In a revised, trusting, wise and a little calm discourse - the character of the late Menachem Begin, who turned 30 this week, was the focus of public attention and controversy. It is impossible to understand what is happening here socially and politically, without learning and understanding Begin's place. On our political map.
I was 5 years old when the political upheaval took place.
I do not really remember the incident, although a curious ultra-Orthodox child has a tendency to morbid political proficiency, and most of the names of the candidates in the '81 and '84 elections, in which I was already an adult child, I do remember by heart.
What I do remember is what all my contemporaries who belong to Israeli marginal groups, of all kinds, probably remember: the great spirit of change that many at all had a hard time believing had actually taken place.
I certainly know how to tell about some mysterious point in my childhood, when something happened that changed the country - and for the better, for me.
This something is without a doubt a '77 upheaval.
How did it happen that large and rejected groups put a figure so different from them?
How did so many deprived Mizrahis trust their native Brisk with an Ashkenazi Rosh Yeshiva accent?
How did the ultra-Orthodox give their unconditional support to a liberal secularist and see him as their Messiah?
How did most observant people decide that their favorite leader is an Ashkenazi elitist Ben Rehavia, married for the third time, with the image of a hedonist?
But wait: Begin is not the son of Rehavia and has also been married to his one wife all his life!
So it is, that this is not a mistake.
The question remains, and it is exactly the same question.
And anyone who does not understand that the same question, and especially the same answer, is relevant to the Begin regime and the Netanyahu regime a few decades later, does not really understand what is happening here.
I have already seen those who know how to make this comparison in its distorted configuration and draw lines between the "incitement" of the two leaders - a vicious comparison that can only exist in a condescending and disparaging world, where public support for the leader can only be understood through belittling and contempt;
Let's give it a moment.
The real comparison is not a comparison at all.
It is the exact same balance of power that stabilizes on the field with slight changes then and now: a coalition of groups and individuals who know exactly what they want and what is good for them, gathered around a leader who is not necessarily flesh and blood, but whose opinions are his opinions in most areas The "other".
Opposite them stands a rabbi, who from a haughty and vague position refuses to accept this simple and basic structure.
Therefore, he invents for himself a world that is winding and full of insults, with a persona at the center.
Once it was "the man sitting next to MK Bader," today it is the man sitting in a mask on the dock and it should be explained that there was no "abnormal response" in his coverage on the Walla website.
Here is a recommendation for establishing a new, normal and healing discourse, for those who are willing to listen, of course: let's not talk Bibi.
Let's talk about Begin.
This is exactly the same controversy, and from a distance of time it will be easier to manage it.
The bottom line is you can serve us here and now.
kobiarieli@gmail.com
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us