Where I Stand:

Pushing a platform of peace in Israel

Sat, Nov 9, 2019 (9:14 p.m.)

It was a story this past week about Israel's Benny Gantz, the man who hopes to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his efforts to form a coalition sufficient enough to form the next government of Israel.

Wait a minute, that is not what David M. Halbfinger's story was really about. Forming a government could wait a night. What Gantz is trying to do is form a coalition among Israelis on the left, right and in the middle, one that could move the only democratic country in the Middle East past its tribal instincts and current desire to vilify those with whom each side disagrees.

The man who would be prime minister was speaking to a crowded Rabin Square in Tel Aviv — some 25,000 Israelis came out to celebrate the life of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated at that very place 24 years ago— and spoke of peace not with Israel but within Israel.

It seems that America's steadfast ally in the Middle East, that country which shares our values and our dreams, also shares the tears in its social and political fabric that are similarly ripping at the soul of America.

Each side of the political spectrum — both here and in Israel — has been advancing its own narrow goals at the expense of the other side by turning citizen against citizen, neighbor against neighbor and family against family. The result in both countries is a polarization that, as evidenced by the near dead heat in the recent election for prime minister, has torn our countries down the middle — or close enough to it that not much gets done.

What was interesting about what Gantz was doing, besides invoking the beloved memories of a more hopeful time in Israel before Rabin was murdered, was coming to that place and speaking those words that could, once again, provide a measure of hope for Israelis that they could move forward as the Jewish state envisioned by their founders.

I read that story from Wednesday's New York Times International Edition, and I commend it to everyone — I can only hope that Gantz's message to his fellow citizens could be given in America.

If it is true that we share the same values and same dreams and same traditions in our two countries, then it follows that we must share the same need for leaders to step forward to help heal what divides us, because to not follow Gantz's example is to continue to rip ourselves apart and our fragile democracy along with it.

Consider his words last week:

"Partisanship has turned us into strangers. And hatred has once again become a dangerous weapon for politicians who know no boundaries."

Those words describe the current state of Israeli politics. I don't think it surprises anyone to realize that they also describe our own.

It is well known that the stakes in that part of the world are very high — you could say without exaggeration that Israel's very existence hangs in the balance of its people coming together or pulling completely apart. There are enemies all around that tiny state just waiting for a moment of weakness.

By the same token, there are potentially new and different allies in that part of the world just waiting for a strong and unified Israel with whom they can forge long-term alliances toward peace and prosperity.

Gantz was correct in calling for peace within Israel in order to achieve peace all around the Jewish State.

It is equally true that there are enemies of the United States lurking about just waiting for us to tear ourselves apart from the inside because we lack the leadership to unite us toward common purpose — the purpose that the our Founding Fathers envisioned so many years ago.

If the biblical admonition that Israel must be the "light unto the nations" is to be followed, let it start by shining the light of sanity on both itself and its best friend in the world — the United States.

America could use Gantz's bright light — shining all the way from Israel — to show us our own way back from this darkness that threatens to consume us.

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun

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