In Israel, thank goodness, we have enough issues to worry about. Until fairly recently, the most pressing issues were the West Bank, the Palestinians and the settlements. But now we're in a new era, one I hope will soon be over.
What MK Gideon Sa'ar had to go through over the past few weeks in his bid to win the Likud leadership proves that the main public agenda has shifted.
Sa'ar is a conservative man, even more than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Netanyahu made his famous 2009 Bar-Ilan speech calling for a "demilitarized Palestinian state," Sa'ar was one of his most vocal opponents.
As education minister, Sa'ar organized school field trips to Hebron, and as the Likud was beginning to debate the issue of West Bank settlements, he was one of the main proponents of annexing the territory to Israel.
Netanyahu over the last decade was not only declaratively close to a Palestinian state but also practically.
In talks conducted with then-U.S. secretary of state John Kerry, a rough draft proposal on the matter was created, which if made public would have rocked to Likud party to its core.
Sa'ar, it can be assumed, would have stood at the head of the camp opposing Netanyahu's compromises.
When it comes to the issue of the peace process, Sa'ar is in fact closer to the religious-Zionist Jewish Home party rather than Netanyahu.
But all of this was insignificant.
Over the past few weeks, in the run-up to the Likud primary, Gideon Sa'ar has become some sort of an amalgamation of former president Shimon Peres and former-state prosecutor Shai Nitzan.
Without even taking a stance on Netanyahu's indictments, Sa'ar has been marked in the Likud party as an enemy of the people solely for having the temerity to run against the prime minister.
Social media was brimming with distasteful posts about Sa'ar, some even targeting his own family.
Right-wing or left-wing, settlements or Palestinians, none of it mattered.
Sa'ar was branded a leftist not because of his opinions, but because he dared to say he could form a government.
It seems that some within Likud realized this. You cannot argue with Netanyahu taking 72.5% of the vote, but 27.5% for Sa'ar is nothing to sneeze at. It is reassuring that some within the party realize that something is wrong.
Sa'ar's representatives have already made calls for unity following his defeat, but the ugly campaign against him has left a deep scar.
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Pro-Netanyahu Likud activists during the party leadership primary in Bat Yam
(Photo: Assaf Kamer)
It should be noted that only around 50% of Likud functionaries voted, some staying at home due to the harsh weather, others out of disgust.
This disgust is logically prevalent within those 27.5% that voted for Sa'ar.
Netanyahu's victory for the leadership of the party is going to come back in bite him.
Israel needs an election campaign that deals with the central issues. Not just "Yes Bibi" or "No Bibi," but about the direction in which the country is headed.
The right has a direction - annexation and a binational state. The center says otherwise.
The Likud primary showed that the issue of the West Bank has completely disappeared from the political agenda. Let us hope that the same does not happen during the real election campaign in March.