Opinion The tragedy of the center camp: there is no future Israel today

Almost a decade has passed since Yair Lapid was elected to serve as a member of the Knesset.

He was elected for the first time on the basis of an economic platform and a civil agenda, similar to his father in the "Shinoi" party, and similar to the centrist parties such as the Liberals and the General Zionists, in the more distant past.

A civil-economic agenda should be in the interest of the entire public in Israel.

After all, the public cannot differentiate between the multitude of generals who entered the political system in the last decade, in search of a second career and a third pension.

When Lapid ran with three Chiefs of Staff on the Blue and White list, some mocked him for being a reporter "in the camp" among three Chiefs of Staff, but of the top four he was actually the one that stood out for the better.

Lapid can apparently be judged on a few decades of political writing and a decade in the Knesset and in the government - nothing can be said about the generals except that they are generals.

Can anyone really define a single position that Gantz, Ashkenazi, Eisenkot or Ya'alon hold?

Of course not, and it's not by chance.

The political strategy of the generals is based on what psychologists call "projection".

Gantz does not need the public to know his positions on issues such as the deficit, housing, education or transportation - he needs the voters to identify with him sociologically.

Anything a general says will only hurt him.

In this sense, Lapid is distinctly different from the generals in the center-left camp.

Lapid has an opinion and a position on everything, he even wrote a book about his political doctrine called "A Journey to the Future".

The book can be found next to Bennett's "How to Defeat an Epidemic" and Feiglin's "Be a Free Jew", on the bottom shelf of every second-hand store for NIS 20.

A central part of Lapid's teaching is the fight against corruption.

In 2017, for example, he initiated the law banning coalition funds.

On the day he sat down around the government table in 2021, Minister Lapid forgot MK Lapid, and started handing out huge sums of money in an unprecedented manner, not only to his coalition partners but also to extortionists within his own party.

Lapid promised a government of only 18 ministers, a core promise.

Here too he broke his promise the first moment he sat down in the prime minister's chair.

If in the past he excused his sitting in large governments with political constraints, today Lapid is the prime minister of a transitional government - he does not need the trust of the Knesset, with a wave of his hand he can reduce his government and save tens of millions of shekels on bureaus, security guards, consultants and Norwegians, but chooses to oil a large coalition that included There is no need for an election period.

Lapid promised to nationalize and close KKL-Junk, just to find out how easy it is to appoint political appointees; he overturned the law on transparency in capital statements of senior politicians. It is probably easier to demand transparency from the opposition benches.

The institution of the "minister without portfolio", as well as "equality in education and recruitment" were deleted from the party's goals in the registration with the registrar of parties, so in these cases there is not even the appearance of a policy.

The defendant's law, term limits, writing a constitution, there is none, there is none.

Strengthening the status of the Knesset?

Lapid chose to do the opposite.

Looking back, Metza Yesh Atid is a fascinating document that ranges from science fiction to socialism and populism, from bullet trains to affordable housing.

The platform can be easily found on Google, and I highly recommend it.

Not because it is a serious policy document, but because it is an excellent example of how far the fantasies sold to us by charismatic leaders are from what the rule of those who come to power will look like.

The tragedy of Israeli politics is expressed in the fact that the interests of the liberal secular center are represented by alternating generals with budgetary pensions, and on-duty RL-Bists who think in 140 characters per Twitter.

The center must return to representing its constituents and its senders, and not the personal interests of its constituents.

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