Our problem is political

How do we fix the distortion? The first step in any rehabilitation process is recognition of the problem. It's not easy. Almost always we're "heavily invested" in the image ruined by the problem. It takes people with bad eyesight quite a while until they admit they need glasses.

It's difficult for people who gain a few pounds to admit they have gone from medium to large and from large to extra large size clothing. We like to think we are thin, sharp-eyed, young and good looking.

Facing reality is even more difficult when we are forced to admit that we are less successful than we thought, or worse - not as good. It's nice thinking we are talented and moral people, and that any deviation from this image is an exception, an ad hoc mishap, nothing more.

Only bad people say bad things about us, out of evil. If they could only see us through our loving and understanding eyes, they too would be filled with love and understanding for us.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

When I used to look in the mirror I would see a golden curly-haired angel, long after my curls had disappeared. It wasn't easy admitting I was bald; admitting that I wasn't an angel was even more difficult. I continued buying combs and hair brushes and listening to my mother, who repeatedly announced that I was the sweetest child in the world.

But there are moments when doubts start filtering in. For years, my mother would insist that I had been a blond baby. She even kept a golden lock of hair. One day she took it out of some drawer to show it off. Together we looked at the pitch black lock of hair and put it back in the drawer without saying a word. My mother continued saying I had been blond. I got rid of the combs and brushes and started asking myself a few probing questions.

In Israel the gap between our self image and how we are perceived by others is very big. It doesn't mean that non-Jews are completely right and that we are completely wrong.

Non-Jews have their own reasons for viewing us in a negative light; but even our self image as a shining beacon is erroneous, often very much so. We are in love with the image of us being little and right, like David against Goliath, a ferocious lamb against a preying wolf.

We find it difficult to see our own wolfish and Goliath traits. We would like to believe that out outward conduct is ethical while our inner conduct is efficient, that the helm is held by excellent people whose only goal is the benefit of the whole. But it's becoming increasingly difficult.

The "operational mishap" at Beit Hanoun that was so foreseeable, the ever so surprising mishaps in Lebanon, the corruption and cynicism so prevalent amongst our leaders – never have so many people been required to repress so much for so long. It's time to get rid of the combs and brushes.

Fix the weakest link

So what's next? The weak link in the chain needs to be fixed. Israeli politics are ailing, and this illness is affecting other governmental systems as well. We have allowed Israeli politics to become atrophied for too long. Market forces, we had hoped, would put things right. They didn't.

We had hoped that when they took up the leadership, the cynics, the hedonists and the power hungry such as Olmert, or little dealers such as Peretz, would become national leaders who would prefer the benefit of the whole over their own personal careers. This didn't happen.

Apparently, this leadership's main mission was to nail itself to its seat by introducing another catastrophic regime reform. This cabinet is not the solution to any problem, it is the problem.

The national mission facing all those who have tired of denial is the establishment of a movement and political force that would save Israel. It won't happen by appointing another general to head the Labor party or by giving the reigns of power to Arcadi Gaydamak. We don't need a cosmetic solution, we need a political one.