After 70 years of independence, you would expect Israelis would finally get a chance to decide on key questions: the state's mission, its future, and the means through which it can realize its vision. Those questions have never been put to the vote because time and again we chose to kick the can down the road.
A society that refuses to define its values loses its unity. This drives young people away in search of a new life in Germany. It also makes soldiers less motivated to join combat units.
I was hoping for an election campaign that would focus on the pros and cons of the nation-state law, an important basic law that defines Israel's character.
I was hoping for an engaging debate on whether Israel is a Jewish state or a state of all its citizens and how we can combine Jewish and democratic values.
I was also hoping for an election that could help resolve the major issue that has divided the Right and the Left for years: the future of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria and the demographic implications of our presence there. It is incumbent upon us to make a clear choice on this matter, because right after the polls close the U.S. will unveil its peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, which could very well affect the unity of Jerusalem.
Israel has some of the world's best entrepreneurs and its quality of life is on the rise. This is why it would also be appropriate to make this election about the right way way to pursue social justice in an era of prosperity. Israelis should get to decide whether they prefer the Left's socialism or the Right's economic liberalism.
But it appears that this election will be no different that all the rest, and won't be about substance. The desperate left-wing parties, whose voters no longer publicly support them, will try to make this election about the alleged corruption of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mudslinging and vicious rhetoric, leaks from law-enforcement officials, and the likely decision to move ahead with an indictment, will be front and center in this campaign. Bibiphobia will be on full display.
Self-proclaimed experts in constitutional law, who generally support law enforcement and treat the Supreme Court with utmost respect when its rulings are to their liking, believe that the verdict in the Netanyahu cases must be made by the entire electorate. They have already made up their mind, ignoring Netanyahu's presumption of innocence and the right for a fair trial based on evidence.
Their only objective is to convict him in the court of public opinion. But if, as expected, Netanyahu emerges victorious once again in the April election, the very people who wanted the turn the election into a trial will lament that the his voters ill equipped to render a verdict. They will claim Netanyahu's voters are unfit by belittling them for following Jewish tradition. His detractors will also claim that he won because hackers rigged the election.
Precisely because the internal divisions and animosity are on the rise, we should adhere to the truth and the vision of the future. As the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, famously noted – if you have faith in yourself and in the truth, you will prevail.
