Israel in need of its own Obama

It's funny. I sit here in Israel and I watch the news and witness the political fervor and fever that is sweeping across America. Many of my friends who in the past couldn't care less about politics have been taken in by Obama's message of hope and change. I, too, have been taken in, albeit from afar. I've never witnessed anything like this, a wave of momentum so strong that only time will tell how much history will be altered. We shall see, but for now, one can't help but be optimistic that Obama will do as much for the world as MLK and JFK did in their own time. I am cautious though and know that he is a long way from winning the Presidency (and even his own party's nomination).

However, that's not the point of this post. No, I want to go into the situation in Israel now. It's not pretty. I'm not even talking about the situation that the world is always concerned with (the Palestinian conflict, daily bombings from Gaza, and more). No, I'm referring to the complete lack of interest in politics here in the Jewish state and the disillusionment that is felt by so many of its citizens. The Winograd Report ripped apart the status of the army and the debacle of the Second Lebanon War. Morale here is very low and almost no one seems to have trust in the elected officials. Corruption permeates the government on a large scale and it seems to only be getting worse.

For Israel to continue to thrive, we are in need of a new generation of leadership. We need someone who can bring the young together with the old and inspire a new wave of optimism and hope. Where will such a leader come from? I don't know... I, like so many others here, am very pessimistic about Israeli politics and it's hard to know who to have faith in. In the meantime, I do know that we need someone. We need a person to rally around and feel good about. We need someone who hasn't been on the scene forever (Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, amongst others) and who can unite Israel. I hope in the next election that there is someone who the Israelis can have as much faith in as Obama is inspiring now in the US.