A Jewish State for the Jewish People

If you want to pioneer a Jewish revolution - if you want to establish Jewish national leadership - you need to think big. If you talk about national - not sector-based - leadership, you have essentially stated that there is room for everyone in your movement. And true to form, the spectrum of people and opinions in Manhigut Yehudit is broad, indeed. We have common ground with the most fervent Zionists, the most bitter ultra-Orthodox, with the more and the less observant. All of them have their niche in Manhigut Yehudit - as long as they share a main principle: We are all Jews and we all want a Jewish state.

In these days, that principle cannot be taken for granted. Just this week, the Ha'aretz newspaper reported that PM Netanyahu reneged on his demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as a precondition for negotiations with the Arabs.

It seems that Netanyahu and his advisors are beginning to understand that the real battle is for the very right for a Jewish state to exist at all. Suddenly, Israel's leadership realized that while we hastily recognized the "Palestinian nation" and the rights of this fabricated people to establish a state in the heart of our land, the Arabs and the rest of the world in their wake do not actually recognize the Jewish nation and its rights for sovereignty in that very land.

PM Netanyahu deserves praise for realizing where the lines of the battle are being drawn today. It is unlikely that Tzippy Livni or Ehud Barak would have even begun to deal with this core issue. However, as expected, Israel's persistence to maintain this most basic principle - the principle that is the foundation of the State of Israel - has melted away in no time. Lacking Jewish bedrock under his lofty words, all it took was a bit of cold shoulder from the US for Bibi to retreat from his basic, principled stand.

Two sides will be negotiating over the division of our land. One side's justness and 'legitimate' demands are recognized by the entire world. The other side's leadership cannot even demand recognition for its very right to exist.

If that is how the negotiations will begin, how will they end?