Prime Minister Yair Lapid often speaks of "the common good." In his first televised address to the nation, he said "we must choose the common good," adding that "we can't let disagreements consume all our strength. In order to create a common good here, we need one another."
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At this week's memorial for IDF soldiers who were killed during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014, he again reiterated the need to "fight together for a common good."
And I wondered, "the common good" is a beautiful phrase, it sounds good, even noble, but what is it really? What does the prime minister mean by "the common good" he says the entire nation should strive for?
The phrase expresses ideological pragmatism. A series of compromises the community reaches in order to put aside disagreement and come together for subjects in which the various groups' interests do not collide.
I'm sorry, but I do not think it fits the challenges of our lives here, but is rather a deception, even self-deception. In order to strive for the common good, we must first define the community that shares it, based on the foundations of identity.
Lapid defines all of Israel as one community in order to legitimize his intention to establish a government with the Joint Arab List. It is true in many aspects of daily life, but in the national context, let us not fool ourselves and admit that reality does not allow this.
Such a general "common good," the purpose of which is to blur the differences between various societal groups, will inevitably end in the erosion of the Jewish and Zionist character and the national consciousness that makes our nation.
The conflict of interest between the Zionist majority and the post- and anti-Zionist streams represented by Meretz, Ra'am, and the Joint Arab List has proven to be thorough and deadly. The hasty fall of the coalition, which sought to represent precisely this, is a painful monument to the defeat of this illusion.
"The common good" experiment has failed because of the national tensions that nationally conscious elected officials – on both sides – refused to compromise on.
Just recently, a poll by Israel's Defense & Security Forum revealed that 75% of Arab citizens believe Jews have no right to sovereignty in Israel.
There is a clashing disagreement about our very presence here. Does speaking of "the common good" make this go away?
We can and should have many daily, social and civic "common goods" with Arab Israelis. But when it comes to state policy, such common good would be false and dangerous. Because at the end of the day, "good," according to the Declaration is Independence, is defined by what is beneficial for the Jewish people exercising their right to self-determination in their homeland.
Our challenge lies in the gap between the magnitude of the challenges facing Zionist and the exhaustion some sections of the public feel due to it. This gap is a cause for concern, and we must, therefore, take responsibility. To stop striving toward an unclear "common good," which sounds good and innocent, but enables the enemies of Zionism – abroad and at home – to succeed in their pursuit. Instead, let us begin to speak of the "common Zionistic good."
Efrat Shoham Hildesheimer is the CEO of the Zionist Leadership Fund of Israel.
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