1.
And suddenly at noon I received dozens of encouraging messages on WhatsApp at once. I'm used to receiving warm responses from readers of this column - and thank you very much for that, it's not taken for granted - but this time something was strange. First of all, the timing. The messages weren't scattered over an entire week, but arrived within a few minutes, a veritable flood of messages (and that wasn't even on the day the column was published). And the wording was different.
These were not the usual messages of support or agreement, but rather truly emotional, embracing messages: "My friends, be strong and courageous and do not give up!", "God is with you!", "Blessed are you that you were caught speaking Torah!", "We hope you don't take it to heart!""
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Okay, it's starting to stress me out, all these exclamation points. Why is it that so many people, most of whom I don't know, find it necessary to hug and comfort me on this sleepy afternoon? What in God's name am I supposed to ignore?
Then one of them sent me a screenshot of an anonymous message that was distributed for a fee to countless cell phones: "Yedidya Meir's lies are being exposed: I would expect a little more honesty from someone who shouts about lies day and night.".
Well, that was really scary. Imagine for a moment thousands of people receiving a message like this with your name and the dramatic headline about your lies being exposed. And with a scathing quote from some commenter, who sounds very important, who refers to the exposure and says he would have expected a little more honesty from you.
Who is that commenter who expects a little more honesty from me? The State Comptroller? Attorney Eliad Shraga from the Movement for Quality Government? The commander of Lahav 433?
2.
At first it was really scary. I started thinking about what lies of mine could be exposed. That I left late for an important meeting and then lied and said there were traffic jams on the way? That I drank from Seven Blessings and said I had something else that evening even though I didn't? That I pressed "I'm not the driver" on Waze even though I was the driver? What have I done?
You start rewinding your life a few years, then forward, and try to think of what embarrassing episode in your life just exploded with such a bang, to the point that good people you don't know consider it their duty to get your personal number and encourage you in your difficult time.
I clicked with trembling hands on that link that was sent to thousands, and in an instant I discovered the fake. You can breathe a sigh of relief: all my lies have not been discovered. Not yet.
What's the story?
A few days ago I published a column here about Matan Kahane, about how shameful that day was when, for 12 hours, he led the Knesset committee where they slandered and lied and smeared Amichai Shikli, the only one who remained faithful to the election promises they had long forgotten. And how this entire despicable event, in which a black man turned white and a loyal man turned into a retiree, had nothing to do with Shikli at all.
All of this was done to scare Idit Silman, or Yom Tov Kalfon (when he still held the dubious title of "Yamina MK"), or others whose conscience torments them, and as is well known, Yamina is very afraid of this conscience.
The column in question ended with Matan Kahana's amazing answer, there is no other word, to Rafi Reshef on the question of whether he doesn't care about the voters' anger over him taking their vote and going the opposite way: "On the level of my personal investigation, I simply took it upon myself, and I try very hard, not to promise anything anymore.".
What did Matan Kahane's people do in response to the harsh column?
They found a post on Facebook in response to an anonymous writer, Hanan Gershuni, a long text in which he responds to something his friend wrote, and then later refers to me as well: "Meir cut the passage not in the middle of a sentence, but in the middle of a word: Kahane said 'and with a bang' and Meir removed the "Y" to hide the fact that it was only the second part of the reply," and this gibberish was distributed for a fee in thousands of explosive text messages with the defamatory headline.
3.
It's funny to even address the allegations. What facts can I hide or change? After all, everyone can watch Rafi Reshef's full interview with Matan Kahane and see exactly what was said there.
But you know what, in order not to bother you and in order not to add views to the 'Mako' website, let's bring the full text, which only makes Kahane look even worse. This is how Rafi Reshef asks him: "You probably remember this quote, on Channel 20. You told the interviewer: 'You will be a lead dancer in the Bat Sheva troupe before I sit down with Meretz.'".
And here is the full answer: "So one, I am very, very upset that I am now one of a group of people who promised one thing and ended up doing something else. And on the level of my personal investigation, I simply took it upon myself, and I try very hard, not to promise anything anymore.".
It's truly unbelievable: Kahane has no regrets. He has no regrets about the complete change of positions, the opportunism, the stealing of votes, the boycotting of half the people, the joining of the enemy at home and abroad. He is sorry (sorry, "sorry") only that he has lost trust. The problem is not that he broke all the promises, but that he promised! And so his conclusion from the whole story is one, only one: from now on, do not promise anything. Just don't have some red line that he declares, some value to which he commits, because later it will limit him and burden him with quotes from the archive.
And instead of looking down at this truly embarrassing quote from Kahane, who knows how much it symbolizes everything, they decided to launch a sponsored campaign. The lies of Yedidia Meir are exposed: He removed the "V" from Matan Kahane's response!
4.
So now, after I returned the sixth essay, we can get an answer to what I asked in the column: Matan Kahane, why did you promise not to sit with Meretz, Ra'am and Labor, you promised that Lapid would never be prime minister, you received votes only on the basis of these promises to form a right-wing government, and in the end you break promise after promise and turn this whole gang into the bosses of the state, and still dare to call for Shiki to resign?
But a few days have passed since that column. And a few days in the "offense begets offense" government is a long time. Since then, Matan Kahane managed to publish his emotional and talked-about post about Mansour Abbas, in which he broke another red line - he declared for the first time that this government is not retrospective, it is from the beginning. It is not a constraint at all, it is pride to sit with Ra'am and not with Likud. That's how it should be. And of course, at the time that his post was published, another convention was broken. Because the issue has long since ceased to be Abbas, but the Joint List. The coalition's new ally, as Lapid said.
5.
And what is the method of the pilot (res.) Matan Kahane - until recently the beautiful face of religious Zionism - to silence an ideological writer against him? To intimidate. To distribute cell phone pranks.
I assume his people were counting on the fact that most of those who receive the message won't bother to open the link. They'll just get the message that allegations about Meir's friends' lies have been published. And most of all, they wanted to make me "wow!". Be careful, we know how to respond too. You shouldn't keep messing with us. We'll tell everyone that you're a liar. That's the method. Those are the techniques.
And then, after a few more minutes, the great fear that instantly turned into great anger - turned into a feeling of satisfaction. Even pride. Yes, if it was worth it for Matan Kahana's people to spread false things about me for a fee, then apparently what I write moves them, does them harm, influences public opinion. And the thought of that certainly gives me the strength to continue writing. So "on the level of personal investigation," as someone said, I simply took it upon myself to continue.
6.
And how encouraging it is to see how the lie no longer catches on, no matter how many text messages it is spread in. We saw how Bennett was received this week in Elkana, a town that gave him 38 percent of the vote in the last election - and when he arrives as prime minister for a state visit, almost no one wants to see his face. Who was the audience they finally managed to bring to welcome him? Helpless first-grade children.
Only to them can he perhaps sell that the fight against him is about matters of taste, like "those who like bananas and those who don't like bananas." Did you hear what happened in Ra'anana? A man with five seats trampled on the truth and said that it was just a banana.
And I'm not even talking about the road to Elkana. A prime minister who has to come underground, with diversionary tactics that will confuse the enemy, arrive an hour earlier than originally planned, use the police to block the protesters' path, and attack unexpectedly from the air. I imagine how the Prime Minister's Office opened maps to start navigating and thinking about detours and dirt paths. How, on the one hand, to create a presentation that Bennett is connected and going down to the field, and on the other hand, to meet as few people as possible who deceived them. Then someone came up with the idea of the helicopter.
This week it was announced that Bennett would not attend the Jerusalem Day rally at the Rabbi Center, a rally where the prime minister has traditionally spoken for decades. I understand the concern about the audience's reaction. But actually, why wouldn't he also arrive there by helicopter, and dangle from the women's wing on a rope, directly to the stage?
7.
With God's help, we are at the end of the government's path. In the political system, this week we saw Elkana, and also Kida, and eventually someone else will resign. Who knows, maybe it will be Hauser or Elkin, or anyone whose conscience won't let him sleep.
Only it won't be too late. After all, we've recently seen three types of dealing with the big lie: the shekels, the silmans, and the halfons. It's really a parable about the human soul: there are those who immediately choose the truth, there are those who hesitate and it takes them a lot of time and they need more courage and strength to decide, and there are those who hesitate too much - and then it's impossible to fix it.
They find themselves kicked out of the Knesset an hour before Shabbat, humiliated, when the minister above them resigns and becomes an MK, the main thing is to get rid of them. Just think where the good day would have been for Kalfon, if he had announced his retirement on his own initiative the day before, as was apparently easy to do.
I've been thinking about this a lot this week, not just in relation to politics but in relation to all of our personal lives. When are we easygoing, when are we quiet, and when are we talkative?.
I hope we get to fix what needs to be fixed in time. That we won't be ashamed and embarrassed forever.
