In the last conversation that I had with Prime Minister Netanyahu, I told him, "You are the person most capable of managing the rearguard war of the existing Zionist consciousness." Perhaps because I did not intend to insult him and really meant every word, my statement seemed to sear his heart.
Netanyahu is a great Zionist. He has managed the dead end that Zionism has reached with superb talent. What may topple this extremely talented man is not his cigars, but the feeling of aimlessness, lack of direction, message and purpose that engulfs the Israeli public.
Even a passenger sitting in first class in the national jumbo jet – and all is fine and comfortable and set up for him – feels a terrible sense of strangulation when he discovers that the jet is flying in circles and that it has no destination. Even if there is enough fuel in the tanks for another thousand years, more and more passengers will demand a new pilot when they discover that the current pilot has no idea where he is flying.
The Zionism of Existence has replaced the Holy Temple in Jerusalem with Jerusalem Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem and the High Priest with the Chief of Staff. This Zionism must now be replaced by the Zionism of Destiny. For without destiny, there is no existence, either.
Netanyahu was the very best pilot that the old Zionist mentality could provide (and the least corrupt of all prime ministers in the last 20 years). He is truly a virtuoso pilot. But it is specifically during his incumbency that the passengers began to understand that the jet is flying nowhere. It is not because of Netanyahu. It is because the old, great (and extremely important) Zionism has never given us a roadmap for beyond its first 100 years.
Now, when it is clear that Netanyahu is conducting the rearguard war for his continued rule, I would like to thank him for contributing his great talent to the daily management of our state – for flying the national jumbo jet under very complicated conditions.
It could be that a new pilot with no compass to guide him will enchant the Israeli public and Heaven forbid, take control of the national steering wheel for a short while. But the deep process of the transition of Israeli-ness from Zionism of Existence to Zionism of Destiny must occur. Simply because without it, there will be no existence. That is why we established the Zehut party.
And in the margins of the above, a small warning note that I cannot keep to myself. Where is the Disengagement 2017, that will make journalist Amnon Abramowitz declare that Netanyahu is now wrapped and untouchable, being cooked up now?
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