The liberal-democratic sector must internalize: the elections are about its survival | Ran Edelist

The struggle over cafes in Jerusalem for secular Shabbat leisure is a struggle against turning Jerusalem into the capital of the Kahanists and the ultra-Orthodox, who jointly manage the campaign of religious coercion in the city. Given the population growth data for whom the sanctity of Shabbat in Jerusalem is a matter of almost life and death, this is a lost secular rearguard battle.

There is no chance, of course, that all of Jerusalem will be shut down. It is only about the mixed areas of secular and religious people, which increases the need for a liberal-democratic capital in Tel Aviv. There is no need for an official title. Ezer Weizman suggested after the Six-Day War that Jerusalem should be the Jewish Vatican, and here too there is no need for a title because that is exactly what is supposed to happen. Assuming that any solution related to Jerusalem will include the internationalization of the Holy Basin, it is possible that Jerusalem could be the world capital of the three religions. There is, at the very least, amazing commercial and tourism potential here.

At this stage, we are still dealing with cafe brawls and waiting for the elections. The problem is that one sector continues to play with chess pieces while the other side plays with a baseball bat. From the perspective of the side opposing the government, the elections are intended not only to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu or to force the ultra-Orthodox to enlist or to evacuate settlements. For the liberal-democratic sector, the elections are about its very survival in the country. Demographic observation identifies a constant growth in the right-wing sectors compared to a thinning in the liberal sector, including a wave of departure that has a chance of increasing if internal tensions continue and perhaps even worsen.

Apparently, there is currently a majority for the opposition in the elections. In reality, this is a fragile majority. Precisely now, when the opposition of change is supposed to shift gears and sharpen the differences between the camps, they are trying to blur them out of consideration for the soft right. In my humble opinion, there is no right-wing animal that will cut to the left.

This will require the parties of change to storm the potential of a political settlement versus the situation that collects casualties on the ground and to align with the world's demand to remove the ridiculous yellow lines backed by tanks against citizens. Are there terrorists? Fight them, and not the whole world.

The problem is that the IDF has long been hijacked by the knitted-kippah supporters of Bezalel Smotrich and the militias of Itamar Ben Gvir, and their goal is to drag out the fighting until election day. And yet, there are players here who do not understand that this is not a sport but a battle for the existence of the entire sector. Baruch Kra invited the chairman of the Constitution Committee, Simcha Rothman, to the program "Election District" on Channel 13 for an interview with the program's panel.

This is a proud liberal stupidity that does not understand that the struggle is for the whole pot, and that part of the tools in it is a complete disavowal of what Rothman represents, a public figure who threatens our liberal-democratic existence as a people, as a society, and as individuals. Liberal objectivity can be stored away today in the warehouse of tolerance and politeness, and not turned into a display of foolish legitimacy.