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Part One - Guidelines
Why a Platform?
"For the platform is too short for a man to stretch himself out..." (Isaiah 28:20)
Zehut has chosen to be one of the few parties that offer the public an organized platform. Because this practice is not widespread, we need to clarify what this platform will deal with and what it will not.
This document in your hand is the complete platform of Zehut,[27] including the practical mission statement of the party in all areas of life that are relevant to political action. On the one hand, the platform does not constitute a detailed work plan on every issue, because that would require a thick volume. On the other hand, the platform is not an abstract ideological manifesto, but rather focuses on the changes needed, in the view of Zehut, in the areas it covers. In addition, the platform refers to reality as it exists now, and to changes that can be implemented in a reasonable period of one term of office, and not programs that clearly exceed that.
A platform for a ruling party
This platform was written from the premise that the purpose of the Zehut party is to strive to be the ruling party in Israel. Do not assume that a small party, whose influence, at the most, is to "tip the scales," can implement programs such as those offered in the platform. The plans outlined here are a strategic array of changes that will require a large and stable political force in order to implement them.
It is true that even a stable ruling party with clear strength in the Knesset cannot advance all of its programs at will. It, too, is subject to complex and limiting interactions with other parties in the coalition as well as other parties, but this does not exempt those who take on the responsibility of leadership from the obligation to present a complete and coherent grasp of objectives, with action plans to realize them.
Policy derived from principles, with a view towards realizing objectives
There is a root common to all programs presented in the seven parts of the platform below. Zehut's programs are not an independent collection of ideas and suggestions, but an expression of the basic guidelines underlying the policies in every field.
Policy is the method of action chosen in order to realize objectives according to principles.
The supreme principles of liberty, identity, and purpose, together with the party's supreme objectives, are the two poles between which the platform exists.
The purpose of the platform is to connect them through a comprehensive and coherent policy from which the various programs will be derived.
The emergence of ideas and solutions presented in this platform are not driven by the desire to survive in a political sense, but rather the opposite: the desire to realize the ideas contained in the platform and to thereby improve the lives of Israelis is what requires us to be concerned about the political existence of Zehut. Zehut is a party that exists in order to fulfill the ideas that existed before its establishment. These ideas are formulated in the whole of the platform, but their structure will be highlighted for the reader, in the form of policy guidelines.
[27] The abstract of the platform is derived from this document, as well as the rest of the party's explanatory material.
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