Tzipi Hotoveli and the Invisible Elephant

Last night I went to a cute little event featuring MK Tzipi Hotoveli. She is one of three prominent Likud MKs who are in the Knesset thanks to the support of Manhigut Yehudit Likud party members. This was my first time meeting her, and my impression was mostly positive, though not without frustration. I will begin with the positive.

Tzipi is a straight politician who is in no way corrupt. That says a lot already. She is also not afraid to stand up for her conscience and principles. After all, let's give Bibi credit where credit is due. He supported her joining the Likud, and without his help she wouldn't have been able to compete. (Tzipi is, strangely enough, pretty much the only product of Bibi and Feiglin working together. They both supported her candidacy.) Now, as Bibi has been straying from the Likud path almost entirely, Tzipi is one of three vocal opponents against him. The three are Yariv Levine, Danny Danon, and herself. This, despite the fact that she has him to thank for her Knesset seat. That takes courage, as well as some political gambling. She knows full well that Bibi won't support her next time. But we all know who will, so she can feel safe.

That being said, I must admit that though I was glad to meet her, I left feeling rather frustrated and unfulfilled. This may be due to my being saturated with Feiglin's material which is generally so deep and all-encompassing that one cannot but applaud at almost everything he writes. He takes a problem and over and over again he illustrates so fully how it is a symptom of an underlying disease - and that disease is always the same: The Zionist need to escape his Jewish isolation and be "normal".

Tzipi, on the other hand, talked about the problems facing the country, but did not go down to the bare roots of the issues. She spoke of tactics and strategies, possibilities of coping, what are we going to do with the Arabs, what are we going to do with this, how can we deal with the academic elite who feel no attachment to the land of Israel...stuff I've all heard before and am no longer interested in. She spoke from a right wing perspective which generally does not make me cringe as much, but it bores and is terribly frustrating, agonizing even.

Sure, it wasn't as bad as Bogey Ya'alon talking about how Oslo was a failure and the ever so popular catch phrase, "Peace Now is a Virus" to a room full of Feiglinites a few months ago, and then explaining that the sky is blue, gravity pulls you down, and Elvis isn't coming back. Again, I agree with all that, but I really don't care. I want a revolution. I want the entire consciousness and raison detre of this country and this people to change. Gravity will continue to do its part, I promise.

Another thing I noticed is that she suffers from the same disease that every other Religious Zionist political thinker has suffered from since the founding of the state, and even before. That is, she does not aspire to lead. There's a block there, somewhere in her mind. It was obvious when she said this sentence, and I am paraphrasing because I don't remember it word for word, "Our aspiration should not be simply the Knesset. Our goal should be to become an influential government minister."

Uhh...alright. And what about Prime Minister? Somebody there asked that question. He happened to be a Manhigut supporter. She answered something like, "You can't just come out of nowhere, and become Prime Minister. I mean, maybe the Moshiach will arrive that way but you can't just do that."

Then something funny happened. I whispered to the guy next to me,

"אתה יודע, יש פיל ענק בחדר הזה."

Meaning, "You know, there's a huge elephant in this room." Little did I know that the saying is not translatable.

He had no idea what I was talking about
"An elephant?" he asked me.
"Yes, an elephant," I responded.
"What do you mean there's an elephant?"

At that point Tzipi got distracted and politely shushed me. I was being rude, I realize, and shouldn't have tried to translate culture-specific sayings.

Before I had to leave, she spoke about her solution to the 1.5 million Arabs living in Judea and Samaria. Her solution, as she coins it, is "gradual citizenship". We are to annex the territories, and when the Arabs calm down and stop wanting to massacre us, gradually, we are to grant them citizenship. And, to top it all off, in order to prevent them from taking over, we preempt it with a basic law defining Israel as a Jewish State so they can't turn into a Muslim dictatorship.

Pulling no punches, I will say that this solution is bonafide nuts. You can say that Israel is a Jewish State and put it into law as hard and fast as you want, but law means nothing if the people really don't give an elephant about what you say or do.

The deeper question is, why did Tzipi insist on preserving the invisible status of the Elephant in the Room? Is she unaware of the change in leadership happening under the surface? Does she not see it? Or is it simply her trying to be independent and not quote Moshe Feiglin or identify too closely with him?

Either way, it doesn't really matter. Though her fundamental political ideas are little skewed and cliche, she is, and will be a good soldier, but not a leader. Once a true Jewish leader is in place, she will be the first to back him fully, that I have no doubt. But you can't expect someone without leadership mentality to come out with any great ideas about the fundamental direction the Jewish people are taking.

All in all, she will have my vote for anything but the party leadership.