The Devil's Advocate

IT WAS just a passing conversation, but it has stuck in my memory.

It was soon after the Six-Day War. I was coming out of the main hall of the Knesset, after making a speech calling for the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state.

Another Knesset member came down the corridor - a nice person, a Labor Party man, a former bus driver. Uri, he said, catching me by the arm, what the hell are you doing? You could make a great career! You are saying many attractive things - against corruption, for the separation of religion and state, about social justice. You could have a great success at the next elections. But you are spoiling everything with your speeches about the Arabs. Why don't you stop this nonsense?

I told him that he was quite right, but I couldn't do it. I didn't see any point in being in the Knesset if I could not speak the truth as I saw it.

I was elected again to the next Knesset, but again as the head of a tiny faction, which was never going to grow into a strong parliamentary force. The man's prophesy came true.

In the course of the years I have often asked myself whether I was right then. Wouldn't it have been better to give up principles, even for a short time, and win political power, without which it was impossible to realize them?

I don't know if my choice was right. But I have never felt any remorse, because it was the right choice for me.

I REMEMBER this conversation when I hear about Barack Obama. He is facing the same dilemma.

There is, of course, one big difference. I was heading a very small faction in a very small country. He heads a huge party in a huge country. Nevertheless, the nature of the political dilemmas is the same in all countries, big or small.

Politics is, as Bismarck said, the "art of the possible". It demands compromises. The politician is a professional, not so very different from a carpenter or a lawyer. His job is to put together majorities for enacting legislation and taking decisions. To achieve this, he has to make compromises. Some do this easily, since, in any case, principles are not really important to them. But for people of principle, it can be very hard.

So what is the place of principles in politics? Must a politician sacrifice some principles in order to realize others? And if so, where is the limit?

THIS DILEMMA becomes even more acute in an election campaign.

In the course of my political life, I have conducted five election campaigns for the Knesset. Four I won, one I lost.

These days I follow Barack Obama's campaign, follow and understand, follow and get angry, follow and worry.

I listen to what he says, and I understand why he says it.

I look at what he does and often get angry.

I see him walking a tightrope across an abyss, and I worry.

I saw him performing before the Jewish lobby, where he broke all records for fawning, and I asked myself: What, is this the man who will bring about the Great Change?

I heard him speaking enthusiastically about the right of citizens to bear arms, including Uzis and Kalashnikovs, and buried my head. What, Obama?

I heard him supporting the death penalty, a barbaric punishment that positions the US somewhere between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and did not believe my ears. Obama???

I seems that Obama is moving further away from himself with every day that passes - and we are still at the beginning of the main election campaign.

I CAN just imagine the discussion at Obama's staff meetings. There he sits, surrounded by strategists, pollsters and PR people, all of them great experts, at the top of their professions.

Look, Barack, one of them is saying, these are the facts of life. The liberals are with you anyhow, you don't have to win them over. The conservatives are against you, and nothing will change that. But in between there are millions of voters, who will decide the outcome. These you must attract. So don't say anything unusual or radical.

You must tell them the things they want to hear, the second chimes in. Nothing that smells of hard-core liberals, please. We need the votes of rightists and evangelicals, too.

Anything definite will push away votes, a third insists. Every principle will upset somebody, so please don't go into details. Just stick to vague generalities which appeal to everybody.