Stop Netanyahu now
Prime minister will keep saying ‘Yes’ to US unless Likud stops him
An odd sense of joy overwhelmed Likud ministers last week. They enthusiastically endorsed the prime minister’s construction freeze plan. The 500 apartments which Netanyahu and Barak gave to the settlers, in the wake of a long drought, were presented as an immense settlement achievement. Very quickly it turned out that we are dealing with construction adjacently to the security fence, right by the Green Line, yet the wave of excitement at Likud headquarters continued.
Ever since the Jabotinsky era, we have seen the embarrassing tradition of admiring chairmen to the point of adulation. Even Likud Knesset members whose body language conveyed a deep sense of gloom attempted to sound triumphant. Everyone said that it’s important to endorse Netanyahu.
Yet what’s there to endorse? In ideological terms, if we can even talk about Netanyahu and ideology in the same sentence, the man is already beyond the point of no return. A complete collapse. Any connection between his past principles and his current actions is completely coincidental.
The notion of reciprocity for example; that same old catchy and sanctified notion from the previous decade. What has remained of it? Mahmoud Abbas gave Netanyahu a big fat nothing for the past six months, and in exchange got a pledge for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Throughout the summer, the Palestinian leader did not bother to meet with our PM, yet he was still granted a deep construction freeze.
Netanyahu finds it difficult to stay committed even to his up-to-date principles as presented in the Bar-Ilan speech. He pledged to allow natural growth in Judea and Samaria, yet now he coordinates the construction of every new balcony with US special envoy Mitchell. Even in the most difficult days of the Ottoman Empire we did not see such scandalous conduct.
Netanyahu fan club
Our founding fathers built this country in the face of much graver geopolitical realities and were not scared off by demographic problems. At the time, there was an overwhelming Muslim majority between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, as we recall.
The Netanyahu fan club explains that the freeze is a logical compromise by a responsible leader. This fan club has also been repeating the worn cliché whereby we must not be the side that refuses, and it’s better that the Arabs be the ones to refuse. The problem is that so far we always say “Yes,” the Arabs always say “No,” and our situation has only deteriorated.
Sweden and Norway have become more anti-Semitic since the Bar-Ilan speech. Rahm Emanuel has become as hungry and demanding as he was before the speech. His boss and he are already preparing for the next pressure campaign. They estimate that Netanyahu will not reject them, and they are apparently getting it right.
So complacent Likud members, please make a note of the following: Netanyahu is mentally capable of bringing you back to the 1967 borders. Yes, in Jerusalem as well. Three months ago he sang the “two-state vision” tune in line with Obama’s flute, and now he is even freezing construction in Ma'aleh Adumim. Tomorrow he’ll give up all the rest.
If you don’t tell him “No” as early as possible, he will continue to only say “Yes.”
