Sometimes nightmares come true
Sometimes nightmares come true
"The damage to the State of Israel is accumulating, unbearably difficult, but we are still in the moments where, if the campaign of destruction ends within a few months, we will be able to rebuild the ruins," said Calcalist Publisher Yoel Esteron
Let Smotrich and Ben Gvir win. Let Bibi establish the most dangerous and crazy government in the country's history with Kahana's successors, just so they can rescue him from the courtroom and the terror of prison. Let him appoint the impetuous racists, homophobes, and misogynists to the government, and even to the defense cabinet. Unfortunately, we have to wish for a government without masks, corrupt to the core, extremist without inhibitions - with the like-minded fools and the silent sheep. Because only if a government is formed here that will work for a dramatic change in our lifestyles and try to crush democracy to establish a halachic state and full-on apartheid - there is perhaps a chance that we will wake up just before the apocalypse.
I wrote these words two weeks before the last election. Well, good people - be careful what you wish for. Sometimes dreams come true, and sometimes nightmares come true. The column was, of course, an attempt to wake up the voters, an attempt that failed. The Netanyahu government formed about six months ago caused a value destruction unparalleled in the history of the country; national, political, security, economic, and social destruction more terrible than all our nightmares. But, the usually sleepy Israeli majority finally woke up. The Israeli majority was slapped with water cannons, opened their eyes, and went out to fight for their democracy. The Israeli majority - from the center and the left, and also disillusioned from the right, from all denominations, throughout the country and not only in the state of Tel Aviv - realized, even if fatally late, that democracy can not be taken for granted. And without democracy, even existence is not guaranteed.
We are all whirling between anguish and despair and the hope that we will be able to stop the judicial coup and remove from power all those who threaten to crush the Israeli miracle. We all ask how and when this nightmare will end. I have no answer, of course. I have been warning for years about Bibi’s Bibiism, but I admit that I did not imagine that it would drift so far, so dangerous, so radical, so toxic, so indifferent. One day historians and researchers of the human soul may decipher what happened to the man who was an Israeli patriot and in recent months sees the country burning and only pours more and more barrels of dirty fuel into the flames. What happened to the officer from Sayeret Matkal (General Staff Reconnaissance Unit), the brilliant ambassador, the determined finance minister, the cautious prime minister, a statesman respected around the world? What happened to him? And what is happening to us?
The damage to the State of Israel is accumulating, unbearably difficult, but we are still in the moments where, if the campaign of destruction ends within a few months, we will be able to rebuild the ruins. If the madness continues for another year or two or more, if the autoimmune attack is not stopped in time, it will be harder to maintain optimism. Therefore, we must all participate in the defense of democracy against its attackers, by all legal means available to free citizens. By all legal means. We cannot afford despair. There is no time for grief.
I want to repeat my call and add exclamation marks to it:
We must all act together without fear. The gatekeepers must continue to guard the gate with courage and determination. Public servants must serve the public, not the unrestrained politicians. Judges, legal advisors, police officers, and members of the Shin Bet, senior public service officials, teachers, doctors, and yes, also the reserve volunteers. We are all required not to bend or cower. Neither the business community nor the workers' organizations can stand by. Those who do not stand at the front here and now will see when the day comes how the government will not hesitate to dismantle it under the auspices of the judicial coup.
And the free press should be free too. Free from fear. We at Calcalist report on the attempts to sabotage democracy with consistency and determination. To those who complain about our line, we say: yes, it is our line. We will not create a false artificial balance between the defenders of democracy and its attackers. To be among the defenders of democracy is our right, it is our duty.
Calcalist Publisher Yoel Esteron was speaking at the National Economic Conference
