The price of arrogance
Op-ed: Just like in America, here too public will overcome, punish liberal elite in elections
For years now, Israel’s elites have been very successful in leading the nation through an ongoing attempt to undermine the fundamental values that brought the Jewish people back to its land after a 2,000-year exile. The liberal elites managed to marginalize Zionism’s constitutive national narrative and took over the legal system, academia, and other establishments.
As an example, look at the two figures who reflect the dramatic change undergone by the elite. Ehud Barak, the kibbutz member raised on socialist education and personal sacrifice, joined an elite army unit, and realize the value of personal sacrifice for the sake of society. Yet what does he represent today? Hedonism, capitalism, opportunism, and the willingness to sacrifice national assets for the sake of personal, short-term goals.
The second figure grew up in the Livni household, where her parents, former Irgun fighters, raised her on passionate love for the Land of Israel and willingness for personal sacrifice for the sake of salvaging and liberating the country. Yet now she “finally sobered up” from the Eretz Yisrael delusions, via the “thinking people’s elite.” At this time she is leading the effort to hand over Jerusalem and abandon the Land of Israel’s heart.
We’re not a normal people
The elite poisoned Israeli society with an illusion of normalcy. It forgot that we are not a normal people; we are a people that survived the horrors of the exile and preserved its uniqueness in Yemen, Germany, Morocco, and the Ural Mountains. Yet we are also a Jewish state within a hostile Arab-Muslims region. Those who create the illusion that we can live a life of European normalcy here, that we can rest and live here like all other nations, weaken our stamina and produce cracks in the wall built by Israeli society and the State of Israel in the face of the flood threatening to drown us. This flood is waiting for moments of weakness, and for the defensive wall to turn into a spider web, as Nasrallah characterized it.
The message from America last week was that the sober general public knows how to overcome and overstep the heads of the liberal elite. It was able to wake up on time and drive away the arrogance and haughtiness.
In Israel, the vast majority of the general public is deeply connected to its Jewish identity. Despite the poison being injected by creators of the illusion culture, and despite the constant tainting of the atmosphere and the boycott letters against Ariel’s cultural hall, the people of Israel remain loyal to their nation and country.
The ceaseless academia and media attacks on our nationality, the Zionist ethos and militarism merely served to reinforce the pride of Israelis nationwide. These efforts are prompting the healthy, powerful counter reaction of the proud, patriotic Jew who fully backs up the army and who believes in the State of Israel’s righteousness; the Jew who under no circumstances would give up our hold on Jerusalem, on King David’s city, and on the City of our Forefathers, Hebron.
Anyone who commissions polls today and is not biased realizes where the wind is blowing. He realizes that the residents of Kiryat Shmona, Ashdod and Sderot are slowly returning to their roots; to the values of Jewish solidarity and Zionist fulfillment. Politicians on the Right and Left would do well to grasp the people’s spirit and pride. The “enlightened” talk about “occupation” and “Palestinian narrative” failed to weaken the nation, and on the day of judgment the liberal arrogance that came back to haunt Obama will also haunt Israel’s liberals.
Adi Mintz is the chairman of the Yesha Council’s committee
