The false messiahs

But this time around, Labor is in a strange position. This time it is headed by someone who has completely folded the diplomatic flag - someone who doesn't want to talk about the conflict, as if we had already solved our existential problem, as if there were no link between peace, security, economics, society and the gaps.

We are referring to someone who loves the settlers at least as much as Netanyahu does; someone who doesn't see a problem with the occupation. She criticizes Naftali Bennett - the ultra-extreme leader of Habayit Hayehudi who wants to annex the whole West Bank - only because he's a "capitalist."

We are referring to a "socialist" who is not disturbed by the injustices of the occupation , the humiliations and the repression. In her eyes equality is good only for the Jews. She devoted all her efforts in yesterday's Labor Party primary to curbing the dangerous "people on the left" like Peace Now leader Yariv Oppenheimer. Because Labor is a centrist party, not heaven forbid, left-wing.

Just like Netanyahu, she is trying to sell an illusion - that there is no link between peace and economics, that there is no link between peace and social gaps, that there is no link between the huge sums transferred to the territories and the distress in the country's outskirts.

The extent of this link can be seen even in Operation Pillar of Defense. Until a moment before the operation, the Finance Ministry planned to cut NIS 2 billion from the defense budget to minimize the damage to social spending. But now after the operation, the military's stocks must be replenished, damage must be fixed, the number of Iron Dome interceptor missiles must be increased and the David's Sling anti-rocket system must be developed quickly in anticipation of the next round.

So not only can't we cut that NIS 2 billion, we'll have to add to it. And of course, that will come at the expense of education, welfare, stipends, wages, health and infrastructure. Labor chief Shelly Yacimovich doesn't realize that Israel's colossal spending in the defense budget (6 percent of gross domestic product ) and the huge interest payments following the deficits of the past lead to low budgets for education, health, welfare and infrastructure. She doesn't understand that without a peace agreement, the defense budget will constantly grow and it will be impossible to solve social problems.

Yacimovich also doesn't understand that a peace agreement is the key to growth and allocating resources. The only time we were close to that was September 1993, when the Oslo Accords were signed. The very anticipation of their fulfillment turned Israel from a country that had been boycotted into a country that was being wooed.

Delegations from all over the world flooded the economy, and international companies vied with each other over who would invest more here. From meager investments of tens of millions per year we jumped to several billion dollars. Growth was rapid, unemployment dropped to a historic low, and the government suddenly had large funding for solving problems in education, wages, social gaps and infrastructure that had not been touched for years.

But the Israeli people have always suffered false messiahs that deluded them and led them to disaster. Today's false messiahs are Netanyahu and Yacimovich.

By Nehemia Shtrasler