The following letters and comments are some of the reactions that came in from Ariga readers responding to two editorials published immediately after the elections. One, called Scenarios (and also known as a Night of Nightmares)outlines some realsitic to absurd scenarios after the results of the vote became clear.

The other, called Promises, Promises, points out that Netanyahu has so far only had to keep one of many promises he's made -- to get elected, and raises the question whether he'll be able to keep any of the others.

The letters are unedited and range from thoughtful criticism to downright nastiness but also include some interesting elements, including a a poem from Karen Alkalay-Gut and a brief reminder from Joe Costello of the Communications Foundation that in times of change, fear drives fundamentalist forces.

The longest post is from Dick Sherwin, and it begins the collection, for it is written in usenet style, reproducing (in italics) the original post. No editing was done on any of the messages, other than the html mark-up. At the end, you'll find A Last Word in which I respond to some of the comments.

From: Richard Sherwin
Dear Robert,

I was out of the country on business during Election week, but heard something of the passions before I left and some of the responses while overseas, where many of the people were for Peres, and few knew anything much about Netanyahu. So they asked me, who knew less about either, since I didnt trust the people around either man, but felt the country, being a democracy, had sufficient right and intelligence to try for four years of either Peres' speed and directions or Netanyahu's. And I must say, since I don't believe political constructions to be very inclusive of reality, I didnt and dont think either choice a very good, sane, or optimal one. But those were the choices, and about 60% of the Jewish population seems to want to try Netanyahu.

Like you I found the ironies of the new electoral system illuminating: do your national duty (or at least express your go ahead/slow down preference) by voting for Prime Minister, and choose the personal or more local interests in the party you send to Knesset.

Since Peres' colleagues left little (and seemed to want less) attractiveness to conservative or religiously observant Jews, regardless of their take on the peace process, I wasnt surprised too much to see a rise in mandates for the religious parties, and a corresponding loss to both Likud and Labor in Knesset seats. It seems in fact very intelligent, given Israeli constellations of indifference to antagonism to Jewish culture among Ashkenazi secular Jews. Whether it will result in intelligent voting, only voters 4 years from now will know. But I seriously doubt much wisdom will be shed on the matter by secular Jews.

Please excuse the general introduction, to my comments on your editorial, which I read as a combination of exhilarated exhaustion.

On Sat, 1 Jun 1996, Robert Rosenberg wrote: > Ariga Update > June 1 1996 > > The Editorial > > After 72 hours of sleepless waiting for a final count > that gave Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu as narrow a > percentage victory over Shimon Peres as JFK won over > Nixon (only in our case, Bibi the "used car salesman" and > Peres the spokesman for the future)

Naturally I resent this "xxx". Especially since I believe Harry Truman was equally represented as "the haberdasher who thought he was President. The joke was, he was" -- something his superior enemies never forgave him for. and a night of > nightmares about what could happen; a few conclusions, > speculations, and promises of our own. ... With a margin of barely 30,000 votes, it's at most a > technical victory in a new electoral system that gives the new

As a Labor supporter told me, ONE vote is enough of a mandate for Peres to go on as he has gone on. Winners are winners, losers losers. I admit I was shocked at such indifference to the 'feel' of the people and their mandate. And I DONT agree with either you or him. For Netanyahu (you should seriously reconsider this Shimon/Bibi bit) was elected by about 60% of the Jewish votes, and Peres got his close call by getting most of the Israeli Arab votes, neither of which makes them villains or heroes, but which does illustrate the issues and appeals involved a bit more accurately than your comment did. > prime minister sweeping powers far closer to an American > president than anything experienced in the administrations of > Ben-Gurion, Sharett, Eshkol, Golda, Rabin, Begin, Shamir, > Peres, or Rabin (and Peres again) experienced.

Yes youre absolutely on target here, and the results of this new electoral split will be interesting... power is always so, and frightening, whoever holds it. Even ourselves. > If Shimon had > won by 300 votes, he could have put together a coalition even > wider than the one Bibi will end up running.

Perhaps he 'could have,' but what signs were there that he 'would have'? If nothing else, the voting shows the votes did not much like the Meretz coalition... >But in that > coalition, forces of fundamentalism that under Peres would have > been weak, under Bibi will be strong. To win, Netanyahu had to > use centrist rhetoric.

So Peres had to show he was "strong" and we got the Lebanon miniwar, with civilians bombed out and Hizbullah still there.... equally indeterminate to me. >He's promising to moderate the > extremists behind him -- and their promising to make sure he > lives up to his promises to them. > The big question is how long can Bibi keep up the > pyramid game of promising all things to all people.

Sorry. You ARE correct I think that the test will be which promises he keeps, and which unpromised things he does. But he was NOT trying to be anything to Meretz, so you are exaggerating just a bit. >He swept > into Likud politics eight years ago on an "American" ticket, > and ever since has been winning on promises, all the way > through this campaign. Sop far, he's only had to keep one > promise -- which he did -- that he could get elected.

In politics (which is why I dont like it I guess) that IS the first requirement. Some say also the last. And some say the ONLY one. > Now, he's promised peace and security, by "going > slower" than Peres. That's what Yitzhak Shamir wanted to > do through the Madrid Conference. Stretch it out in ten > years of talk, and meanwhile, fill up the settlements. Maybe > that's why Bibi wants to reconvene the Madrid Conference -- and > so do the Syrians, who think of it as international tribunal > where it's easier to find a consensus that isolates Israel, > than to face off against them face to face. The Americans, of > course, don't want the Madrid Conference -- or at least have to > be opposed to it until after the Russian elections, to find out > who'll be their partner at such a venture.

This is very nice as a historical reference, but in reference to the mood/desires of voters, a dodge. Voters dont seem to care what you call it, Madrid or elsewhere, they are and have their right to be jittery at the speed with which apparent deals are being made that dont seem at least in terms of what's revealed publically about them, to take into consideration increased terror (and whatever you want to ignore, a lessening of arab/israeli conflict locally and internationally WAS part of the rhetoric persuading people to vote for Labor, under Yitschak Rabin.

That is, people voted to try Rabin's switched viewpoint, since they trusted HIM (not Peres and certainly not Meretz) to keep reality testing the agreements, rightly or wrongly. i.e. they were jittery before, but manageably so with Rabin at the helm, and not his wife, or Peres, or the crew around him, who didnt seem to know when to shut up any better than those around Netanyahu seem to. It IS a tragedy he was assassinated. But the voting doesnt seem to be a total rejection of either Peace, or the Rabin braking, or much beyond the feeling that Peres' constellation of government left / showed little receptivity to what was felt as real popular concern. It wasnt totally whipped up by Likud. Especially not the perceived indifference to Jewish culture, religion, etc. > In other words, Bibi's promises aren't complete > fabrications. But they are both self-contradictory and > self-obvious. Peres couldn't divide Jerusalem, because it > already was divided by seven years of intifada -- under > Likud rule.

As a joke this isnt bad. As argument it's highly specious. If we take you seriously, the whole country, including Tel Aviv, is up for similar grabs. >The truth is that with a little goodwill, and some > clever gerrymandering, Jerusalem can be remapped to satisfy > Jewish _and_ Islamic aspirations regarding their holy sites, > and Israeli _and Palestinian aspirations, regarding their > political institutions.

Please.... Time Magazine style isnt really to the point. It may be your truth that this is possible AND acceptable to the majority of Israelis, but it obviously is NOT seen so presently (who knows but it may be) by the voters. > (Maybe the ideal solution is to sell Disneyland the > franchise for the Old City's holy sites, so instead of Mickey > Mouses and Donald Ducks, there would be Jesuses and King > Solomons. On theboard of this new company, reps from all the > religions could get their seats. Residents get shares in the > company. Let the religious pilgrim tourists pay a little to get > into the Old City, and with at least five million of them > expected in the year 2,000 -- even if there's an intifada > underway, say tourism operators specializing in fundemantalist > Catholics -- everyone will be happy. ) >

The same thing can be said about Tel Aviv, and secular Zionism, dying slightly faster (if newspapers report the Army incidence of de-volunteerism accurately) than religious Zionism, so who knows, why not turn the whole country over to Disney, on your principles. And what personal experience have you had that blights your discussion of 'fundamentalists' (Catholic or Jewish), and that justifies your 'fundamentalist anti-fundamentalism'. It certainly doesnt seem rationalized here. > But fantasy aside, it is the division between Jerusalem > and Tel Aviv that truly breaks the heart in the way this vote > went. In the Utopian novel Altneuland that Theodor Herzl wrote, > thus starting the Zionist movement, it was a city like Tel > Aviv, not Jerusalem, that stood at the heart of his tale, and > it was a liberal, pluralistic, cosmopolitan Judaism, born of > the prophetic spirit that guided its poitical system.

If you reject religion, why do you keep using prophetic as positive for your heroes and call the other stuff fundamentalist (i.e. unthought, unreasoned, overpassioned, madness).? You do seem to glump your buzz words a bit thick. And by the way, Tel Aviv also voted for Netanyahu. But perhaps not your social, economic, and religious class? > There was no place for militant xenophobia in the > Israel dreamt of by the Zionist movement. Indeed, Zev > Jabotinsky himself, the leader of the most "militant" of the > Jewish revolutionaries of the 20th centurty who created the > state of Israel, called for more than equal rights between Jews > and Arabs. In hisplan, the electoral system guaranteed that if > the prime minister was Jewish, his deputy Arab, and vice versa. >

Who says we have to follow Herzl or Jabotinsky? They are not gods, they told truths as they saw them for their times, and that's more than enough. > Now we have a prime minister elected on the slogan "Netanyahu's > good for the Jews" He can say he had nothing to do with it but > one of his ministerial candidates -- Yitzhak "Tzahi" Hanegbi, > son of right wing firebrand Geula Cohen, the former la > passionara of the Likud -- took pride in the slogan the night > of the election after the trend begantilting toward Bibi.

Now we got some ironies: so would Netanyahu be better if he were "bad for the Jews"? There IS a traditional jewish/arab/secular split (plus others) and everyone played it for all they could, including Labor. Politics. > So, where do we go from here? As for me, an Israeli, > I hereby grant autonomy to Jerusalem. Let them worry > about their concerns. From here, in Tel Aviv, the heart of the > 92 percent of Israel that lives on the beautiful coastline > between Europe and Africa and Asia, we shall continue to build > this new country as full partners in the global revolution so > epitomized by the Internet. >

Well, we all retreat into the comfortably known when hurt, and internet seems as safe a womb as any, but 92 percent of Jewish Israel anyway did NOT dismiss Jerusalem (tho I tend in fact to dislike the town and its arrogance, but also Tel Aviv and its, and also...). And the sea IS rising, so who knows how long TA will remain TA, before we all retreat to Nablus. > Unlike those who relying on Gods and Devils -- we'll > continue to believe that in the evolving new world resulting > from the proliferation of information and commerce and > democracy through the 'net, we are truly entering a messianic > age in which the human race will begin to unite -- to save the > planet, to save ourselves.

I think Robert youve been playing gds/devils here yourself just a bit. Labor tends to demonize Likud and always has done so. Just as secular Jews demonize observant ones. And call it rationality. One could argue that the human race in Israel IS uniting messianically to a future you really dislike. I dont think any of the positive or negative terms youve applied here stick hard and fast to their objects. They could be turned around for their opposites with equal facility. One could say for example the Israeli democracy DID vote democratically for 4 years to try going slower, not move with Syria or PLO on Golan or Jerusalem, be careful about Hebron, and in general look before we leap (and all other kinds of truisms that can lead one equally right or wrong). > Meanwhile, we'll continue to put our faith in Israeli > democracy, no matter how flawed, knowing that in a > democracy, it's the free markeplace of ideas where change > begins. Next time, we'll pray, the 30,000 votes will go the > other way.

I agree. I just think youve underestimated the amount of voters who'll have to be persuaded of two things for the next elections -- IF they deal with these issues at all and not something like a collapsed economy or other problems. First, that any candidate satisfactory to the Labor faction will also be at least non antagonistic to not merely religious parties but more importantly religious sentiment/ culture. And second, that theyre not as condescending as the supposed rational left have consistently been seen to have been to their intellectual equals and social majority.

And now that I've blabbed enough. I commiserate Mr Peres on the loss. I think he showed his true greatness a number of times in serving Israel, and saved us from going the way of the Weimar Republic economically and socially at great danger to his political life. What Mr Netanyahu will write in Israeli history is as you say yet to be seen.

I hope you find a better cafe in Tel Aviv to console in than I've ever found.

Sincerely,

Dick Sherwin

First of all let me tell you how refreshing and heart-soothing I found your latest piece. Keep up the good work.

On the Jerusalem issue, are you really suggesting to isolate us from the rest of the emancipated Israel ? Dont' forget over 30 % of Jerusalemites who share your vision of a modern "enlightened" Israel voted for Peres. We are still needed here to preserve the fragile status-quo.

Instead of ignoring or despising them( in the best case), perhaps we should to do some thinking and envisage a more "peaceful" approach towards reconciliation with the religious community. After all, no one has the monopoly on Judaism and faith, but our silence granted them almost exclusivity on spiritual matters.

That's one of the many lessons to be learned from the elections verdict.

Cordial regards, Nathalie

TO SHIMON PERES
Sunday, June 02, 1996

Loved by half this land
with all its heart, you start
today and wonder that
the other half did not come through.

I just want to take my bags
and get out of here, Leah
said, and I thought of you
and how when I saw you once
in your office I thought the perfect man
in his proper place

Suddenly I fear you will think
it was all a waste, the dreams
spattered on the pavement
like the blood of your mate,
and that as well as the bullet
the assassin cast
the deciding vote

But a dream is not worth less
that it cannot be redeemed
at this very moment surely
some things that dont happen
stay in our hearts as much
as those that do surely
we must plan that dreams
can, as they have before,
come true.
Karen Gut

I have to confess that I turned to your ariga web page in order to gloat. Your editorial provided more than enough satisfaction. Such self pity! Hardly becoming an adult, and let alone a cool Tel Avivi.

You described it as a night of nightmares. For me it was just that. I heard the news at 10:00, and believed it. Convinced that Peres had won, I went to bed and tried to sleep. A night of nightmares. Finally morning arrived. Out of morbid fascination, I decided to hear the more accurate tally. Well, you know the rest. There is something very symbolic about it all: Peres in the night, Netanyahu in the morning. I guess you have to be from Jerusalem to understand.

In your hysteria, you've missed the important points. One is that the religious parties didn't excede all expectations. UTJ got four--OK, same as usual. NRP got 9, but considering the new electoral system, it just held its own. Shas got 10. OK, here's something important. Shas--and you remember flexible Shas from the last government--has built itself a constituency by providing what its people really need. Not a few people are not a part of your elite Tel Aviv yuppy world. And they don't want it. These are people who need a place to put their children during the day, want tradition and traditional norms, housing--and ethnic pride. No one else, including my NRP can even come close in providing it. I wish they'd voted for my party, but I accept the choice they did make. Can you? In any case, no matter what Mr. Netanyahu does for the religious parties, it won't be nearly as much as Mr. Peres would have done. Peres would have handed over the keys to the treasury and take what they want. We all remember the Targil HaMasriach.

Meretz lost two seats. Considering the new split-ticket voting system, that loss is really much greater. Put more bluntly, this party, which reflects in many ways the ultimate in Tel Aviv elitism--the wave of the in the post-Zionist Israel--got shellacked. Perhaps not so many people share this dream; or maybe it was the hate-filled TV ads I heard about. Well, at least Mr. Sarid now believes in G-d. He's certainly gotten into the spirit of things, hasn't he?

The real winners, aside from Shas, were the center parties, especially Sharansky's party. This is the one to watch. Will it readjust the nation's priorities to Zionism/Aliyah, or become the next Tzomet, leaderless and full of clowns? Dry your eyes and write something serious about this.

The question now is: who will replace Peres. [I think the traditional party procedure is to put the rejected candidate on an iceberg and float him out to sea] I forsee the coming Barak-Ramon struggle as paralleling the great Rabin-Peres battle of the Titans. But it's too early to tell. Barak might well decide on jumping the sinking ship before he gets wet.

In all, the new electoral system, which was designed to effectively disenfranchise the religious, has not done that--if anything just the opposite. We'll see more small splinter parties and special interest parties, and the expense of the two Majors. But the religious vote will remain a vital, dependable vote block.

Two last points: I remember the elections to the 12th Knesset and the ensuing panic. You didn't end up wearing a shtreimel then, and you won't now either. Second, I did hear the "morning after", that during the pre-mature victory celebrations, the Leftist pundits stated repeatedly that "a majority of one is still a majority." So be it.

Shmuel Arons

Sure the election was close.

But among the Jews the vote was 60-40 for Bibi. This is a landslide among the Jews and represents a Jewish consensus that Peres and Rabin were wrong. This election was a stinging rebuke to Labor and Meretz. The fact that the Arabs were 100 percent for Peres has to give you pause. You cannot run Israel with an Arab-Leftist alliance. Remember, Jews still outnumber Arabs 5 to 1 inside Israel.

No responsible Jew can advocate using these Arabs to be the "kingmakers" or hold the whip hand over security issues.

Three Cheers for Bibi.

Alan Lurya

I came across this page while browsing through the Net. It may interest you to know that I am of Arabic descent. I'm from Singapore. I have a Jewish friend living in Israel. I started writing to her (pen-pal) 8 years ago (our own peace movement).

We finally met last year when I went to Israel. I stayed with her family, had the Sabbath dinner (Friday night's dinner) and surprised her friend that he was eating on the same table with an Arab!

I had a wonderful time in Israel.... it is a beautiful country.

I was upset with the recent election result, but I pray that the peace process will go on. The Jewish people have survived the Holocaust.... may the long lasting peace may be another triumph. May reason prevail over passion and anger.

Peace, Salaam and Shalom,

Deena

I enjoy receiving your 'ariga update' and check into the WWW site regularly. As usual, I find something smart and stimualting in your account as well as something patently offensive.

Your June 1 editorial however, went beyond that. You just placed yourself outside of Israel bu suggesting that 'Jerusalem (becomes) autonomous' and the 92% of Israelis who live in the coastal plane join you in an enlightened Jewish state.

As an Israeli you will have to face that Bibi is your president now too, just like Kennedy was and on a similar narrow margin. Now you and I might not agree with his ideas, but we will have to live with him as the Israeli prime-minister.

Your anti-religious zest often ignores the forces within the religious community that would agree with your assesment and polarize needlessly.

So, deal with it. Religious zionism is here to stay, even if only followed Herzl's secular Zionism. Those people in black hats, women in sheytels, and the people with bibi oh tibi stickers on their cars are your fellow Jews and country men and women. Live with it.

David de Graaf

Bob - grow up.

I am sure that a few hours earlier you were nodding you head furiously in agreement when Beilin explaimed that eve if Peres won by a single vote he could do what he damn well pleased.

When you call Netanyahu a "salesman" your chil;dishness is also showing for all to see. Do you have a problem with people who work in the private sector instead of as a party hack? Netayahu worked at Boston COnsulting and then as Marketing Manager at Rim. Would it have been better if he had worked in the Histadrut?

The issues we are facing are real. When you spout off like you did you lose your audience.

Regards and Shavua Tov,

Aaron

Thanks for the insights. Periods of great change always produce a reactionary movement. Things will get pushed back but then you will begain again but furhter up the road then you once were.

Peace

Joe

Look, nothing personal. You're entitled to be delusionary :) I love you as a fellow Yid but you're a menace to society because of these kooky views. You want to be liked by the Arab? You want to be nice to the Arab? That's the recepe for murder. One (among many) problems with Jewish Humanism is total denial of reality. They project. They view the Arab as a Jew! They identify with him, they relate to him, they feel his pain! Then he goes out and blows up a bus.

The difference bet. an animal and a human is that the animal is ususally stronger. The way a human controls a beast is not thru his natural strength but thru tricks, lethal power, etc.

The Arab is that animal. Cunning, vicious, cruel, savage, irrational. They have an insatiable appetite for Jewish blood, yours included, my friend. The minute you turn control of Yesha over to Arafat, yemach shmo, he'll flood it with millions of fellow vermin, that'll put pressure on points within the Green Line and then watch a mass exodus starting with North Tel Aviv! You might as well close up shop. No more medinat Yisrael. They won't let you live there! Have guts, get up and say "We have tried to build a Jewish State modeled after America or Sweden or whatever. We wanted a secular, nice, accomodating refuge, a ghetto with all the problems and diversions of the West" Then quote Ben G's definition of a normal state, thives and hookers and all. Then say "We have failed, our vision, our paradigm, our model has not worked. We have no peace, we have terror in the street, our youth is doped out and we're not so sure there is any special advantage in maintaining a Jewish state. This smacks of racism, intolerance and backwardness"

My friend, do a little soul searching, open a Shulchan Aruch, and next time you eat, stay away from treifos and put something kosher in your mouth, you might see something kosher coming out if it. Stop thinking like a clueless gentile. We're a people with 5000 years' worth of solving the insurmountable. Kol tuv

p.s.

you're a naive putz,

hope Bibi will stick you and Peres in the same prison cell

shamir

The Last Word

Just as the defeat of Shimon Peres does not spell apocalypse, the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu does not mean the messiah's arrival. Thomas Jefferson once wrote that one of the ideas behind the structure of electoral politics as outlined in the US Constitution, was to guarantee a peaceful revolution about once every 20 years.

In truth, however, more than anything else, democracy is about guaranteeing stability while enabling change. Ships of state are large unwieldy beasts, and while there can be dramatic overnight shifts in policy, until the full effect of those shifts are felt by the public -- the masses -- months, years, even decades must pass.

Our society is one of the most heterogeneous in the world, but democractic traditions are still very new for many -- indeed, most of the society. That, not the self-fulfilling mythologies of eternal goyish hatred of the Jews, is the danger that lies ahead for the state of Israel. There are many forces in this country that regard democracy as a luxury it cannot afford, when in fact, it is the core of our country's strength against those who would do it harm.

Many of the commentators on Netanyahu's victory speech a few nights after the electuion, pointed out with no little measure of cynicism that he was bringing American political rhetoric to a political society long dominated by a cross between Bolshevism and Levantinism. Some regarded it as a breath of fresh air. others thought it was pure demagoguery, a continuation of his campaign. Few found anything programmatic in the speech, despite lots of promises.

There was one moment in his speech that gave rise for hope. It was when he thanked and praised Shimon Peres. Not because it signalled a possible entry of Labor into a so-called national unity government, nor because it was transparently American, did I feel that moment of hope. Rather, for the first time I can remember in more than 20 years of following Israeli politics, a leading politician proposed that goodwill and respect are important.