In
the past week we were witnessing an interesting episode in the unrelenting speed
with which our civilized world is declining. And no, I am not even referring to Elton John
parading his non-synthetic child in front of willing and wheeling cameras, nor
about a real or tricked Greek middle finger in a German tv show. In the end, they are only side
struggles, interesting only for the synthesized media community.
Instead
I am talking about the aftermath of the Israeli elections. Indeed, two facts are
highly relevant for understanding how far we have wandered away from essential democracy
and honest-enough politics.
First,
the US government blamed Netanyahu for having stolen the election by stating
that those who would vote for him could rest assured that there would come no
two-state solution. Apparently that simple, non-clouded nor cloaked, easy-to
understand statement drove many more people in Israel to vote for him than
the pollsters had forecast (for weeks on end). Lots of Israelis must have
switched their intended vote in favor of such a policy overbight. How more democratic can
an election be? A majority of people in Israel ostensibly want a prime minister that proposes
a solution for their troubles that does not include a two-state framework.
Moreover, many Israelis must have thought that this particular issue – the shape of the state of Israel – trumps all
others, including economic issues.
Surprise
starts when the US government, on the “morning-after”, did not lose time to
denounce this last minute statement of Netanyahu as a disgraceful “tactic”, and
destructive for the democratic ideal and process! While the United States in general,
and its political scene in particular, is undoubtedly the most advanced nation
in the world in practicing speech fabrication (in the White House with
TelePrompter) and inventing truth-proof spinning, it is difficult for a neutral
observer to arrive at any other conclusion than the fact Netanyahu made a simple, “unspun” statement.
And many people in Israel said “yes”, yes we understand and we want it that way. One might
call this a populist slogan (born out of despair perhaps), but one cannot deny
its democratic merit: not money or defamation of opponents, nor clever redrawing
of electoral boundaries have gotten Netanyahu his majority, but an
easy-to-understand proposition. Democracy in action, even though our European
or American self-anointed standard bearers of “Democracy” do not like it.
Surely,
the second fact brings us back to basics. Indeed, a day (or two) later,
Netanyahu – perhaps not coincidentally on US television – returns to the fold
of politics as usual by constructing a statement that creates and leaves some room
between “yes-two-sates” and “no-two-states”. To stay in the spirit of the
Promised Land, it sounds now like: many settlements are perhaps not in Israel
proper, but, if you look closely and with the right glasses, you will see
nevertheless that they are definitely in Israel. Obviously this is the
democracy that we experience every day, and all over the world. It is the
democracy wherein the “resident democratic powers’ scheme to hang on to power.
And indeed, if all competing factions agree to follow the same strategy, then what choice does the
voter have?
None.
Democracy
is not of this day and age. The political system that we are living today is a
weak, dark shadow of what enlightened minds hundreds of years ago have put
forward as an advanced system of government. Marx may have been wrong on many
things, but he nailed it on corruption! And after a few centuries of democracy,
the power of the democrats has corrupted the democrats, more and more, and still more.
Grimburger,
March
20, 2015
