A year of shame
We shall look back on past Jewish year with great shame
The prime minister had a stroke because of medical mishandling. The Pensioners' Party, void of platform or essence, won nine seats in the Knesset elections. The president is being investigated for alleged sex crimes.
The new prime minister, who replaced his predecessor who has been in a coma for several months, is being called upon to justify the purchasing and selling of property, as though he were a cunning real estate dealer.
The number of people whose standard of living has dropped below the poverty line has broken new records and has placed Israel at the forefront of economic inequality in the West.
The Histadrut labor union federation's secretary general was appointed to the post of defense minister and almost immediately embarked on a war whose objectives were vague and its conduct scandalous.
Intelligence sources assured us Hamas would not win the elections in the Palestinian Authority, and of course it did. The Gaza Strip went up in the flames of the Israeli Air Force's bombing, but the firing of Qassam rockets towards Israel has not ceased.
The finance minister said in an address to the nation that he would file a complaint with the state prosecutor regarding anonymous sources who threatened him following the "reforms he imposed" – but he didn't.
Israel's leading commercial TV channel became a kids' channel. The Central Bank was dragged into conflict between the management and its workers and was accused by the Treasury of paying inflated salaries, unheard of in "normal" countries.
The justice minister is being put on trial for kissing a woman much younger than he. Current and past top police officials are entangled in a series of false testimonies and immoral ties with the world of crime.
Hoping for moment of grace in north
Tens of thousands of poor Israelis were abandoned for weeks in neglected bomb shelters in the north, desperately waiting for a moment of grace between the falling of one Katyusha rocket and another.
This long and embarrassing list still doesn't cover all the shameful disgraces, large and small, that befell us this year. I am using the word "shameful" because this is the feeling so many Israelis are sharing at this point in time. They are not ashamed of the country, but they are ashamed of its leadership.
This year was a year of shame and that's how it will be remembered. All the economic data indicating accelerated growth, financial stability, business profits and market investments, won't help change this perception.
Public will remain bitter
Even if a miracle occurs and one of the abducted IDF soldiers is returned home for the eve of the Jewish New Year, the public will still remain bitter, depressed and ashamed.
It will remember the look-out scout at the railway junction who ended his workday just five minutes before a fatal accident, but shamelessly returned to work when the trains stopped. The public will remember the long lines of people queuing up for food and looked upon by the government shamelessly, and also those people who shamelessly disguised themselves as needy.
It will remember the bankers who picked up a salary of millions of shekels while at the same time preaching for social justice. The public will remember all those who shamed it – without them being shamed themselves.
Being ashamed of one's deeds is so human and moral, after all. Shame is the signal our conscience sends to our emotions, and as long as we are ashamed it is a sure sign that our conscience is working. The 'ashamed' are atoned for at least part of their shame. This is, therefore, the gateway for forgiveness. It is the corridor to atonement of oneself and that of the world.
Has anyone ever said 'I'm ashamed?'
But when did we ever see or hear the words "I'm ashamed" sounded by our leadership, when did anyone ever admit a mistake? Ask for the public's forgiveness? Ask for forgiveness from commanders or subordinates, from workers or employees, from electorates who placed faith in their leaders' hands? They have lost the ability to blush in shame.
There are years we look back on in yearning, and those we look back on in anger and apathy. We shall look back on the Jewish New Year ending tomorrow with great shame.
