Uri Avnery

29.11.08

Barak Ovadya, Candidate

THE ISRAELI OBAMA. What will he look like, the Israeli counterpart of Barack Obama? What will be his attributes?

That is a tantalizing question. It goes without saying that one cannot construct a human being according to a recipe, like a cake from a cook book. But one can, at least, consider a few of the desired traits.

For example:

- WHERE WILL HE COME FROM?

The Israeli equivalent of the black community in the United States is the Oriental Jewish community, the Jews who have come to Israel from Arab and other Islamic countries. They do not belong to another people, like the Arab citizens of Israel, they belong to the majority population. They are a patriotic community which sees itself discriminated against, a community of second class citizens.

In order to obtain an exact parallel to Obama, the candidate should be half Oriental and half Ashkenazi, with the Oriental part of his image dominating. Once I invented a Hebrew word for Israelis of mixed Ashkenazi-Sephardi origin – “Ashkeradim”. The term did not catch on, in spite of the fact that we now have hundreds of thousands of women and men who fit this definition.

So, the Israeli Obama is an Oriental Jew of mixed extraction.

For convenience’s sake, let’s give him an imaginary Hebrew name: Barak Hasson Ovadya.

- WHAT WILL BE HIS TASK?

The first achievement of Barack Obama was the mobilization of millions of voters, many of them young, who were fed up with the politicians. He inspired them, gave them a reason to join the political process and turned them into activists, donors and mobilizers.

He proved a hugely important thing: what this large group detested was not politics, as it seemed, but the politicians. They had come to the conclusion that there was no real difference between the members of the various parties, that they were all cynics, all greedy for power and most of them greedy for money. When these young voters saw a politician of a different species, they hoisted him onto their shoulders.

That is exactly what we need. The recent experience in the Tel-Aviv municipal elections proves that this is possible. When a politician of a different kind appears on the stage, one who does not resemble the old-time politicians, the voters will recognize him.

The Israelis are a political people, perhaps more so than any other. But they are tired of the politicians they know. They see that there is no real difference between the leaders of the three major parties, between the incumbent Prime Minister and the three candidates scrabbling to succeed him. They believe “they are all the same,” and that the leaders of the small parties are not very different either. They see no difference in their character, no real differences between their messages. These potential voters don’t vote at all, or they vote, out of sheer spite, for some half- farcical list, like the Pensioners’ Party in the last elections.

“Barak Ovadya” must find his way into the hearts and minds of these hundreds of thousands. He must give them hope and motivation, convince them that it is possible to change everything completely, and thus inspire them to join the campaign for a renewal of the political scene in Israel.

- WHERE WILL HIS VOTERS COME FROM?

The second great achievement of Barack Obama was his success in constructing a new rainbow coalition: young whites and blacks, Hispanics, Green idealists, liberals, people with a social conscience, gays and lesbians, and at the end also feminists.

The ability to build such a coalition is essential for Barak Ovadya. Israel does not need another small party representing a one-issue crowd. That is the job of extra-parliamentary advocacy groups, each of which acts in a niche of its own and concentrates on one issue. A political party designed to change the political system and set the country on a new course must form a majority around a message that touches all spheres of life of the state and the citizen.

In Israel, this is harder than in the United States. The American two-party system encourages large conglomerates. Our system of proportional representation, on the other hand, encourages the very opposite – small one-issue parties.

In order to launch the big change there is a need for a strong political camp. Ovadya will have the task of building a grand coalition before the elections. That is in essence the founding of a new party – or the taking over and total re-shaping of an existing party, as Obama has done.

What will be the ingredients of such a new force? The masses of young Ashkenazis and Orientals, the “social” public, the Arab citizens, the Russian community, the greens, the secular, the gays and lesbians, the feminists, the religious progressives, and of course the peace activists.

Even Hercules would think twice before undertaking such a task. For reasons we don’t have room to go into here, an abyss is yawning between those who are striving for peace and reconciliation with the Palestinian people, almost all of whom belong to the Ashkenazi elite, and the Oriental Jews, the great majority of whom vote for the old right-wing parties, in glaring contradiction to their own economic interests. The Russian public is cut off, estranged and bitter. It lives in a soap bubble, and almost all of its spokespersons are extreme nationalist racists. The large secular public, which loathes the domineering religious establishment and the extreme-right message of almost all of its spokespersons, has no one to vote for. Even Meretz has lowered this flag to half-mast. (In the recent municipal elections in Jerusalem, the secular voted, for lack of an alternative, for a secular right-winger.)

Can all these messages, which look so different, be connected to each other? The fight against corruption and the concern for the environment, the struggle for a just peace and the longing for social justice, the demand for equality for the Arab citizens and the citizens of Russian origin (both Jews and non-Jews), equality for women and for gays and Lesbians, the demand for the separation of State and religion, and the insistence on human rights, a healthy Israeli patriotism and universal human values?

The answer is: yes, absolutely! All these aims spring from the same source: the striving for justice, for a model society, for a country that is good to live in, a state we can be proud of.

Is this possible? Some people believe that if one just utters the word “Palestinians”, all the other voters will run away. Or that the Oriental heritage of the candidate will scare away the members of the Ashkenazi elite. Or that the Russians will be deterred by the Arabs.

I am convinced that it is indeed possible – provided that the overall message is convincing enough, that it is balanced and emphasizes the uniting and not the dividing, that each of the aims finds the place it deserves in the general scheme, that it is clear that one thing depends on the other. (In 1965, such an effort was made by the founders of the “Haolam Hazeh – New Force Movement”, which succeeded in breaking into the Knesset, a feat considered impossible until then. But the time was not yet ripe, and the effort petered out.)

The connection between the various aims is not mechanical. They must form parts of one great, captivating message. A patriotic, humanist message that addresses the heart and the mind at the same time. Obama did this in America. Ovadya must do it in Israel.

- WHAT ATTRIBUTES DOES HE NEED?

Obama has a rare combination of traits, making him an almost perfect candidate.

He is new. He is untouched by corruption. He is a great speaker, convincing in every word. He never makes a gaffe, not even under heavy pressure. His views are considered and balanced. He does not get excited. His private life seems without flaw. He radiates tranquility. He lives modestly. He showed personal and moral courage when he opposed the Iraq war from the first moment. (How many people in Israel opposed the first and second Lebanon Wars from the first day?) His message unites, it does not divide. He doesn’t revel in controversy. He has no “killer instinct”. He brought with him a message of hope, an altogether positive message, a message that allows him to find his way even into the hearts of his opponents.

And on top of everything else – and that must not be underestimated – he is good-looking.

Such people do not grow on trees. But such an almost impossible combination of characteristics is essential for a task that looks almost impossible. Mahatma Gandhi was like that. And perhaps Jesus. And Rabbi Hillel (“the Old”). And perhaps Henri IV, king of France. But in their day there was no TV.

SUCH A THING can happen suddenly, without prior notice, and conquer a nation in one stroke. But the chances for it to happen this time, with just 42 days to go before the elections, are slim indeed.

The way things look now, the next Knesset will be as miserable as the present one. It will not be able to tackle any of the big national and social problems. It will collapse long before it is threatened by old age.

The great effort of preparing the ground for a powerful new political camp must start on the morrow of the elections.

Barak Hasson Ovadya, where are you?