My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

by Ari Shavit

“This is why they had to take me out of the game,” Deri says. “To remove me from government and cut me off from state resources. To assault my character so that even my constituency would denounce me. That’s why they investigated me like they had never investigated anyone else—with a fine-tooth comb. And judged me like they had never judged anyone else—against all evidence. They lynched me and created the impression that I was an evil octopus. And in a sense they succeeded: they expelled me from politics and jailed me and turned me into a demon. “But in another sense they failed: their attacks on me convinced the masses to follow me. A million Israelis felt that when they tried to take me out, they tried to take them out, too. When they locked me up, they kept them out, too. After they had finally raised their heads, they were pushed back half a century. The DDT, the immigration camps, the condescension. That’s why in 1999 we got seventeen seats in the Knesset. If elections had been held a month later, we would have gotten twenty-five or even twenty-eight seats. We would have replaced Likud as the leading right-of-center political force. And the plan was that when I got out of prison we would do just that. We’d pick up where we left off and gain thirty seats in the Knesset. But while I was in jail, I decided not to reopen the wounds, not to reignite the fire. It’s not that the wounds are not there. And the fire, too, lingers. You wouldn’t believe how much pain is still out...