Ayalon: There's light at the end of the tunnel

Between visiting ballots and trying to convince last-minute voters, Knesset Member Ami Ayalon took time Tuesday to speak at a conference held by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.

"We are in the midst of a leadership crisis," he said. "People need to know we mean what we say, what we think. What goes through our heads when we decide to send our boys off to war and watch them come back in caskets? Is it a matter of personal interest or of a national one?

"We have to act, have to prove we're worthy of public trust." In public life, said Ayalon, the prime minister isn't someone who just clocks in. "Leadership must be about setting goals and giving hope, otherwise it's useless.

"A captain knows that even though he has the final say, he still doesn't own the boat," said Ayalon, speaking about Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "And when a captain makes a mistake he must be replaced.

"We have to know we could be held accountable for our actions. We have to be responsible enough to know when to resign… we can't sail these seas without the citizens of this country knowing where we're going, and agreeing that it’s a better place."

Ayalon knows he has his work cut out for him. Israeli politics, he said, had sprouted corrupt leaders over the last few years, who have "taken this county to the middle of nowhere."

In a democracy, said Ayalon, every citizen must wake up in the morning feeling he could make a difference. "…many feel they have no say, that they can't change anything, so why try. This is unbearable. The only way to make it so is to believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel."