Israeli Knesset Building. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock.
The recent Israeli elections left the political scene a bit complicated. The top party in the next Knesset (parliament) is center-right. The second largest party is center-left. The Right can barely form a government; the Left can’t at all. The most important issue in the creation of a coalition government could push away two parties that control 19 of the 120 seats, leaving any governing coalition somewhat narrow. It looks like a mess. But challenges like these can be a very good thing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu party failed to get the one-third of Knesset seats that they had hoped, forcing them to embrace a broader coalition of other parties and reducing their power. What’s more, re-forming a version of the last government—which led the country for almost four years, an eternity in Israeli politics—would leave the new government with barely a majority and very vulnerable.
Yet the challenges to forming a new government—reaching new deals with different parties, achieving new compromises and settling on new goals—will be formidable. The number two party, Yesh Atid, wants to focus on policies that will necessitate compromise from the ultra-religious parties. It will force Netanyahu to get creative and perhaps do something not everyone will like.
The largest party with closely shared values is Habayit Hayehudi, but what if they become a political rival? In other words, there are challenges everywhere for Netanyahu.
Still, he can’t just fold his hands and give up. But the simplest answer—re-form the last government in it’s reduced state and hold on for dear life—isn’t the best either. It won’t address the Israeli populace’s concerns about middle class issues and it won’t move the country forward.
Netanyahu needs to embrace the challenge of building a new government as an opportunity to do something special.
With the current arrangement of parties, its possible that for the first time in decades internal issues—such as economic growth, cost of living, equal sharing of the civic burden—could be the ones that the Israeli government is forced to focus on.
And that will help Israel deal with a host of problems that have been put on the backburner behind diplomacy and security. True, security is always a concern, but at least there are new thinkers with new ideas to tackle the other concerns.
So rather than this being a bad thing, it could end up being the best thing possible for Israel. And it’s not the first time a challenge has been good for Israel.
In the Bible, G-d leads the children of Israel out of Egypt in a grand display through the plagues that force Pharaoh to let them go. Finally, they’re free from slavery.
But rather than take them straight to the Promised Land, G-d actually tells Moses to lead the people in a way that:
A. Makes Pharaoh think they’re lost in the wilderness.
B. Traps Israel against the Red Sea.
C. Inspires the Egyptian army to come after them.
From the people’s perspective, it looked like disaster. A real challenge. No where to go and a trained army bearing down on them. But in fact it was G-d’s best.
In the splitting of the Red Sea for Israel to cross and subsequent drowning of the Egyptian army in the sea when they chased after them, G-d brought Himself the greatest glory yet.
Furthermore, the people of Israel learned to trust G-d more than they ever had before. And lastly, the Egyptian superpower, whose military had enough reach to hunt down Israel even in the Promised Land, was removed as a threat forever.
The easy way would have left Israel in constant danger and limited their trust in G-d. The challenging way gave them exactly what they needed and an opportunity to be a part of something great.
So how should we look at challenges?
First, we need to recognize that some challenges are not to be embraced in the most direct way. If one weighs 400 pounds, trying to run a marathon in a week is a dangerous mistake. Similarly, G-d does not lead the children of Israel through the land of the Philistines when He takes them out of Egypt, since He knows that war that soon would scare Israel back to Egypt.
Today, the demand to resume territory negotiations with the Palestinians is a similar challenge that should not be pursued. It hasn’t worked, it’s only brought more conflict, and it is not in Israel’s best interests. One definition of insanity is trying to do the same thing over and over again that has already failed. So Yesh Atid, which according to Ynet is pushing for such talks to restart, should set that demand aside.
But that doesn’t mean that such a challenge should just be ignored. It just means that a different answer is necessary.
There are two types of challenge. One is the challenge that is meant to enhance our ability—this is like running a marathon. We improve ourselves by embracing the challenge head on. Circumstantial challenges or ones that involve a command from G-d are the ones who should be most often embraced this way.
So if one’s children are rebellious, it’s not up to the school, or church, or grandparents to fix it. It’s up to the parents. They should embrace the challenge head on, pursuing help or advice while taking personal action. Similarly, disharmony between husband and wife necessitates that the man take responsibility and fix the problem.
Alternatively, other challenges are meant to improve our capability. We need to learn new things or act creatively or discover solutions to solve them. So if a business failed it may not mean that we should re-attempt the same model. Perhaps a different product or sales approach is needed.
In the case of Israel and the Palestinians, efforts to build peace from the ground up via improved economics is one approach. Or as Jeremy Gimpel, a candidate from Habayit Hayehudi, has suggested, they could start discussions with local Arab leaders instead of the figurehead political ones to build a local peace that can someday move to a larger scale.
The most important part of handling challenges is not giving up, not giving in and not conceding to the easiest answer just because its easy. Netanyahu needs to embrace that change is coming to Israel and do it the right way. We need to realize that like the Red Sea, the challenges in our life are G-d’s best plans for us.
So embrace the challenge, take it head on and do something special. You may someday realize that the day your life took to the skies is the day you were challenged to fly.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, February 2, 2013)