Sunday, November 26, 2006

Laughing Stock

By Moshe Feiglin

That's it. We've more or less reached the bottom of the barrel. Israelis have protested against their government, written letters, signed petitions, blocked traffic, held sit-ins, hunger strikes, gotten angry, gotten arrested, eaten their hearts out and toppled government after government only to get more of the same.

But now we have entered a new stage. Laughter. As far as the government is concerned, that is the very worst stage. The preposterousness of Israel's "leaders" attains new heights daily. "We won't let philanthropists take control of neediness," says the Defense Minister, after bragging about his great contribution to the success of the war in Lebanon. Behind the scenes, the Prime Minister and Peretz's own Labor party colleagues have decided that he must be replaced with none other than the man that brought the Hizbollah to Israel's northern border. Announcing the new Defense Minister...Mr. Ehud Barak!

While the politicians still bicker over who spoke with Abu Mazen first, the bullies in judge's cloaks decide that the State of Israel will officially authorize same sex couples who were married abroad...

"There is no military solution," the politicians explain time and again to Sderot residents. In other words, "Get used to it."

We've tried everything else. "Maybe we should try not doing anything?" Environment Minister Gideon Ezra suggests.

The good news is that the people have begun to laugh. Laughter is the stage after despair, and from that standpoint, it is the lowest rung on the ladder. But this laughter produces something very important; loss of legitimacy. No regime, not even the most despotic, can retain its power when it has become a laughingstock. Even the Nazi regime collapsed when graffiti mocking the Reich began to appear on the burning walls of Berlin.

The days of the ludicrous gang now occupying the government are reaching their end. Just a few MKs will remain from the entire Kadimah balloon. They will serve as living testimony to the rule of the spin doctors. The Likud will once again return to power.

And then what?

That depends on us. We can once again abandon the ruling nationalist party to the leadership of the man who warmly shook Arafat's hand and turned his back on Gush Katif.

Or we can work together to elect belief based leadership.

It is very simple. It all depends on our actions and our prayers.

Moshe Feiglin

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