The ritual is already known in advance: Balad party chairman Dr. Azmi Bishara takes some kind of initiative, or does something or other. Immediately there is an item about it on a major news Web site, the talkbacks heat up, MKs from the right compete with one another over belligerent reactions, and an efficient journalist collects some of the statements and publishes them from top to bottom, in order of the degree of extremism. Israeli "public opinion" awakens, the television stations broadcast angry follow-ups, and the presenter accompanies the report with a look of, "Oy, what are we going to do with him now?" The next day, the government and the legal establishment join in and get the investigation process under way. All we have to do now is to wait for the indictment and the petitions to the High Court of Justice.

Almost any statement or political initiative of MK Bishara or one of the members of the Balad faction makes waves in the media, for motives that have been reserved in advance for this party and its leaders. Balad presents a genuine challenge to the "Jewish and democratic" state of Israel. For over 10 years it has been challenging this paradoxical definition, which is patently impossible, by means of a platform that supports a state of all its citizens. In exchange they are greeted by attempts at invalidation, unbridled incitement and charges - which are unavoidable in a nationalist state - of being a "fifth column."

The attitude of the media and the cultural and academic elites in Israel toward Bishara is worthy of examination, because it testifies to the principal approach of the establishment and its branches with respect to the Arabs in Israel: As long as Bishara was only an academic and not a rank-and-file politician, it was acceptable to demonstrate affection and admiration for him, to adopt him warmly as a true intellectual - and rightly so. The moment he turned his own theories into a real, practical party platform - he became an enemy of the people, and suddenly we began to hear about the "disappointments" of the "Israeli left" and the academic world with his behavior.

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This revolution could have been justified had Bishara changed his spots and begun to preach an agenda opposed to the theories that he developed during his academic career. But in a very unusual turn of events, just the opposite occurred: Bishara set up Balad, with colleagues and partners who share his path, on the basis of the academic positions he had supported. His former admirers and colleagues attacked him the moment the theory turned into practice.

It turns out that it is permitted to "philosophize," to edit books dealing with enlightenment and democracy, to appear on a regular panel on an intellectual TV program (Bishara used to appear on the talk show "London's Parliament"), to write, to publish, to present an intellectual challenge - but to lead a party that aspires to implement the theories that everyone was enthusiastic about at one time? Where does he get the chutzpah?

And thus all the circles of Bishara's Israeli admirers began to disband, and some even began to attack the man "who was a severe disappointment to them." Everyone felt that Bishara, who was prominent in the Israeli arena as well as the Arab and international arenas, had overstepped the bounds. And what are they ostensibly angry about? About visits to Syria and Lebanon, about an analysis of Israel's political and military moves that is unacceptable in this country, about siding with the right of nations to oppose occupation, etc. These are all considered good reasons for belligerent criticism and attempts to totally delegitimize Bishara and his party - although it is both his right and his obligation as an elected politician to propose alternative ways of thought and action.

The current rift between the Arabs and the Jews, and between the representatives of the two nations, is very great. How much more so between Balad and Israeli-Jewish "public opinion." Balad's platform is available and translated into Hebrew, and any citizen who has had eight years of schooling can read and understand it, not to mention the average journalist. Balad is not a subversive organization, and everything that Bishara says in Arab countries or publishes in Arabic here and abroad, he has said and continues to say in the Knesset, more than once. The claims about "bad timing" or about the fact that when things are said in Damascus of all places, it is more painful, are nothing more than pretexts.

Bishara's political fate has in effect already been decided in Israel.

The writer is an author and playwright.