A few years ago, I wrote an article with Eitan Orkibi on the reaction of intellectuals from the Hebrew University to the political upheaval of 1977. These established a political body led by Prof. Zeev Sternhell and other professors, who sought to control the ideological path of the labor movement and aim for power quickly, in the face of the deep shock from the rise of the Likud. Of Menachem Begin.

I called the great sociologists in Israel, Samuel Noah Eisenstadt, and asked him why he did not join them. His answer surprised something - he replied that it was difficult for him to identify and support the principles of a professor who was easier to talk to than an intellectual from Ramallah than his brothers in Sderot and Netivot, Ashkelon and Ashdod.

Similarly, even today, the new major of culture, journalist Neri Livneh ("to 95 percent of the demonstrators ... this is a first visit to the Tel Aviv Museum"), has revealed her towering, ethnocentric and lascivious attitude toward Likud supporters; Valuable principles, according to which Likud voters are culturally inferior, do not have the tools of critical rational thinking, and their judgment does not rest on a prudent examination of political alternatives.

In fact, since the 1970s, and later the Likud, the Freedom Movement was the one that led democratization in Israeli parties. Yitzhak Shamir, chairman of the Freedom Movement's management and Eitan Livni, were the ones who led the abolition of the regular committee system that was used by parties in Israel, even before the pre-independence period. The governing committee was the one to break the order of candidates on the list, taking into account the power relations between the groups and sectors operating in the party. Thereby, a shortlist of people was monitored on the list of candidates, and a prominent representation was usually given to the party leadership, whose influence on the composition of the regular committee was greater than that of other party groups within the party.

Yitzhak Shamir was not satisfied: in his capacity, he made the branches scattered throughout the country, especially in the periphery, the focus of vibrant party activity. Those activists who managed to stand out in the branch came to the center of the party, where they gained effective power and could influence the list of candidates for the Knesset. As part of the quiet revolution Shamir held, he stated that there must be democratic elections for the branch committees and branch councils in all branches. He argues that branch activists may not be elected democratically. The reorganization of the branches allowed for the recruitment of new activists, whose democracy in the freedom movement opened a new path for joining politics.

One of the most prominent of these activists was Meir Sheetrit from the town of Yavne, which at that time was in decline in cultural, social, educational and economic, and in Sheetrit's language - "The town continued to wade through the water of epic. The newspapers called it 'a settlement that escaped it'". When he first met with Yitzhak Shamir, he demanded complete freedom in the affairs of the town if he could be elected mayor. That is to say, compiling a list of candidates who will be chosen only by their qualifications and not by political affiliation. "Shamir squeezed his cheeks, stared at me, and I was sure within two seconds he would kick me out of his room. But to my surprise, he said, 'All right. I accept all your conditions and give you a free hand. The main thing is that you get the win!' We shook hands - and went out into the political road. " The Likud through the democratization that he led opened the way for a competitive partnership. See where it is today.

Close your eyes for a moment and reflect on yourself: Can active democracy exist in the parties of the two "state" - Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid? Will Gantz and Torch agree to the center's decision or free primaries in their parties, releasing their totalitarian grip on the leader-parties they have built for themselves? On the other hand, it is clear that the Likud is the only Democratic Party running as a ruling party and is conducting a fair and public test between the two who argue for its leadership.

Dr. Uri Cohen is a senior lecturer in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University