Let's start focusing on the important issues
Op-ed: Elections are an opportunity for a public debate on matters pertaining to our children's future; the media discourse in the past few weeks is failing to serve this purpose.
With all due respect to how the prime minister's residence is being run, the elections are about to be critical in completely different senses: Is there any hope for progress in our conflict with the Palestinians? Are we forever doomed to live by the sword in a region where most inhabitants don’t recognize our existence, or is there an opportunity for an unusual turning point in Israel's relationship with a large part of the Middle East's countries?
Can the cost of living and housing prices in Israel be significantly reduced? And what about the settlements? Can Israeli Arabs' attitude towards the state be improved and can they be better integrated into its life? How do we stop the brain drain from Israel to the United States or Europe?
And what about Hamas and Hezbollah's rockets, not to mention dealing with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State? How will we fight the corruption spreading in the government ranks? How do we stop the educational system's deterioration? And the Iranian nuclear program?
Elections are an opportunity for a public debate on matters determining our children's future. The media discourse in the past few weeks is failing to serve this purpose. The attempt to focus on leaders' personality or on their relationship with their spouse isn't the heart of the matter either. It's much more important to know the leaders' opinions on the aforementioned questions.
A government is not elected recklessly, and not because of a random incident which took place just before the elections. Replacing a government is a serious matter, not a reality show which puts one-day heroes at the top of the pyramid and ousts others in a public humiliating ceremony.
I believe the current government, despite its achievements in many areas, must go home due to a series of reasons, mainly the security risk. It's true that the government includes people who speak about the importance of security, but their actions are leading us to risks we have not experienced in the past.
The government's obsession with blocking any option of an agreement with the Palestinians (despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's famous declaration about "two states for two people" at Bar-Ilan University) affects not only the Western world's attitude towards us, but also curbs the attempts made by some Arab states to reach an overall recognition of our existence.
The insistence not to freeze construction in the settlements is pulling the rug out from under the almost complete agreement in the wide world to include the "settlement blocs" in Israel's territory as part of a future agreement.
And above all, the way the nuclear issue is being handled. The prime minister is right in his perception that the nuclear bomb is a serious threat to our security. But Iran no longer depends on external knowledge for building a bomb, and the almost only way to prevent its fulfillment today is through the world in general and the US in particular. I find it difficult to understand why the government thinks that a waging public conflict with the American president and destroying our relationship in the Congress serve Israel's purposes.
The government must be replaced because its current policy is jeopardizing our security. And we have yet to discuss the cost of living and housing prices, the deterioration of the educational system and the rest of the issues I mentioned earlier. The real debate is not about the prime minister's house, it's about our house.
Major-General (res.) Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel is the chairman of the Israel Space Agency and head of the Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University.
