The Left thinks Israel fled from reality on Tuesday. It is wrong. Reality is as close as it ever was, but it is the Right that will henceforth deal with it.
The Labor Party has never been able to handle being in opposition, since first finding itself in that position 25 years ago, because it has no ideology other than power. It was the “natural ruling party”, and, as such, it had to adjust to reality. Prior to 1977, there was no alternative to the Labor Party, so any alternative had to come from within it. The Right ridiculed this at the time as “a supermarket of ideas”.
The tables have been turned. The Likud will be the natural ruling party from now on. As such, it must now do what the old Mapai did, and adjust to reality. All policy alternatives must come from within. The Likud will be the supermarket of ideas.
The role of a ruling party in a democratic society is to learn the art of the possible. Since the Left is no longer breathing down its neck, the Likud will fill up with pragmatists. They will rise up from within its ranks, and will join it from outside. Anyone desiring a serious political career will have to join the Likud. Its profile, demographics, customs and patterns of behavior will begin to change accordingly. Even the cries of “Bibi, Bibi,” will have to change.
21 years ago, there was a country that tried to stimulate its economy by increasing domestic consumption when a global recession slashed its exports. That country was France. The French government thought it could outfox foreign markets because it had a popular mandate, and because it simply knew better than the rest of the world. This policy of “reflation in one country” as it was mockingly called in a play on Stalin’s “revolution in one country”, simply did not work.
The French government of the time was ideological, and far more experienced in the politics of opposition than in the pragmatism of governance. It was forced back to reality and stopped carrying out daring experiments on its citizens. France’s citizens rewarded it handsomely, allowing it to rule for the next 15 years, virtually unhindered.
The Likud will be tempted to carry out economic and political experiments, but it will return to reality because it now has a monopoly on its management. The January 28 elections were one of those moments when the wheels of history could be heard turning. For better or worse, there is no turning back.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 30, 2003