Bibi was supposed to be the messiah. Then he followed through and gave our holy Hevron to Jibril Rajoub and his henchmen. Barak was going to create a long lasting peace. Then he lost his perspective and turned his voters into sitting ducks getting picked off one by one at whim.
So upon hearing that Ariel Sharon is our new Prime Minister, I for one, am not jumping in the streets doing the hora.
On the other hand, the morning I road the bus into Jerusalem and felt something different. It was not an issue of confidence. I am still nervous. After all, our enemy is still roaming free armed to the hilt. It was not elation. Many funerals are so fresh that feelings of elation are far away in time. We have a long way to go before we can feel elated about anything.
It was cautious optimism.
Ariel Sharon has been around a long time. He is one of the few politicians who has been consistent over the years in his passion for Israel, his warmth towards Jewish values and in his integrity as a public personality. Ariel Sharon is the image of a man who brings back warm memories of Jewish pride and the Zionist dream.
The Left did its utmost to demonize Ariel Sharon. Driving on the Jerusalem Tel Aviv high way this morning, signs reading, "February 7th, Run To The Bomb Shelters" lined the streets. I laughed at the irony. As one who lives in Gush Ezion and travels the tunnel roads daily and at all times of day, we have been living in virtual bomb shelters for the past few months. The Left really believes that if we show some posture and stick to our beliefs then our Arab adversaries will attack and we will end up cowering in bomb shelters. For four months we have been cowering. People don?t go out at night, families don?t travel, and businesses have gone bankrupt. There is an all round feeling of 'we are living under the gun'. Lying down in submission before Yasser Arafat and Jibril Rajoub has not helped our position. On the contrary it has hurt us terribly.
We have become so used to our victimization that there are people who by now, are the Arabs biggest apologists. As a family counselor, I think in terms of therapy. A victim, who starts to make excuses for the abuser, has reached a fragile point in the cycle. As long as a victim recognizes that 'what this person is doing to me is wrong', there is hope that the cycle of violence can end. The moment a beaten wife starts to say things like, "Well, I did burn his toast", or "Sometimes I do say stupid things so I can understand?.". Wait a minute. Burnt toast or tardiness does not justify being abuse.
On a national level, there are those that have fought hard to convince Israelis that; "Look what we have done to the poor Palestinian people?", "The murder victim was a settler", "Why in the world would a Jew go to Tul Karem" and "Israeli soldiers have no reason being in Ramallah".
There is no excuse for drive by shootings, bombed buses, lynchings and the like. There is no reason to accept it. That Barak and Beilin and Peres and Ben Ami have worked so hard to convince Israelis that it is our fault for being killed is the ultimate insult to our intelligence.
Like I wrote at the beginning of this column, I don?t know that Ariel Sharon is the "Great White Hope". I don?t believe that he is the messiah either.
But I do know one thing.
The unprecedented landslide victory is a strong message to the new Prime Minister. More importantly it is a message to the Left which has invested so much time, money, energy and precious lives into a fantasy that if 'we could just do something else the violence would stop'.
The message is, we have awoken from our slumber. We are not at fault here. We will not take it anymore. It is not the Jews of Israel who are promulgating and precipitating violence. It is the Palestinians. We are not at fault that the Palestinians cannot sit reasonably in discussion. We are not at fault that their leaders are instructing hit teams to murder Israeli citizens travelling to and from work and to and from home.
We are at fault for one thing though. Over the past four months we have allowed the Palestinians and the world to believe that the violence is acceptable.
Not any more.
If the only change that Ariel Sharon makes is bring the Arabs to a clear understanding that any violence will receive zero tolerance, then the whole election will be worth it.
And for that, when I traveled to Jerusalem on THE MORNING AFTER THE ELECTIONS, I felt a ray of hope pierce my sad heart.
Close to 400 orphans. Almost 60 dead civilians. Too late for too many.
And I hope that Sharon is the right messenger to deliver a clear message to the Palestinians and the world, "We are not at fault and this is not acceptable".
I pray that tomorrow will indeed be better.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The author is a Jerusalem based counselor specializing in youth at risk and families in crisis. His writings appear around the world.
So upon hearing that Ariel Sharon is our new Prime Minister, I for one, am not jumping in the streets doing the hora.
On the other hand, the morning I road the bus into Jerusalem and felt something different. It was not an issue of confidence. I am still nervous. After all, our enemy is still roaming free armed to the hilt. It was not elation. Many funerals are so fresh that feelings of elation are far away in time. We have a long way to go before we can feel elated about anything.
It was cautious optimism.
Ariel Sharon has been around a long time. He is one of the few politicians who has been consistent over the years in his passion for Israel, his warmth towards Jewish values and in his integrity as a public personality. Ariel Sharon is the image of a man who brings back warm memories of Jewish pride and the Zionist dream.
The Left did its utmost to demonize Ariel Sharon. Driving on the Jerusalem Tel Aviv high way this morning, signs reading, "February 7th, Run To The Bomb Shelters" lined the streets. I laughed at the irony. As one who lives in Gush Ezion and travels the tunnel roads daily and at all times of day, we have been living in virtual bomb shelters for the past few months. The Left really believes that if we show some posture and stick to our beliefs then our Arab adversaries will attack and we will end up cowering in bomb shelters. For four months we have been cowering. People don?t go out at night, families don?t travel, and businesses have gone bankrupt. There is an all round feeling of 'we are living under the gun'. Lying down in submission before Yasser Arafat and Jibril Rajoub has not helped our position. On the contrary it has hurt us terribly.
We have become so used to our victimization that there are people who by now, are the Arabs biggest apologists. As a family counselor, I think in terms of therapy. A victim, who starts to make excuses for the abuser, has reached a fragile point in the cycle. As long as a victim recognizes that 'what this person is doing to me is wrong', there is hope that the cycle of violence can end. The moment a beaten wife starts to say things like, "Well, I did burn his toast", or "Sometimes I do say stupid things so I can understand?.". Wait a minute. Burnt toast or tardiness does not justify being abuse.
On a national level, there are those that have fought hard to convince Israelis that; "Look what we have done to the poor Palestinian people?", "The murder victim was a settler", "Why in the world would a Jew go to Tul Karem" and "Israeli soldiers have no reason being in Ramallah".
There is no excuse for drive by shootings, bombed buses, lynchings and the like. There is no reason to accept it. That Barak and Beilin and Peres and Ben Ami have worked so hard to convince Israelis that it is our fault for being killed is the ultimate insult to our intelligence.
Like I wrote at the beginning of this column, I don?t know that Ariel Sharon is the "Great White Hope". I don?t believe that he is the messiah either.
But I do know one thing.
The unprecedented landslide victory is a strong message to the new Prime Minister. More importantly it is a message to the Left which has invested so much time, money, energy and precious lives into a fantasy that if 'we could just do something else the violence would stop'.
The message is, we have awoken from our slumber. We are not at fault here. We will not take it anymore. It is not the Jews of Israel who are promulgating and precipitating violence. It is the Palestinians. We are not at fault that the Palestinians cannot sit reasonably in discussion. We are not at fault that their leaders are instructing hit teams to murder Israeli citizens travelling to and from work and to and from home.
We are at fault for one thing though. Over the past four months we have allowed the Palestinians and the world to believe that the violence is acceptable.
Not any more.
If the only change that Ariel Sharon makes is bring the Arabs to a clear understanding that any violence will receive zero tolerance, then the whole election will be worth it.
And for that, when I traveled to Jerusalem on THE MORNING AFTER THE ELECTIONS, I felt a ray of hope pierce my sad heart.
Close to 400 orphans. Almost 60 dead civilians. Too late for too many.
And I hope that Sharon is the right messenger to deliver a clear message to the Palestinians and the world, "We are not at fault and this is not acceptable".
I pray that tomorrow will indeed be better.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The author is a Jerusalem based counselor specializing in youth at risk and families in crisis. His writings appear around the world.