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Authentic Jewish Leadership For Israel |
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Our Views My friend Ohad once taught me how to catch a chimpanzee. Let's say that you went camping and suddenly a chimp makes his way into your campsite and starts to turn things upside down. It rips apart the ropes, jumps on the tents, chases the children. What do you do? Here's the solution. You take a barrel and plant it firmly in the ground in the middle of the campsite. Afterwards, you make a small hole in the barrel and insert a banana. The chimp sees the banana and sticks its hand into the hole to retrieve it. But once the chimp is holding the banana, it can no longer get its hand out of the barrel. That's it. Everyone can resume campsite routine. The danger has passed. The chimp will never let go of the banana. Even if all the ants come to eat it until it becomes a skeleton, it will still hold on to the banana. I remembered the chimpanzee exercise when Olmert seemed to overcome the Winograd Report last week. Everyone ran to protest; Israelis almost unanimously demanded his resignation and were very angered by the fact that he managed to hang on. But in truth, I am not sure that the fact that Olmert is still hanging in there is so terrible. True, he cannot release the banana. But on the other hand, he cannot do much damage, either. And of course, the ants will continue to eat away. So we have actually solved two problems at once. One, Olmert is paying for his follies and two; he cannot do much to disrupt life in the campsite. What does bother me right now is the hypocrisy of the ants that are busily climbing on the political carcass of the Prime Minister. For example, this is what Uzi Dayan, who organized last week's mass demonstration against Olmert, said during the war: "We must continue to attack both in the North and in the South." And this is what Opposition leader Netanyahu said at the time: "I say to the Prime Minister and the entire government today: Fight them, hit them hard, smash them. Do that, and we will support you and the entire nation will be with you." Even Yossi Beilin lent his support: "(I) express my respect for the Prime Minister. I note that there is a consensus in the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, in the Knesset, in Israel and in a large part of the world on the justice of this battle." Should we also quote Peres? That is not necessary. In short, I do not like the Prime Minister. But I am not a fan of the chorus of fools trying to build themselves from his downfall. In the meantime, as long as the chimpanzee is hanging on to the banana, we have a bit of time. We had better put some serious thought into who we want to see in his place.
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