We Don't Know Everything

For all my blase attitude in the last few weeks regarding the political situation in Israel, in recent days Bibi HAS made me a bit nervous.

Of course, everyone is quick to start hurling accusations and it's tempting to be immediately critical of his attempt to bring in Labor, postponing the presentation of his government. But I am no longer going to go that route. I am beginning to see things differently these days.

First of all, there are many things that I don't know. I don't know for one, what is really going on in Bibi's mind, or for that matter what he has discussed with Barak. As I have mentioned before in this column, my first reaction to Barak continuing as Defense Minister is one of revulsion. I think he is out to lunch with his ideas and positions, and diametrically opposed to everything I believe in.

The fact that Netanyahu wants to keep him on as Defense Minister and also to give Labor other key ministerial posts seems to simply reinforce the old diatribe of the National Camp that Bibi is really a secret leftist....of the worst kind, as he pretends to be right of center.

My response to that is just this - we don't know everything. For all we know, Barak could be a secret rightwinger, a secret Zionist, and under Bibi's leadership perhaps would espouse different ideas. Maybe not, but maybe he would "become" more Zionistic for political expediency...to keep his post.

The point is, we just don't know. As I have also mentioned before in this blog, prior to my aliyah I was a dreamer, and since my aliyah, I have become a pragmatist. Unlike so many in the national camp, I really don't have all the answers.

Maybe G-d has a plan I don't know about (is that possible???) or wishes to bring about His Agenda in ways I haven't thought about yet. (Unheard of!!)

To be very honest, when I hear the words of some of the leaders of the national camp and see their actions, I wonder about the wisdom of having them in the government at this time in history. It's not their ideals with which I have a problem, it is the assumptions that are made about the willingness of the people to implement them, and perhaps more importantly, the failure to understand the importance of the timing of the same.

Beyond that, there is a rigidity with which I feel very uncomfortable, and unwillingness on the part of the leaders of many in the national camp to see things any way other than their own. Additionally there seems to be an unwillingness to participate in the practicalities of temporary deferment of hopes and dreams in order to allow for their eventual realization.

The nation is not ready for the realization of all our Zionist dreams because we have veered far too far from them. It will take time and wisdom and yes, even some compromise to reach them. It will take re-education and a track record that will show that Zionism is, in the final analysis, the optimal answer for our dilemma and aspirations.

Often my mullings and thoughts are echoed by other writers at the same time as I am thinking them, as if we are picking up something in the cosmos. Caroline Glick, whose writings are always right on and so eloquently done, addresses some of these same concerns in her column this week. Please read her JPost article entitled "Israel's Balance of Delusion", where she touches on these and other issues.

I am concerned for this nation, indeed for the world. In this perilous hour, we need vision and courage and strength. What we do not need are for the people who carry this vision to confuse personal ambition and power with the mandate to carry it out, or to substitute inflexibility for wisdom.