(opinion) - "The Palestinian people chose Hamas - there is no way to live in peace with them" Said former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a televised interview that went viral on social networks.
Dear Mr. Bennett, by this logic, how would you explain the fact that we found a way to live in peace with the Germans, even though the German people chose Hitler?
I appreciated Bennett as prime minister, not because of his modesty and ego that is not suited to his standards, but mainly because of his courage, his ability to think outside the box that symbolizes the base of his voters and to agree to form a coalition with Arabs, mercifully. During his tenure he demonstrated his managerial skills and his ability to manage teamwork, a quality that is completely absent from the one who sits at the head of the Israeli government today.
A missed opportunity
In real democracies, every citizen has the opportunity to choose the leader that suits his political, economic, moral and social positions. The decision on who to choose should be based on facts such as: the candidate's personal record, the skills he demonstrated in the positions he held in the past, his successes, his failures, his ability to perform, the positions he presents (political, economic...), his credibility, his integrity, and of course also his promises regarding his path in the future.
A leader is required to perform
After being elected and the power of government is transferred to him, the leader is required to show performance. If the leader lied, cheated, did not keep his promises, or simply failed, in a democratic regime the voters will be given the opportunity to replace him with another. Is it possible that despite his failure, the electorate will elect the same failure again? It doesn't make sense, but it happens.
Researchers in the field of psychology and neurology have extensively studied the subject of individual decision-making and the influence of intellect and emotion on the process.
The dual brain theory holds that our brain operates in two tracks - a fast and intuitive (emotional) track and a slow and rational (mental) track. Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize, describes this in his book "Think Fast, Think Slow". Positive emotions can lead to creative and optimistic decisions, while negative emotions can lead to more cautious decisions. In stressful situations, people tend to rely more on intuition and emotion than on rational analysis.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discovered that people tend to prefer avoiding losses over achieving profits, a phenomenon known as "loss aversion" (the prospect theory).
How do you choose a leader?
How do all these affect the choice of a leader?
decide who to choose as leader
Choosing leaders is a complex process that is influenced by many considerations such as the candidate's communication skills. His interpersonal skills, values and ethics, integrity, self-confidence, charisma, ability to make decisions, ability to work in a team, reliability and more. However, unfortunately, in practice people do not invest complex thought when deciding who to choose as a leader.
Studies show that in group processes, people tend to choose leaders that the other members of the group, to which they belong, tend to choose. A politician who is aware of this feature will be able, regardless of ideology, to find the common ground for his electorate, to adapt himself to them, thus creating what is known as a loyal and uncritical "base". In other words, to be a populist.
A study published in the Harvard Business Review states:
"For leaders to be perceived as leaders, they need to be in touch with their followers emotionally." Understanding people's emotions is important in maintaining group cohesion and cooperation.
Cynical and immoral exploitation
Hence, the distance to irrational influence on the electorate is short. An immoral and uninhibited leader will use psychological and manipulative techniques to attract and control group members.
Will offer simple and catchy solutions
First, he will use charisma and personal influence to create a sense of trust and admiration among the group members. He will then make big promises and offer simple and catchy solutions to complex problems. These promises attract people who are looking for quick and easy answers.
This type of leader will take care of creation social differentiation of the base from all the rest, by inciting and increasing the hatred towards the other camp, thus reducing the external influence and strengthening the dependence on the leader.
He will take care control information that reaches the members of the group, while filtering out information that may undermine faith in the leader. Any other information that challenges his messages will be presented as false and will create an alternative reality to the one that really exists.
He will take care of creation peer pressure To maintain the loyalty of the members and prevent departure. This includes techniques such as public criticism, social punishments, humiliation, defamation and the use of intimidation and guilt. And finally, it will be used in manipulative techniques And psychologies such as brainwashing, incitement, intimidation, spreading lies and repeating them, distorting reality, distorting facts and ignoring them and other techniques of this kind. In this way he can control the thoughts and feelings of the group members.
It is not difficult to shape public opinion
It is implied from all of the above that it is really not difficult to sway people's minds to blindly and irrationally follow a leader. In this, humans are no different from sheep.
Let's go back to Naftali Bennett's statement: "The Palestinian people chose Hamas..." Is this indeed the choice of the "Palestinian people"? In the wonderful "democracy" in which that people lives, is this really the choice that the majority of the Palestinian public wants and will want forever?
At the end of August, it was published in the media that the IDF revealed documents indicating that Hamas had falsified the results of public opinion polls in Gaza. The truth data indicates that the public in Gaza thinks exactly the opposite and that support for the organization is at an all time low. Is there anything in this momentary figure to testify to the ability of both nations to live in the future together?
Can we never live side by side in peace?
No!
Leadership can chart the path for the public it leads, just like a shepherd leads his flock. Bennett's claim is populist and baseless. There are no shortage of historical examples that brave, honest and visionary leaders changed the destiny of their people. The most prominent among them in our history are Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat.
The fate of nations is determined by their leadership
After the nation's decision to divide the country into two states, the Zionist leadership at the time adopted the decision and agreed to compromise, while the Palestinian leadership at the time, with the encouragement of their Arab brothers, rejected the decision outright.
If the Israeli leadership had also rejected the decision at that time and not announced the establishment of a state, believing that the entire land is ours by virtue of the divine promise, Israel would not exist as a state and our fate would be similar to that of our neighbors. The fate of nations is determined by their leadership. Not the nations themselves!
This will also be the case in the future - the leadership of the two nations will shape our destiny for better or for worse.
A fateful decision
Fortunately for us, in Israel we citizens still have the power to decide who will lead us. Therefore, when elections to the Knesset are held, each of us should devote a lot of thought (not emotion) to the examination of his preferred leader, and take the decision seriously, who is the right person to have control over his destiny.
Doesn't fit our short history. The election in the first years of the state was on a purely party basis. In my youth, 'Rafi' was established and since there was no party before the elections, only observers were accepted at the polling stations. I would watch in the construction of a building battery
In the Histadrut elections there were mercifully 6 who did not vote for MPA. There was an aggressive hunt for them and in the Knesset elections there was no one. The authors of the article probably did not live in the country then.
We are in an extreme left-wing city
A city that brought Yahav's serial failure against a right-wing candidate out of mothballs.
That was the whole story. They covered it up with the "liberal coalition" the fact that Shas is already in the coalition.
Neither liberal nor plastered.
The failed MRC was replaced by Yahav who also went through some 5 parties on the left and also tried to establish one with mayors in the north and failed because the sector did not want such a party. Then Yahav tried to be appointed president of the state. Then president of the Jewish Federation. Job ran with lots of flights and refreshments.
This is what the left can bring - failures in the second round as "hope"
There is no hope from those who failed and brought about the 7.10 massacre by secession. It's not hope, it's despair.
The left-wing scumbags hang by the net with the "use and throw away" method (or a Trojan horse), only the right-wing public is not going to be fooled by those who lied to them, spat in their faces and insulted them.
Beyond that, the problem is not this or that leader, but the election system. And what is needed is a change in the electoral system in Israel which creates chronic instability, extreme sectorization and the possibility of straw party games that arise and disappear with some doppelgänger who emerges and disappears and with him the promising party. This is plagiarism that has been going on for decades in our bad and failed politics.
Changing the system of government and elections, together with a deep legal reform and the cessation of the "law party" are the two tools that will give hope to the future of the country, and if not, the continuation of the existing situation will lead to its destruction.
Changing the governance system is a reality. The Knesset was emptied by the Bejziziation that took advantage of the weakness of the coalition system (the opposition wanted to produce endless petitions). The government no longer owes the Knesset anything (they used to tremble at it... Lapid didn't even bother to bring a political agreement to the Knesset). In short, the system has failed, and those who continue to play with it Or to believe that it is possible to carry out the necessary correction - big mistake. If there is no change and reform both administratively and legally, the country is lost.
When will you allow this site to also hear commentators and experts from the right-wing camp?
Every Shabbat for years, on this website, the left-wing commentators have been allowed to express their (legitimate) opinion. But why not give a similar stage in Pacis and not voice commentators and Orientalists, for example, from the right-wing camp as well?
And soon it's not hard to bet, the page will change to live demonstrations against the right and Netanyahu.
Sometimes when you see all these demonstrations and the media imbalance, I feel like I don't live in a city in the State of Israel, but in some immigrant city in Ireland or Germany.
When will you be patriots and give an equal platform to our side as well?
Bennett is right!
There will be no peace because the human figures who call themselves "Palestinians" do not want peace with us, but in our death!!!
There is no such word as peace in Islam, in the sense that we understand it. There is only Hodna until they are strong enough to slaughter us.
When will the delusional left wake up???
Live here, fuck you, brother-in-law Thursday. Now check it out. Everything your comment is waiting to be treated ya leftist dump.
This is the concept in its embodiment.
The left is dumbfounded and thinks that the problem is with Hamas or Sinaver or Arafat or the Islamic Jihad or this or that battalion.
When will the left wake up to themselves and celebrate the land they live in?
These are Palestinians with the addition of thousands of years of religious hatred and there has never been peace with them, they want not only Samaria and not only the territories that the dear settlers guard for us, they want a complete Palestine from the sea to the river and they see Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem as occupied territories in which we only live temporarily.
At the moment the only 2 serious people who understand how to speak the Palestinian language are Ben Gabir and Smotritz and in my opinion if one of them was the Prime Minister the war would be decided within a month or two and the abductees would already be at home.
The failure, if there is one, is that they didn't listen to Ben Gabir and Smotritz from the beginning.
The problem is that we have Gallant and the courts, so everything gets complicated and the enemies realize that the army is indeed very strong and the soldiers defend fiercely, but the army is subject to a weak authority.
Not to mention most of our media outlets that mainly let left-wing commentators express themselves. Entities with huge budgets that for a decade are obsessed with Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox and create a rift and division within the people and fill here, here every child knows how to identify every beginning reporter to which camp he belongs, but cause tremendous damage in propaganda in the international media, not to mention on the enemy's channels, every day they edit these materials and produce for the anti- Israeli intellectual victories.
Netanyahu stands there almost alone defending Israel's security interests, he is forced to maneuver between some of the army chiefs, some of whom are defeatists, and the brave positions of Ben Gabir and Smotritz who, even without a single day of military service, understand the reality of the vile Palestinian enemy who has made our brothers and sisters judges.
And I wrote to your colleague in one of the articles and recommend that you also listen to what the commentator and presenter Ron Koffman, who is among the last to suspect of sympathy for Netanyahu and the right and ultra-Orthodox, says what he says in connection with Yair Golan's words to unite the opposition to overthrow the government.
Write in Google: 'Ron Koffman Yair Golan', I would suggest to ignore the words about prohibited substances and refer to the main point of his criticism regarding these partners who are in the Knesset and on which your ridiculous group is building peace?
Correction of an error in the above comment:
'Substances' without the word 'forbidden' which was entered here by mistake.
The author of the article probably doesn't know the history at all. The German people did not choose Hitler. Hitler chose the German people and it is a fact that from the circle close to him they tried to bring him down, our relations with Germany developed at a later stage when the Germans recognized the survivors of the holocaust. Besides, the idea of the final solution was generally Arab's. Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization whose motto is the destruction of the State of Israel. It is not going to change its ideology. They had many opportunities to build a kingdom in Gaza with the Qatari money, but they chose to produce killing tools and tunnels.