The allegations of corruption relating to Miri Regev reported the other day reminded me of a story my father told me.
One day, my grandfather was looking for a job. Grandpa, whose father was murdered by the British on his first horrible Shabbat in Jerusalem, lived in the Hatikvah neighborhood, a completely Sephardi area.
He used to work on Saturdays as an usher at Bloomfield Stadium and was a fan of Hapoel Tel Aviv.
An official who heard grandpa was looking for a job sent him to a branch of the Mapai party, a democratic socialist party that dominated Israeli politics until the late 1960s.
The official gave him a note to hand to the man he was sent to meet.
Grandpa arrived at the offices, brought the note, and said that he was looking for a job. To his surprise, he got a job in the Sanitation Department of the Tel Aviv Municipality, where he worked nearly until the end of his life.
I asked my father, “What was in the note?”
The note simply said, “One of us.”
Needless to say, grandpa – a long-time Jerusalemite – was not “one of them.” They probably just helped him because he was a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan. Luck never hurt anyone, either.
Luck alone can’t help you, though; choosing which paths to follow, what to do with the power you wield, and how to serve everyone and not just the insider “one of us” group are all needed.
Nepotism becoming the new norm
I understand the anger that has built up over the years against all those who cared for their own. Now, the tables have turned. The Likud has been in power for decades, and even with them, shady business plans have become the standard.
You can be angry with Miri Regev, who perfected corruption into an art form. You can also be angry at all the “diamonds,” so to speak, who knew exactly how to demand and receive whatever they wanted. It is an entire and complete system functioning according to the “one of us” principle.
It is impossible not to wonder when the Likud became the tainted and corrupt party we see under investigation, shouting at hostage families and those whom the party serves. I am waiting for those brave people who will stand up against that culture.
Some of those people, as well as the politicians, are fed up. They realize they have reached the end; instead of professionalism, they get invitations to bar mitzvahs and britot milah. Instead of values, they see shady business deals and appointments.
Who even remembers that the Likud is an acronym between the parties that existed in 1973 and made up the Likud: Herut (the liberal party), the Free Center, the National List, and the Movement for Greater Israel?
The “one of us” culture led to a revolution in 1977 from those outside of it.
Right-wing, liberal, honest people will also wake up. And they will no longer agree with corrupt representatives who disparage Likud values.
I’m not naive; politics is politics. It’s all a matter of balance. When there is 95% political engagement and 5% business engagement, it is not politics. It is corruption, and it is a betrayal of the public trust. It is contempt for human life.
The investigation from this past weekend is another stone fallen from the crumbling wall of the party that has lost its way.
The end of the troubled Likud is near. I hope a new right-wing party will emerge – a clean, moderate one.
The Likud prides itself on being a democratic party. But woe to us with such a democracy, where a nobody can decide on the priorities of ministers in the State of Israel.
To be sure, Miri Regev is not the only one; she’s just the only one currently revealed.
The author is an Israeli women’s rights activist, lecturer, social activist, strategist, and media personality. She is among the initiators of the coalition of women’s organizations and the founder of Building an Alternative (Bonot Alternativa).