Around two weeks ago, when Benny Gantz was still adhering to his vow of silence, his newly-formed Israel Resilience Party issued a statement in response to one of the attacks on him: "The people of Israel need a different discourse, a dignified and different leadership," the party said. With these words, Gantz outlined the direction he plans to take, and it is one that is very reminiscent in style to that taken by Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid when he first entered politics. Everything that came before him is bad, divisive, corrupt and opportunistic. But he, the new talent in the game, brings with him not just policies and some type of worldview, but something much greater: "a new kind of politics," "a different discourse" and a "different type of leadership."
You see, Gantz, like Lapid, is doing us all a favor by getting his hands dirty. While we, ungrateful as we are, spend our energy trying to pin him as either on the Left or Right, he has stepped onto the political playing field for an entirely different reason, and that is to save our colloquial discourse and lead us to a better world.
But If Gantz and his gospel are the "other," "good," "inclusive" and "unifying" discourse, what does that make everyone else? The answer is pretty clear. They belong to the old order; they are racist and divisive and motivated by personal interest and tribalism. It used to be that the bad guys were on the Right, they were either religious or tycoons; but now they have a new name: They adhere to the old discourse, and the elections will be between those who believe in a "different discourse" and different leadership and the riffraff that refuses to march forward.
The "peace camp" turned "democratic camp" has reached a new stage in its development and is now the "different" camp. And if in the past one had to find some type of principle in the name of which to hate the Right, Gantz has done nothing of the sort. The IDF's 20th chief of staff will not pay lip service to nonsense like "ideas" and "principles." He is different from all the rest, and that's all there is to it.
We received proof of this when, in his first speech as leader of this new discourse, Gantz said, "They shot our Druze brothers in the back; we will heal [them]." Aah, what lofty idealism! What bold leadership! Here is a man worthy of unifying and leading the nation. We were all sick of the divisive bad guys, but now we finally have something new. Metaphors alluding to stabbing someone in the back and a national social party, yes, that is precisely what was lacking in our discourse.
Remember the old days when, in that old out-of-touch era, political hawks would spend their time wrangling over the path, identity, significance of a Jewish national home and democratic principles? What a waste of time! Now, in Maharishi Gantz's era of "different discourse," we can resolve things with ease and say you're either with us or you're badgering us.
