Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Shimon Peres' Secret Weapon

By Moshe Feiglin, Chairman of Zehut

Regardless of what you think about Shimon Peres, the real question surrounding the public reaction to his stroke is: What makes an entire country go into hysterics over the health issues of a 93 year old senior who belongs to the minority political camp?

To understand this, we have to take a peek at extreme examples of inexplicable public outpourings of love for leaders.

When the former leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il passed on in 2011, the world watched in amazement as the masses reacted with a spontaneous outpouring of mourning. After all, their deceased leader had been a mass murderer. Was it all really just staged?

An estimated 500 Soviet Russian citizens froze to death, were trampled or choked as they attempted to enter the Hall of Columns, where Stalin’s body lay in state. Stalin had slaughtered tens of millions of his countrymen. Did somebody force the masses to stand out in the freezing cold?

Apparently, the mourning truly was spontaneous. The downtrodden public does not know any other reality. For the masses, when the dictator dies, their father and mother have abandoned them. The sun ceases to shine…

Israel’s Right has never managed to create an alternative to the peace industry and peace mentality symbolized by Shimon Peres. When Netanyahu hugged Arafat and to this very day talks about a two-state solution; when Bennett talks about Areas A, B and C (just like Beilin 20 years ago) – all that is left for Israelis is the language created by Peres. 

The terrible price that we have paid and are still paying for the distorted vision of the man is irrelevant. As long as this is the only vision in Israeli reality, all will be forgiven and all will be forgotten. He is the earth under our feet and the air that Israeli consciousness breathes.

Peres’ secret weapon is really…Israel’s Right.

“Who won the elections?” journalist Daniel Ben Simon asked Peres after he was defeated by Netanyahu in 1996.

“The Jews,” Peres answered. “The Jews defeated the Israelis”.

It soon became clear that Peres was mistaken. The Jews did win the elections. But when Netanyahu hurried to hug Arafat and endorsed Oslo in the name of the Right, the Israelis celebrated their greatest victory.

Zehut is the only political party in Israel that finally supplies the Jews’ answer to the Israelis.

Only those who have an alternative can win. And relate rationally to Shimon Peres.

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