When Netanyahu turned into Begin
Op-ed: Netanyahu was not the only one under attack during this election campaign; so were the 'handful of amulet kissers.' And Netanyahu is their leader, even if he has never even touched an amulet and even if he employs an electrician on Yom Kippur.
On Sunday, two days before the elections, we had a friendly chat. It reached the topic of politics of course. "My daughter was going to vote for Moshe Kahlon," he told me, "because she did a year of national service in an economically depressed area. Her sensitivity developed.
"My son," he added, "was going to vote for Yair Lapid. He is religious, but he is afraid that the country is becoming more and more ultra-Orthodox. He wants a more liberal Israel. He wants someone to fight the radicalization."
What do you mean "were going to"? I asked him. Have they changed direction? "Yes," he told me, "they will vote for the Likud."
I was convinced that this was matter involving one family, which didn't represent anything. I was wrong.
When I tried to understand why, I heard a surprising explanation. One of the things he mentioned was the letter written by the IDF's chief education officer against rabbis' participation in military graduation ceremonies. I was surprised for a minute.
And then he explained: We sensed an attack on the Jewish identity. It wasn't because of the left. It wasn't because of Tzipi Livni or Isaac Herzog. It wasn't because of Meretz or the joint Arab list. It was something in the air. Something which joined something else. It was the left's – or the center-left's – joy that they are about to defeat the "amulet camp," and Benjamin Netanyahu was this camp's most hated representative. It was the exaggerated attack on Netanyahu, which deserves a more thorough discussion, an attack which turned him into a monster. A lot of things can be said about him, but he is not a monster. Suddenly, precisely because of the attacks, he turned into a leader one should identify with.
We disregard the politics of identities. Occasionally, it has strange, puzzling and exaggerated aspects. But it's here, and it has no intention of disappearing. We didn’t want to understand, but it's more decisive, much more, than the cost of living or housing prices.
Those days, Netanyahu turned into Menachem Begin. It's not that Begin improved the second Israel's situation in any way. But the second Israel, which includes not only Mizrahim, but also religious Jews and settlers, didn't like the scorn, the contempt, the hostility of the first Israel. Because Begin gave them affection. He gave them pride. It's unclear whether he knew anything about politics of identities. It's clear that he managed to take off on its wings.
This is probably what happened to Netanyahu. He was not the only one under attack. The "handful of amulet kissers who have taken over the state" were under attack too. And Netanyahu is their leader, even if he has never even touched an amulet, and even if he employs an electrician on Yom Kippur. There was no need for Herzog or Livni or Zehava Galon to identify with whoever made that comment. It's reasonable to assume that they didn't identify with him. But in the politics of identities, it came from their side.
It may be too early to understand how Netanyahu hit the jackpot. And when we say "the jackpot," we are only referring to those few Knesset seats which mostly moved from the right to the Likud, and a bit less from the center to the Likud. There is no need for more. Five or six or seven Knesset seats – the issue will be told and analyzed – moved or came home. And that was enough.
So we haven't turned into two nations again. The dispute is mainly political and practical. A dispute for a purely spiritual purpose. But it was actually the left-wing camp, or center-left, which turned it into a much less practical dispute. A dispute over a person and over identity. The results correspond with that.
