2 New Year's wishes

Uzi Landau wants us to regain our faith in Zionist enterprise, fight corruption
Dr. Uzi Landau

Regaining our faith in the Zionist enterprise's righteousness

The faith in the righteousness of the Zionist enterprise is the moral basis for our existence as a people in its one and only homeland. This faith provides us with the sense of prerogative to be living here and serves as the main force and stimulus to build this country and lead it to achievements.

In the absence of faith, our presence in this good and difficult country, "with honey flowing through its veins, but blood flowing through river like water" turns into "occupation."

Zionism? Prerogative? Those are archaic words, I'm told. The world has change. To my regret, this change has a clear direction: While the Palestinian sense of prerogative for our homeland has strengthened, we, and particularly our leadership, show a decline in our sense of righteousness.

Israeli governments in the past 14 years contributed to the escalation: The Oslo concessions, former PM Barak's willingness to forego Temple Mount, former PM Sharon's miserable declaration that "we cannot remain occupiers for a long time," and of course the "disengagement."

Something terrible is happening to us as a people. We're gradually disengaged from our Jewish basis and are losing our Zionist sense of direction.

Even though the Arabs are the real occupiers, large parts within us adopted their narrative - just like the familiar "Stockholm syndrome", where kidnapped victims sympathizes with their abductors and forms a mental connection to them – such Israelis believe in the Palestinian prerogative more than they believe in ours.

Via a process of obsequiousness and self-depreciation, they liken the enemy to a sympathizer, parts of their own people have become an enemy, and they condemn and slander their own country at every forum around the world.

It's natural that we disagree on policy. It's tragic that we lost the common denominator tied to the one and only certainty: This is our country!

It's legitimate that some of us have concluded, according to their logic, that we should give up the "Jordan Rift Valley", because there's no choice. Treating this with indifference is not legitimate. If at least they felt that the necessity to give up our own soil is similar to a patient who must have his arm amputated to salvage the rest of his body, but him and all those around him know – the amputated arm is his…

Changing our way of thinking is crucial. A leader that hesitates about our right and characterizes us as " occupiers" of our own soil should be seeking another people to lead. Our education system would do well to boost the sense of belonging in order to imbue students with those universal values.

Each one of us, and particularly parents and grandparents, must not wait! Go out and "conquer" the country with our feet. Travel through its cities, mountains, and valleys with a bible in hand, and rediscover that it's ours!

All-out war on political corruption

I took part in the protest initiated by the Movement for Quality Government and IDF reserve soldiers, and sensed that one desire was common to the tens of thousands who arrived from all across the country and the political spectrum: See a process of renewal in the State of Israel.

They yelled out "Olmert go home," but what they wanted is to see the political culture of corruption, of shady deals, spins, and personal interests go home. The expressions on faces were not happy. A cloud of unease was perceptible. The sense that everything is rotten and the knowledge that one cannot build a country on the basis of rot.

When the moral infrastructure is dilapidated, there's no point in the mighty words about "righteousness" and "our historical right". I'm not naïve. Politics is not and will never be as squeaky clean as a pharmacy, but we must not allow it to turn into a garbage dump. In order to repair it we must have fresh, decent forces come in.

The State of Israel needs honest, ethical people to lead it. Therefore, regardless of whether you're leftists or rightists, join your parties, take over party branches, and compete for leadership positions.

Your road will be a very tough one. Journalists who forgot what their job is will make fun of you, and shameless politicians guided only by personal interest will hinder you. Precisely because of this, you must not leave the political arena in their hands.

Join politics. It's either you or them. And although on a personal level most of you will fail, the State of Israel will be salvaged. About a month ago you risked your lives in the battle against the Hizbullah threat. Won't you sacrifice your time and energies to fight the threat of corruption to see a renewing, decent Israel sure of its righteousness and abilities?

Dr. Uzi Landau is a senior research fellow at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and the former minister of internal security