'Sharansky era' over

In February 1986, Anatoly Sharansky, who had been refused aliyah, a human rights activist, a prisoner of Zion and a Soviet dissident, went from bondage to emancipation. In a covert exchange deal, the Soviet Sharansky was released (in exchange for spies) and he immediately made Aliyah to Israel.

Prior to his release a series of rallies and protests were held by Jewish and Christian organizations as well as by world renowned intellectuals, statesmen and students. "Let my people go," called the protestors chaining themselves to the embassy gates in the USSR.

When he crossed the "friendship" bridge over the two parts of Berlin, Sharansky couldn't have imagined that the democracy virus had already spread deep into the old and tired body of the USSR to such an extent that its days were numbered.

Within four years the Soviet empire would cease to exist and the red flag would be removed from the Kremlin. Yet before that, in the spring of 1989, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had told Jewish American oil tycoon Armand Hammer: Every Jew who wishes to go to Israel will.

And he kept his promise. Following Sharansky's aliyah, hundreds and thousands followed suit: From 1989 to date, close to one million immigrants have come to Israel from the former USSR; a third of them came during the massive wave of 1990 and 1991.

They completely changed Israel's demographic, economic, social, cultural urban and political fabric. They revived the country, brought in fresh blood, raised the level of intellect, but also created communal ghettos and bred prejudice.

Numerous parties vied for the political clout possessed by Sharansky, who immediately changed his first name to the Hebrew Natan. He was perceived as a charismatic Jewish leadership figure. Upon his Aliyah to Israel, political commentators predicted a swift rise to the premiership, or at least to a prominently influential position in the public arena. He did after all overpower the evil Soviet kingdom with his determination and morals.

Alas, all this did not happen. Following his dishonorable attempts to enter existing party politics, he established an ethnic immigrant party called Yisra'el Be'Aliyah that ran for the 1996 elections (10 years after its founder made Aliyah), and won seven seats in the Knesset.

This was the peak of Sharansky's political career: He was appointed to the post of industry minister and fought with all his might for the marking of prices of dairy products, but opposed markings in US dollars.

Israel's short memory

In the 2003 elections, Yisra'el Be'Aliyah just about got through the election threshold and shortly after merged into the Likud party. On Sunday of this week Sharansky submitted his resignation from the Knesset.

He, the one who fearlessly fought the KGB, a Zionist dreamer from Siberia and the harbinger of freedom and democracy from the Glienicker Bridge, failed miserably in Israel. Not a single important political or public initiative can be attributed to him. He refrained from voicing his opinions on moral issues dividing Israeli society.

His two books, Fear No Evil and The Case for Democracy, were bestsellers in the US but sold very few copies in their Hebrew translations. Israel's merciless public opinion and short memory pushed him to the "Russian Right" sidelines. From there Sharansky attacked the police who investigated dubious immigrants from the USSR and from there he spent time on a vociferous campaign against the Shas religious party, which divided them on basic political issues.

One can't help wondering where Natan Sharansky would be today had he decided to move to the US and not to Israel. I have cause to believe that he would have become a respected member of research institutes, a popular lecturer at US universities, a member of the intellectual elite who signs petitions and manifests on global moral issues and a leader of a community whose reputation went before him.

Alas, Sharansky decided to come to Israel to join the ranks of Israel's hawkish, stuttering and vague politics. It's as though the Israeli climate deflated his greatness and suppressed his spiritual height to his physical height. Although he knew how to get by, he got lost amongst us. Suppression of minority rights, for example, no longer shatters his heart; he lives in the past, not in the present.

Natan Sharansky was the old Russian aliyah's most prominent symbol: Ideology, Zionism, poor and fighting. In this respect his time is over. The new symbol of the Israeli Russian is very different. His name is Arcadi Gaydamak.