbinic theocracy. During the disengagement, state law was placed against rabbinic dictates. The Left always claimed that this would create two countries for two Jewish peoples, and they were right.

 

To paraphrase former 1960s-era Knesset Member Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, the left had better be strong, lest it disappear.

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.26.05, 12:15
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