David Isaac

People get the government they deserve. This oft-quoted remark, attributed to everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Mark Twain, but generally traced to 18th century politician Joseph de Maistre, is another way of saying, “You get what you deserve.” It puts the onus of the excesses, stupidity and corruption of elected leaders on those who elected them.

In Israel, the opposite seems to be true. Israelis get the governments they don’t deserve. The plain men and women of the state demonstrate time and again exceptional character even as their leadership demonstrates the basest. In Israel, it’s not cream, but another protein-rich substance, that rises to the top.

Aryeh Stav, editor of the Israel magazine Nativ, pilloried Israel’s leadership well in a recent issue. For those familiar with the Passover Haggadah, his summation reads like a Had Gadyah from hell. From Menachem Begin, who laid the foundations for a Palestinian state to Yitzhak Rabin, who shook hands with Yasser Arafat to Ariel Sharon, who ethnically cleansed the Gaza Strip of its Jews. They, and those that came between, not only betrayed the Jewish people but their own principles as well.

Contrast this with the stories of courage and sacrifice of Israelis coping with the carnage that the Knesset’s “Big Men” have wrought and you get the feeling that there is a profound disconnect between what goes in the voting booth and what comes out at the other end.

One example is 16-year-old Maayan Roth, the younger sister of Roi Roth, one of eight students killed in the Merkaz HaRav shooting in March. On her own initiative, she visits schools to talk about her brother.

At one school in Petah Tikvah, she said, “At the moment that Roi was taken, a holy person like my brother, I said to myself, ‘No, I won’t let this remain a private sorrow, one of our family alone, so even before the 30 days [of mourning] were finished, I decided to go out and have conversations with young people so that they will know my brother and will continue in his way.”

Maayan painted a portrait of a remarkable young man, deeply committed to Torah, who prayed with a special intensity and who loved the Land of Israel, whose length and breadth he hiked. “He would return to the same place a thousand times and be amazed each time as if it were new,” she said.

She described the heart-rending moment she heard of Roi’s death. “Suddenly, I heard crying. I ran and opened the door and I saw my whole school there and I realized that the terrible had happened. I started to cry and I collapsed onto the floor.”

Clearly still reeling from the loss of Roi, she yet concluded with a call to arms: “This is what I want to request from you. That you will do. You will go out. You will go on. That you will fight for this Land. Because if we don’t fight there will be none to fight.”

Another instance of a citizen who deserves better from his government is the Hesder yeshiva boy on leave from the army who killed the Arab who drove a bulldozer on a rampage through Jerusalem, killing three. Known simply as “Mem,” the young man leapt onto the bulldozer, took a gun from a security guard and shot the driver dead. (The scene was actually caught on tape and can be viewed on YouTube.)

It turns out that this same boy was beaten unconscious by police while photographing a road-blocking protest in Ramat Gan in May 2005. Though he was standing on the side of the road, the police didn’t like him documenting their behavior. Though his case was closed for lack of evidence, it left him with a police record. It took two years of arguing with the IDF before he was allowed to join an elite army unit.

Coincidentally, it was his brother-in-law who shot the terrorist in the Merkaz Harav shooting. In their reports, Israel’s media studiously avoided going into detail about either of these men as they both are a product of the religious Zionist camp, a group that has become a convenient scapegoat for those in Israel who don’t have the courage to face the stubborn facts motivating Arab violence.

As these citizens perform heroic deeds on the streets, the government sinks to new lows, the latest being the release of terrorists in lopsided prison swaps which only create incentives for terrorists to kidnap more Israelis.

Shalom Rahum, whose 16-year-old son Ophir was lured to Ramallah by a female terrorist and then killed by her two associates in January 2001, explained it simply. “If you give a wolf a lamb thinking he’ll leave the flock alone, you’re making a mistake. Next time he’ll ask for two.” He added, pointing an accusing finger at the camera: “You [the media] are supposed to guard democracy. You are supposed to give a voice to me, the little guy.”

We hope the little guy in Israel will find his voice. It will have a clear and simple ring, like the voice of Maayan and Shalom and those shots Mem fired into a terrorist's head.

David Isaac is a writer in Los Angeles.