Lately, the True Stories Channel has been airing the TV mini series, “Sadat.”  Not being one to miss such an opportunity, I taped it to add to our Temple’s video library.

As I watched this excellent production, I could not help but be reminded of that fateful day in October of 1981, when Sadat was assassinated.  It was Tuesday, October 6^th, and the news was shocking.  The man who had contributed so much to bringing peace closer to reality in the Middle East had been stolen from us.  It was strange, and wonderful, how this enemy of Israel - this man responsible for the dastardly at­tack on Israel on Yom Kippur of 1973 - transformed himself into the hope of Israel.  I remember how he proudly an­nounced that for peace, he would even be willing to go to Jerusalem.  I remember watching on TV as he stepped off the airplane at Ben Gurion Airport, with bands playing both the Egyptian national anthem and Hatikvah.  I remember Golda Meir saying to him, “Mr. President, what took you so long?” - something only Golda could have said.  I remember watching as Sadat, Begin, and Carter signed that his­toric peace treaty.  I remember talking with the children of my religious school in Lincoln, Nebraska about Sadat and about why we as Jews should mourn his passing.  I remember organizing, and having my synagogue host, a memorial service for the man.  Who would have ever imagined that a synagogue would house a memorial service for an Egyptian president?  In fact, I remember feeling quite the opposite in Sep­tember of 1970, when Gamal Abdul Nasser died.  I was a first year rabbinical student studying in Je­rusalem when the news came over the radio.  While there wasn’t any dancing in the streets, there defi­nitely was a sense of relief at seeing such a long term bitter enemy pass from this world.

But most important of all, I remember how much I came to admire this man.  Indeed, watching that show only resurrected those feelings of admiration.  For here was a man who stood by what he believed.  He was a man of principle and his principles were what governed his actions.  Not some polls or some politi­cal advisers, but his principles.  Principles he stood by, even when he seemed to stand alone.  Principles he lived by, even if it meant risking, and indeed losing, his life.  Who could even begin to measure the amount of courage required to be the first Arab leader to utter the words “peace” and “Israel” in the same sentence?  Yes, this man was a true leader; a model for all leaders.

Perhaps my thoughts of Sadat were made all the more intense by the stark contrast between his brand of political leadership and the brand of politics that we have been subjected to - or more accurately, victim­ized by - during this present political season, which will mercifully end this coming Tuesday night.

As I sat in my family room, watching the life of this true leader recounted, I could not help but lament the fact that such leaders are extremely hard, if not impossible, to find today.  And as we Americans are forced to wallow in the quagmire of our current elections, the concept of a politician with principles seems almost like an oxymoron.

If one were to judge our political leaders, and our hopeful political leaders, on the basis of the messages which they send us - indeed, the messages with which they overwhelm us - through the media, especially the electronic media, then it would be quite apparent that these people stand for little, other than getting elected.  It used to be that only the cynics among us would say that “the job of a politician is to get elected.”  But now, we no longer have to say it.  The politicians themselves are saying it for us.  They are saying quite clearly, “I will do whatever it takes to get you to vote for me instead of the other guy.”  More accurately, what they are saying is “I will do whatever it takes to convince you that my opponent is the worse possible person in the world so that, if for no other reason than by default, you will vote for me!”

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am having a very hard time living in a world which is being in­undated with such hostility and negativity as I have been experiencing every time I turn on the television or the radio.  I cannot watch or listen to this stuff any more.  It just makes me sick!  Leaders are sup­posed to be role models.  Leaders are supposed to be people we look up to.  But what kind of role model is to be found in someone who does everything possible to discredit and defame another human being, simply because they are vying for the same post?  Is that the model of human interaction to which we should aspire?  Is someone who does that to another truly the type of person to whom we wish to look up?  I don’t think so!  At least I hope not!

As I watch all these attack ads - and that is what about 99% of all the political ads are - I keep hearing in my head and in my heart my mother’s voice, chanting what was one of her life mantras - “You can dis­agree without being disagreeable.”  Somewhere along the road, my mother’s message was lost to the mem­bers of all the political parties.

Now I know that attack ads are nothing new.  I remember the ads which the Lyndon Johnson campaign ran against Barry Goldwater, with the image of a big mushroom cloud.  I remember the whisper cam­paign that if Kennedy was elected president, the Pope would control the country.  And I read in history books about how vicious were the campaigns against Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson.  No, attack ads are nothing new.

However, what has changed is the balance.  It used to be that attack ads were only a part of a political campaign, and that the heart of the campaign still hinged upon the issues of the day.  While the attack ads added a certain amount of color - be it a putrid color, but color nonetheless - still the American people were given the respect to be expected to judge the candidates according to their positions.  But the sad truth is that with every passing election, we hear less and less about the issues and receive more and more of thevenom and the bile.

On Tuesday, many will go to the polls and still not be sure about where those candidates stand.  Sad to say, many will be judging the candidates almost exclusively based upon the distorted portraits painted of them by their opponents.  And that is wrong.  That is a perversion of democracy.

Anwar Sadat was a man of vision.  And it is not too much for us to expect - indeed demand - that our leaders also be people of vision.  Yet our candidates no longer bother to share with us their visions.  Per­sonally, I have come to seriously doubt whether many of them actual possess any visions, other than the vision of winning and assuming office.  You ask them a question and they waffle, fearful of taking a stand and offending someone.  You want to know what they stand for?  First they need to check the polls to find out what is popular, then they will feed it back to you.  That is not leadership.  That is pandering.