By Moshe Feiglin
Peace.
Everyone, including the radical leftist party Meretz, is hiding the word.
Everyone understands that the Israeli public has returned to reality and that speaking about peace will be viewed as disassociation from the facts on the ground.
For twenty years, the Right has not spoken about victory.
Now a new era, in which the Left does not speak about peace, has begun.
What remains?
Survival.
Or, as per Hava Alberstein’s song, “Where will despair be more comfortable?”
What we need is to infuse our national life with meaning.
Meaning that is not dependent on the ‘other’, whether we defeated him or made peace with him.
Meaning that is built from within our independent identity.
Identity that is not in conflict between its Israeli side and its Jewish side.
Meaning that is built within Israeli-Jewish identity in harmony; identity that is not in denial of its Jewish past and Israeli destiny, but rather, joins the two.
Identity that will once again make ‘victory’ and ‘peace’ relevant concepts.
Everyone, including the radical leftist party Meretz, is hiding the word.
Everyone understands that the Israeli public has returned to reality and that speaking about peace will be viewed as disassociation from the facts on the ground.
For twenty years, the Right has not spoken about victory.
Now a new era, in which the Left does not speak about peace, has begun.
What remains?
Survival.
Or, as per Hava Alberstein’s song, “Where will despair be more comfortable?”
What we need is to infuse our national life with meaning.
Meaning that is not dependent on the ‘other’, whether we defeated him or made peace with him.
Meaning that is built from within our independent identity.
Identity that is not in conflict between its Israeli side and its Jewish side.
Meaning that is built within Israeli-Jewish identity in harmony; identity that is not in denial of its Jewish past and Israeli destiny, but rather, joins the two.
Identity that will once again make ‘victory’ and ‘peace’ relevant concepts.
For if you do not know who you are, how can you identify your enemy? How can you possibly win? And how can peace be made with someone who has no identity?
The old division between Right and Left is no longer relevant.
Both their messages disassociated from the reality that is bereft of identity.
The old division between Right and Left is no longer relevant.
Both their messages disassociated from the reality that is bereft of identity.
What Israel needs now is to stop talking about survival and to start talking about identity.
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