Israel Hayom..
11 May '12..
Over the past several days, the media have been focusing less on the meaning of the political deal between Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz, and more on themselves. In characteristic narcissism, the commentators and broadcasters have been rehashing the question of how this happened to them, of how they missed the deal that was going on right under their noses. Although they would have been glad to scuttle it before it came into being, they discovered, for the umpteenth time, how human they are, unpleasant as that is to admit.
Still, why not tell the truth? Mofaz realized that, politically speaking, his choice was between a natural death or artificial resuscitation. Nor was Mofaz the only one to realize that. Most of his faction did, too.
But the left wing counted on Kadima stealing votes from the Likud as part of its desire for political equality, in order to recreate the 1992 elections. But Netanyahu had learned something since then. We all did.
Now, another carefully built, mythical image has fallen apart -- the image of Netanyahu’s lack of political experience, the perception that he gets rattled easily and blinks first in confrontations. Well, the prime minister certainly taught us a thing or two. We can imagine what would have happened if it had been Ariel Sharon, Heaven forbid, offering another deal that would have served Jerusalem up to Abbas and his cronies on a cardboard platter. Think of the hypocritical headlines exalting, extolling and glorifying his genius, who in his cleverness concocted a deal in order to accomplish a worthy goal: the breakup of the Likud and the elimination of the Israeli right wing. Surprise -- this did not happen. Checkmate!
As the storm subsides and the political system regains stability, it is time that the Likud and the entire conservative camp learn to invest not only in its short-term survival -- in other words, not only in the political arena -- but also in nurturing a group of intellectuals to support them. This is the sort of group from which the longed-for alternative elite can arise.
We almost forgot, but last week, Benzion Netanyahu, one of the most brilliant intellectuals of the Jewish people of the past century, passed away. We would do well to go back and read his interview with Haaretz journalist Ari Shavit from 1998 and be awed by the man’s profound insight, level-headed analysis of regional geopolitics and his historical projections onto current events. His statements were near-prophetic.
Where was this man in our public life? Whom did he influence? Why was a series of his lectures not produced over the past several decades, as the left wing did with the late Yeshayahu Leibowitz? Except for that important interview with Ari Shavit, where else did we read his ideas?
Why was he not awarded the Israel Prize in history, or for his life’s work, something?
There is something frustrating about the way that the conservative camp treats its intellectuals. Benzion Netanyahu was a dissident, rejected by Israeli academia for his political opinions. He was not merely another member of the right wing, but one of its leaders, an heir of Jabotinsky. There was no place for him in Mapai-controlled Israel, and certainly not in academia. So he went into exile.
Like the elder Netanyahu, in Israel there are dozens of other intellectuals of a younger generation who also have no place in academia.
If they have do have a place, they secured it at the price of keeping public and political silence. The conservative camp has not even a single research institute that might serve as a base of research and ideological thought for these dozens of intellectuals. Compare that with the plethora of the left wing’s research institutes, from the Israel Democracy Institute to the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the Hartman Institute and the large number of academic centers with a left-wing orientation.
This is how elites are created, and not only in the central committees of political parties and election campaigns. It is truly impossible to put the political, social and intellectual ideas into practice on the ground without a supporting group of intellectuals in the media, academia, and literature. Politicians who do not understand this put the fate of their camp in jeopardy.
No, I am not talking about “politically partisan art.” No partisanship is needed.
We already have wise, brilliant people who hold a variety of conservative opinions. They need a home of their own and long-term stability, in order to have an influence on the situation in Israel.
This challenge is just as important as the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons. The conservative camp needs an intellectual hothouse that will change the intolerable state of affairs in the academic, research and intellectual field, one that will be a home for the next Benzion Netanyahu.
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1874
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