Eitan Haber
צילום: טל כהן
Slave to the words
Lieberman likely regrets past promise to quit government over ‘core issues’
Late Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was the one who said “I promised – yet I didn’t promise to deliver,” and it appears that Avigdor Lieberman and Ehud Barak would have liked to adopt this lovely message. Lieberman and Barak fell captive to the words they uttered, so it appears, ages ago, and now even a rescue operation by a commando unit cannot help them. In the eyes of many, credibility comes before anything else.
We see this tragedy unfolding before our eyes: At a difficult time for the State of Israel (The cynics will say: When isn’t it a difficult time for the State of Israel?), with a broad and stable government being backed by an almost record number of Knesset members, the coalition is about to fall apart just because Avigdor Lieberman promised to break it up should the prime minister deal with the core issues pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Jerusalem, refugees, etc.) Meanwhile, Ehud Barak promised to join the opposition upon the publication of the second part of the Winograd Report.
The politicians and journalists forgave former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir after he signed a coalition agreement and then suggested to another Knesset member to “frame the agreement and hang it on the wall.” The journalists forgave former PM Menachem Begin after he promised to build a house in the Sinai and to “pack up my bags and go back home” should he be asked to evacuate communities in Camp David, and then proceeded to hand back the Sinai to Egypt. But now the politicians and journalists want Lieberman and Barak to stay true to their word “all the way.”
Political mess
There is no doubt, times have changed. The experience of recent years taught citizens, some politicians, and the media to demand credibility, credibility, and more credibility from our leaders. You promised? Now deliver!
It is very possible that both Lieberman and Barak are willing to take back their words and would enthusiastically support the words of an anonymous politician who once said: I’ve never regretted words unspoken. They both very likely regret the things they said.
The only way they may have been able to get out of it was to agree with the prime minister on a date for the next elections, say November 2008. However, it now looks like we’re headed for a political mess, in a country that has not known even one quiet day.
