I have an important personal statement to make: I do not want to be PrimeMinister! I will not announce my candidacy even under “specialcircumstances.” What special circumstances, you ask? It’s obvious.
I am not mulling over forming a new party, despite the pressure applied tome. For example: The blue-eyed party. It is well known that individualswith blue eyes are a maligned minority in this country, and the time hascome for them to have adequate parliamentary representation.
Well-meaning people have suggested that I establish a party with aplatform such as the pursuit of peace based on the coexistence of Israeland Palestine, with a unified Jerusalem as the capital of both states. Butthere is a general consensus that in these elections one mustn’t talkabout the really important issues which will determine the country’s fatefor generations to come. The American consultants of both main candidatesare dead set against it.
Oh, yes, this reminds me: I have no “American consultants.” Not a singleone. Not Finkelstein, not Rozenkrantz and not Guildenstern.
Neither do I intend to join any party for a secure place on the list. Idid not demand the fourth spot on the Likud list (realistic), nor the 15thspot on the Labor list. Neither did I seek a spot on the new Centrist A,B or C party list. I know that this must bring a sense of tremendousrelief, because available spots are very hard to get. Had I been offereda secure place on the list, then they would have had to pass over a femaleRussian immigrant or a general of Moroccan extraction.
Obviously, I am not seriously considering “retiring” in anger fromthe party of my affiliation — if only because I do not belong to anyparty. But let me take this even further: I will not join any party justso that I can announce my retirement from it, “because the Prime Ministeris a liar, scoundrel and traitor, and the rest of the party members aremiserable wretches.”
In fact, I am not “mulling over my next steps.” Not “seriously” and notlightly. And so, I declare right now: I have no intention of calling apress conference to announce that “I have not yet decided about my nextsteps,” and I am not “waiting for developments” to “make my decision.”
I have forgotten the main thing: I am not involved in any contacts. Nocontacts at all. None held in the dead of night, none in a Mossad safehouse (as did Bibi and Ehud), and none in fancy restaurants. Not even onthe telephone. Not with Rabbi Kadouri. Not with Attorney Eyni nor withDavid Appel, the contractor.
I have not engaged a public-relations agency, and I do not have theresults of a public poll assuring me of gaining 5 seats.
I am practically blushing while publishing this admission. If there hadbeen three or four people who had appreciated me before, I have surelylost them now. What, of six million Israelis, am I the only one notrunning for office? The only one not rushing around? What is wrong withme?
Many years ago, I decided that there was no representation of my ideas inthe Knesset. I announced the formation of a new party, formulated aseries of very clear principles, invited anyone who believed in them tojoin me, and turned to a group of men and women who had already made theirmark in the struggle for peace and for human rights. On election day, webroke the monopoly of the old parties, and I was elected to the Knesset.Four years later, we repeated this and gained two seats. All that with noconsultants, no public-relations agents, no polls. Simply on the strengthof basic ideas: Peace with a Palestinian state which would be establishedwith our support, the separation of religion and state, a writtenConstitution safeguarding human rights, free education through college,etc. At the time, those were entirely revolutionary ideas. Those whosupported them voted for us. Simple.
Since those simplistic days we have progressed to the present. One can’topen a newspaper, watch TV or listen to the radio without encountering oneof the hundreds of politicians, the popoliticians and thequasi-politicians who is doing one of the following things or all of them:Mulling, in a quandary, retiring, coming back, establishing, presentinghis candidacy, threatening, forgiving, in a quandary, changing his mind,holding talks, giving press conferences, raising funds, hiringconsultants, in a quandary. A kind of contagious and dangerous epidemicwhich attacks the brain, brings on a fever and leads to hyperactivity,particularly that of the mouth.
A tragedy? A comedy? A farce? The biggest show in the country.