Why is our New Party Called Zehut (Identity)?

By Moshe Feiglin

The upcoming elections have forced people to think about their options. Many have concluded that the parties currently running offer them nothing, and are searching for a leadership alternative.

The most obvious example of this dynamic is the issue defined by the PM as the most pressing: The Iranian nuclear threat. The Left made a video in which they mock Netanyahu: “Begin bombed and destroyed the Iraqi reactor, Olmert bombed and destroyed the Syrian reactor, Netanyahu bombed the Congress with words and destroyed…our diplomatic relations with the US.”

That may sound true, but it is only half the truth. The most significant factor preventing Netanyahu from bombing Iran is his inability to deal with the pressure of the Israeli Left (whose control of Israel’s security apparatus has become very clear in these elections).

Both Right and Left are correct and at fault in the same measure. Both are also stuck with their inability to deal with this most urgent of existential threats.

The nuclear threat is just an extreme example. It is the tip of the iceberg of a very fundamental identity crisis. As long as you do not know who you are, you do not know who your enemy is. And even after Tel Aviv suffers missile attacks for two months, you still cannot win the war.

As long as you do not know who you are, you do not recognize your own borders, and cannot make peace.

As long as you do not know who you are, you are not truly free: You belong to the State instead of the state belonging to you. This makes it easy to steal your national lands (the National Lands Authority) and make housing costs skyrocket.

When you do not know who you are, the State becomes responsible for the education of your children.

The same goes for every other challenge that we face.

Both Right and Left completely lack the foundation of identity, which creates the liberty that would allow us to exit the plane of the problem and enter the plane of the solution.

Israel’s identity crisis is the root of all these crises. Identity, my friends, is the solution.