Featherweight politicians

One of the settler leaders, on the other hand, said that Israel is capitulating in the face of Palestinian threats at Temple Mount, yet when it comes to West Bank outposts it insists and proceeds to evacuate them with determination and force.

Yet a left-wing activist responded to that and said that when it comes to outposts the State surrenders to the settlers and conveys to them that the rule of law is not that important, while it responds very harshly to anti-security fence demonstrators at the Palestinian village of Bil'in.

Immediately after that, someone wrote in an ultra-Orthodox paper that the State knows how to give in to Muslims at Temple Mount and take their religious feelings into consideration, yet when it comes to the religious feelings of Jews, as was the case in Highway 6, for example, it ignores those feelings and tramples over them crudely.

We can continue going around endlessly with this merry-go-round of examples. Every citizen, every sector, and every political circle views only its own side. Any public representative is convinced that the State is treating his or her own community harshly while going easy on the others. "Why are they getting concessions while we are being hit hard?" has become the most popular question in the public arena.

Empty poetic phrases 

The truth is there is no order in this mess. At times the State and the politicians capitulate, and at times they do not. At times political interests win out, while other times national feelings overcome. At times, the rule of law has the upper hand, while other times the common sense that says we should not go all the way wids out. The hand of coincidence rules.

It is more convenient to think that there is some kind of a system or malicious intent, a strategy or at the very least a tactic when it comes to government decisions. But a quick glance at the gallery of featherweight dignitaries who were on stage this week at the army chief change of guard ceremony disproved this assumption.

Look who was there: the weakest prime minister in our history, alongside a defense minister who lacks any training or qualifications for the post, alongside the Knesset speaker who substituted our temporarily absent president, with her entire being draped by a sense of unwarranted sense of self-worth. Do you suspect that these people have the ability to plan and formulate policy? No need to overestimate them.

In order to manage some kind of tough policy, the State must be headed by people who possess some kind of worldview, vision, or an agenda, as well as the required cruelty here and there when necessary. At the very least, they should inspire respect.

When we look at the line of peacocks heading the State and its institutions today, we can only smile with sadness. These are not people of policy, but rather, of survival. Listen to the empty poetic phrases, and to the tasteless speeches they read with overemphasis. Look at them and you will understand everything.