Borne on wings of hatred

10.05.2011                      06.Ijar, 5771                      Unabhängigkeitstag; Tag 20 des Omer

Geschichte:

Borne on wings of hatred

When Menachem Begin spoke that night 30 years ago, responding to Dudu Topaz's racial slur the previous evening, it was clear the election had been decided.

When it comes to understanding any great speech, you first have to be familiar with the context. In this case, it was the eve of Israel's 1981 election. Days of rotten tomatoes, smoke bombs and insults. Days of passion. In retrospect, this was our last real election campaign. Ideology was still ideology, drama was drama, a speech was a speech, a fight was a fight – and it wasn't over a parking space. It was still about our essence.
Today we are left with the differences between a troika of look-alikes: Kadima, Labor and Likud, and the ideological gap between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, which cannot be detected by any microscope. We are left with the deserted city square, with the boring election broadcasts on television, the words from equally hollow advertisers, and leaders who declaim bland messages endlessly….