I have an important personal statement to make: I do not want to be Prime Minister! I will not announce my candidacy even under "special circumstances." What special circumstances, you ask? It's obvious.

I am not mulling over forming a new party, despite the pressure applied to me. For example: The blue-eyed party. It is well known that individuals with blue eyes are a maligned minority in this country, and the time has come for them to have adequate parliamentary representation.

Well-meaning people have suggested that I establish a party with a platform such as the pursuit of peace based on the coexistence of Israel and Palestine, with a unified Jerusalem as the capital of both states. But there is a general consensus that in these elections one mustn't talk about the really important issues which will determine the country's fate for generations to come. The American consultants of both main candidates are dead set against it.

Oh, yes, this reminds me: I have no "American consultants." Not a single one. Not Finkelstein, not Rozenkrantz and not Guildenstern.

Neither do I intend to join any party for a secure place on the list. I did not demand the fourth spot on the Likud list (realistic), nor the 15th spot on the Labor list. Neither did I seek a spot on the new Centrist A, B or C party list. I know that this must bring a sense of tremendous relief, because available spots are very hard to get. Had I been offered a secure place on the list, then they would have had to pass over a female Russian immigrant or a general of Moroccan extraction.

Obviously, I am not seriously considering "retiring" in anger from the party of my affiliation -- if only because I do not belong to any party. But let me take this even further: I will not join any party just so that I can announce my retirement from it, "because the Prime Minister is a liar, scoundrel and traitor, and the rest of the party members are miserable wretches."

In fact, I am not "mulling over my next steps." Not "seriously" and not lightly. And so, I declare right now: I have no intention of calling a press conference to announce that "I have not yet decided about my next steps," and I am not "waiting for developments" to "make my decision."

I have forgotten the main thing: I am not involved in any contacts. No contacts at all. None held in the dead of night, none in a Mossad safe house (as did Bibi and Ehud), and none in fancy restaurants. Not even on the telephone. Not with Rabbi Kadouri. Not with Attorney Eyni nor with David Appel, the contractor.

I have not engaged a public-relations agency, and I do not have the results of a public poll assuring me of gaining 5 seats.

I am practically blushing while publishing this admission. If there had been three or four people who had appreciated me before, I have surely lost them now. What, of six million Israelis, am I the only one not running for office? The only one not rushing around? What is wrong with me?

Many years ago, I decided that there was no representation of my ideas in the Knesset. I announced the formation of a new party, formulated a series of very clear principles, invited anyone who believed in them to join me, and turned to a group of men and women who had already made their mark in the struggle for peace and for human rights. On election day, we broke the monopoly of the old parties, and I was elected to the Knesset. Four years later, we repeated this and gained two seats. All that with no consultants, no public-relations agents, no polls. Simply on the strength of basic ideas: Peace with a Palestinian state which would be established with our support, the separation of religion and state, a written Constitution safeguarding human rights, free education through college, etc. At the time, those were entirely revolutionary ideas. Those who supported them voted for us. Simple.

Since those simplistic days we have progressed to the present. One can't open a newspaper, watch TV or listen to the radio without encountering one of the hundreds of politicians, the popoliticians and the quasi-politicians who is doing one of the following things or all of them: Mulling, in a quandary, retiring, coming back, establishing, presenting his candidacy, threatening, forgiving, in a quandary, changing his mind, holding talks, giving press conferences, raising funds, hiring consultants, in a quandary. A kind of contagious and dangerous epidemic which attacks the brain, brings on a fever and leads to hyperactivity, particularly that of the mouth.

A tragedy? A comedy? A farce? The biggest show in the country.