The second great achievement of Barack Obama was his success in constructinga new rainbow coalition: young whites and blacks, Hispanics, Green idealists,liberals, people with a social conscience, gays and lesbians, and at the endalso feminists.
The ability to build such a coalition is essential for Barak Ovadya. Israel doesnot need another small party representing a one-issue crowd. That is the job ofextra-parliamentary advocacy groups, each of which acts in a niche of its ownand concentrates on one issue. A political party designed to change thepolitical system and set the country on a new course must form a majority arounda message that touches all spheres of life of the state and the citizen.
In Israel, this is harder than in the United States. The American two-partysystem encourages large conglomerates. Our system of proportionalrepresentation, on the other hand, encourages the very opposite – smallone-issue parties.
In order to launch the big change there is a need for a strong political camp.Ovadya will have the task of building a grand coalition before the elections.That is in essence the founding of a new party – or the taking over and totalre-shaping of an existing party, as Obama has done.
What will be the ingredients of such a new force? The masses of young Ashkenazisand Orientals, the "social" public, the Arab citizens, the Russiancommunity, the greens, the secular, the gays and lesbians, the feminists, thereligious progressives, and of course the peace activists.
Even Hercules would think twice before undertaking such a task. For reasons wedon’t have room to go into here, an abyss is yawning between those who arestriving for peace and reconciliation with the Palestinian people, almost all ofwhom belong to the Ashkenazi elite, and the Oriental Jews, the great majority ofwhom vote for the old right-wing parties, in glaring contradiction to their owneconomic interests. The Russian public is cut off, estranged and bitter. Itlives in a soap bubble, and almost all of its spokespersons are extremenationalist racists. The large secular public, which loathes the domineeringreligious establishment and the extreme-right message of almost all of itsspokespersons, has no one to vote for. Even Meretz has lowered this flag tohalf-mast. (In the recent municipal elections in Jerusalem, the secular voted,for lack of an alternative, for a secular right-winger.)
Can all these messages, which look so different, be connected to each other? Thefight against corruption and the concern for the environment, the struggle for ajust peace and the longing for social justice, the demand for equality for theArab citizens and the citizens of Russian origin (both Jews and non-Jews),equality for women and for gays and Lesbians, the demand for the separation ofState and religion, and the insistence on human rights, a healthy Israelipatriotism and universal human values?
The answer is: yes, absolutely! All these aims spring from the same source: thestriving for justice, for a model society, for a country that is good to livein, a state we can be proud of.
Is this possible? Some people believe that if one just utters the word"Palestinians", all the other voters will run away. Or that the Orientalheritage of the candidate will scare away the members of the Ashkenazi elite. Orthat the Russians will be deterred by the Arabs.
I am convinced that it is indeed possible – provided that the overall messageis convincing enough, that it is balanced and emphasizes the uniting and not thedividing, that each of the aims finds the place it deserves in the generalscheme, that it is clear that one thing depends on the other. (In 1965, such aneffort was made by the founders of the "Haolam Hazeh – New ForceMovement", which succeeded in breaking into the Knesset, a feat consideredimpossible until then. But the time was not yet ripe, and the effort peteredout.)
The connection between the various aims is not mechanical. They must form partsof one great, captivating message. A patriotic, humanist message that addressesthe heart and the mind at the same time. Obama did this in America. Ovadya mustdo it in Israel.