Tuesday March 28, 2006

Column:

The votes are in. The election is over. The outcome holds no surprise.

The placards have been replaced. The jingles have morphed into trivia-game tunes. Campaign t-shirts are washed, folded and placed in drawers as forgotten keepsakes.

Has this election proved anything to Israelis, has the world learned anything new about Israel? Has anything changed?

Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, no matter where you sit on the map of Israel, this election has forced everyone - citizens of Israel and citizens of the world - to admit that Israel is one strong and stable democracy.

Israel is here to stay. Israel will not be wiped off the map. Israel will not be deterred, not by Hamas, not by Iran, not by international pressure, not by pressure from the United States.

David Ben Gurion's vision has been laid to rest. Trumpeldor, Jabotinsky and Yitzhak Shamir have taken up residence alongside the legendary Ari Ben Canaan - their dreams for the people and the State of Israel will be read about, no relived. Israelis no longer have the need for what was once considered an essential component of Israeli life. Israeli revisionism has fallen by the wayside. Israeli socialism is dead. Israeli communism is buried. Ariel Sharon lies in a convalescent home. And Israel has entered a new stage, Israel is a mature democracy.

The rise of Kadima symbolizes the end of ideology.

The rise of Kadima underscores the end of traditional Israeli political parties.

Kadima continued to thrive, to surge forward, fulfilling the prophecy and promise behind it's name - Kadima, forward, onward - even though founding father Ariel Sharon no longer leads the party or the country. And, with all due respect, even if Ehud Olmert, were to suddenly, politically, disappear Kadima and the country would continue to thrive. Today, Israel is politically stronger than it was a year ago. Today, Israel is politically stronger than it was yesterday. And tomorrow it will be stronger still.

Israel is a more mature Israel. Israel is a stronger Israel. Israel is a psychologically healthier Israel. Israel is making decisions about the future based on the needs of Israelis and not the needs of the United States or of the Palestinians. The fence. The withdrawal from Gaza. Cessation of peace talks. Israelis are inwardly-focused, they are not looking elsewhere for acknowledgment, for permission, for approbation or for solutions to the bane of every sovereign society - those everyday issues confounding and confronting every citizen of any country.

The fact of this new election, that it took place at all, that the front runner party remained front runner despite the limitations of its charismatic leader sheds new understanding on Israel as a democratic nation. Israel is a stable, middle-of-the-road, non-ideological, real-politik democracy. It does not matter if Kadima stays in power one year or four years. It doesn't even matter if Kadima cobbles together a broad or a narrow coalition, national unity or majority wins - what matters is that there is a party that has carved out a realistic center and that political platform touches most Israelis.

Israel's national leaders can no longer be described as right wing or left wing. Israel's leaders of today are centrists. And today's centrists are different than previous centrists.

Never has Israel been so clear about abandoning its past with its strong and strident ideological bent. Never has Israel been so clear about appealing to the masses and never have the masses been so willing to break with past allegiances and mesh.

Clearly there are problems with this new Kadima-led era.

Kadima has no history upon which to draw. Other centrist movements failed, their time had not yet come, the people were not ready or able to throw them their support. Kadima has no party infrastructure to assist in governing and must build an infrastructure, top to bottom and bottom to top, if they hope to remain in power for any length of time. Kadima must gain even more strength from the masses, they have to do what Sharon did - and did masterfully - and galvanize Israelis. Kadima must find "the" issue that will rally Israelis - the fence?, borders?, the economy? - "the" issue. And Kadima needs to prove that they are not just a flavor of the month, a passing fancy, a blip on the radar of Israeli politics. They need to prove that they are seriously different from Labor and from Likud. They need to be seriously different and definitely better.

This election was not about the legacy of Sharon. This election was truly all about the future of Israel.