Dear Bibi And Caroline

By Jason Gold

Dear Bibi and Caroline:

Bibi:
I could say I am disappointed but definitely not surprised. I had hoped that after the last Likud primaries in 2005, you would fight a fair race this time. I had hoped that you would not resort to your usual assortment of dirty tricks and hatchet men in order to try and win a position you have no business having. But I assume you are desperate. I assume you are breaking a sweat as you expected a cake walk to the head of the Likud only to find that Feiglin is giving you a real fight. Yes Bibi, you know you can only have validation if you crush Feiglin and watching your poll numbers slip 20 points in a week must be quite unnerving. This is despite bringing in Danny Danon as a ringer candidate to try and siphon votes off Feiglin while you watched him approach 30% of the vote in some polls.

Obviously your anxiety drove you to to hire a high-priced attorney to spew canards and falsehoods and file motions in the Likud court to have him removed from the ballot. When that failed, you went for the jugular and brought a motion to have Feiglin thrown out of the Likud while your high-priced shyster accused Feiglin of racism, or wanting a medinat halacha as well as other old lies. The irony of all this of course is that Feiglin is truer to the Likud charter than you will ever be. Did Feiglin give back Hebron? Did he propose bringing Jordanian troops into Yesha to "help" with the war against terrorism? Did he propose making more "painful concessions" in the name of a making a mythical peace that will never occur?

Yes, Bibi the people are beginning to realize that a candidate that is belief-based is essential to Israel's survival. So you bring out your hatchet people in hopes that through character assassination you won't have to deal with this phenomenon that is growing in front of your eyes. Yes, Bibi the Likud will once again be at the forefront of the leadership of Eretz Yisrael. But, we cannot be what you so glibly and naively aspire to in the title of your book, " A Place Among The Nations". That is not Israel's destiny. Israel's destiny is in front and apart from those nations. And if you a single ounce of Yahadut somewhere in you, perhaps you would also realize that you are not the leader of Gd's nation and land and would step aside.

Caroline:
Speaking of Bibi's hatchet people, it is perhaps the worst-kept secret in Israel that you are Bibi's mouthpiece. Why an obviously gifted writer with some insight would see so much in an empty self-serving failed leader is beyond me, but so be it. It is interesting however how close you are to the truth but like your precious Bibi, you are missing one key point. Since neither of you have any faith in you, you cannot possibly see any way out of Israel's current mess. In fact in your most recent column, you are ready to prostrate yourself at the feet of the nations of the world begging and pleading for them to come and save Israel. You drag Sharansky out of obscurity in order to get him to say that "Netanyahu is the only one with a realistic understanding of global realities and a true appreciation for the strength of Israeli democracy." Israeli democracy? Oh, you mean the Israeli democracy based on a socialist-style party system with no candidate accountability that has given birth to a corrupt thugocracy that has worsened with every secular belief-averse government? The same democracy that has consistently tried to crush religious Zionism? The same democracy where secular Zionism degenerated into the post-Zionist visions of Beilin, Peres, Tamir, Avinery, et al? Is that the democracy Sharansky was writing about in his ridiculous book "The Case For Democracy" that George Bush (whom you hate now but once loved? I just can't keep abreast of those mood swings of yours) used as his bible for the Middle East where he fantasized about Arabs embracing democracy? And you accuse Feiglin of living in a fantasy? No, dear what you twist and negatively spin when you say "What is striking about these primaries is the similarity between Feiglin and Barak and Olmert. Although Feiglin comes from the post-Zionist Right rather than the post-Zionist Left, like Barak and Olmert, he bases his post-Zionist vision for the country on fantasy. Whereas in Olmert and Barak's leftist visions Israel has no enemies, in Feiglin's vision, there is no outside world at all. There is no US administration. There is no European Union. There is no United Nations. There is no media. There is nothing. No worries. Feiglin will just tell the West and the Arabs to leave us alone because this is our land and it's our God given right to be here, and everyone will understand and no one will bother us anymore" is not quite accurate.

You see Barak and Olmert are indeed living in a faithless, Leftist-induced delusion that has grown old and tired as the people espousing it. Feiglin's point which you distort so well, is that there is nothing wrong with being strong, proud self-sufficient Jews in our own Gd given (yes, dear I know that Gd concept is painful to you) land. When that happens, the nations of the world, who already loathe us, will at least be forced to respect us and stop meddling in Israel's business. Your own lack of connection to the Jewish faith on any level prevents you from seeing this and so you fall into the same trap of Israeli "practica and pragmatica" to solve the country's problems, all the while failing to realize that you are on the same treadmill to oblivion as Olmert, Barak and your hero, Bibi.

Yes Caroline you can beam with pride that Bibi was a great finance minister. But that does not equal leadership. Bibi act I was a disaster and act II will be that and more. You rightly slam Olmert but you miss the point. Not only is Bibi "Sharon-lite", he is "Olmert-heavy." That's right, dear. You see, the country can't really afford a test of Bibi II because Bibi in office will give back Yesha so fast, the country's collective head will spin. He will do it better than Olmert because the secular right wing candidates in Israel always do the bidding of the left. It is inevitable. And then the same silly right-wing people that voted him in will make the government fall and so the left will come waltzing back in while all the while the so-called religious parties collect their government handouts and help enable this sick pathological state of events in the Middle East's thriving banana republic.

No Caroline, business as usual has to end. Open your eyes and see the truth. That means no more merry-go-round of corrupt incompetents ready to destroy Israel to appease whomever. No more glib but vacuous politicos to sell out the nationalist camp suckered into voting for them. Time to try a man of faith who as a first priority can get the secular and religious camps talking to each other while mending a sick educational system that as a primary step can attempt to explain to Israel's youth where we come from and why we have a right to exist securely in the land Gd promised us. Oh, and while you're at it, ask your hero if he can find the courage to have an honest debate with Moshe on the issues instead of running away and hiding. Yes Caroline, it is time for an Israeli leader that uses Gd's name in a sentence when talking about his candidacy and his plans for Israel's future. A future that really can't afford any more business as usual and the hatchet people who try to justify the existence of those who would.
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