Recently, I have been seeing terrible visions in the morning before I open my eyes. Everything around me is destroyed, the wreckage reaches above my head. I crawl outside, hoping to be saved, but I see before me an abyss filled with corpses. This is it, all those intellectuals in the media were correct—those who decided long ago that our democracy is in shambles and has come to an end due to the iniquities of the state. That our society has descended to the lower limits of hell and has dissolved, due to the sins and transgressions of the state. I open my eyes-- but here it is, the house still stands, the sky is blue, and our democracy celebrates each new day. And the illusion peddlers also continue their illusionary lives.

Last week I read two articles of illusion-peddlers (others call them Leftists of one type or another), and I decided to analyze them in an attempt to understand them. The first one is the product of one of our great writers, Avraham B. Yehoshua. His central question is: How do we stop Iran and neutralize its threat to destroy Israel? Answer: We need to begin the peace process with the Palestinians with honesty and vigor, stop the building in the settlements and get rid of the outposts. Then, when the entire world will see this, “The Iranians will also have to stop their inflammatory rhetoric and evil threats.” That’s it, how simple!

The second article was written by a former diplomat, Dr. Alon Liel, who founded the “Israel-Syria Peace Society.” The main element of his doctrine was to hand over the entire Golan Heights to the Syria of Bashar [al-Assad] because Bashar was serious and craved peace, while the State of Israel was always squandering opportunities for peace. The central idea of his current article is two-fold: first of all, Liel admits, “Officially to Mr. Assad: You will not receive the Golan, even if you suddenly start to smile at us all the time” (in other words, the Golan is some kind of toy that Liel inherited from his grandfather). Second of all, Liel proposes that the State of Israel absorb Syrian citizens fleeing their country, in our Golan Heights. And if surprisingly “the Syrian citizens will agree to come to the Golan for temporary refuge, perhaps we change the atmosphere in our relations with the Syrian nation for many generations.”

And you ask yourself, what impels Yehoshua to determine that Iran “will be forced” to change its strategy toward us because we start evacuating outposts and things like that; and what brings Alon Liel to think that the Syrian nation will change their attitude toward us for “generations”? My common sense tells me that this is madness, simple folly—or at least a terrible illusion. In my opinion, this is evidence of severe, distorted manifestations of wishful thinking. It is fiery belief, almost religious in nature, that what we think and want and view as correct—applies to the other side as well [who must think as we do], since we are all human beings. That if we only smile and express good will and be lovely, then the other side will meet us half way and hug us; that only what we believe is correct, and no facts can change our minds.

This brings us to another point: the built-in unwillingness to admit making a mistake. Alon Leil erred in the past regarding his approach to Syria and Bashar; after all, we all make mistakes. So why doesn’t he admit his mistake? In my opinion, the illusion-peddlers don’t admit their mistakes because this could harm the inner core of their belief-system that is rigid as steel. And someone who does not admit his mistakes, will never do a real soul-searching either.

A widespread phenomenon in our parts is that large sections of the media provide a warm home for the illusion-peddlers. Sometimes even the media itself sows illusion. For example, I read in the weekend Maariv [newspaper] the following sentence about the results of a poll: “The Right bloc continues to maintain a bare majority of 61-62 mandates versus 59 mandates for the Left bloc (including the Arabs).”

In other words, [Arab] MK Hanin Zuabi together with [former general] Mofaz?!

This is how a virtual reality is created. This is how additional illusions are manufactured for the illusion-peddlers.