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Photo: Haim Zach, GPO
Netanyahu. 'The best sales agent the people of Israel have had in the past generation'
Photo: Haim Zach, GPO
Eitan Haber

Netanyahu obsessed with being prime minister

Op-ed: Israeli leader doesn't want to control millions of Palestinians, but is unwilling to jeopardize his position as prime minister even if it jeopardizes the State of Israel's future.

Here's a personal, secret story: In the past few years, I have met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times for what is known in journalistic language as "background talks." Every time, I left these nighttime conversations with a sense of elation.

 

 

Lo and behold, the person who I first got to know in 1976 finally understands that actions speak louder than words. He is going through what Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert went through in that same Prime Minister's Office. Alongside the great responsibility they carried on their shoulders, they realized that songs may be good for the Beitar youth activities, and that from the Prime Minister's Office, on Jerusalem's Kaplan Street, things look completely different.

 

I left every conversation with Netanyahu with a deep feeling that the man understands his historical role very well and will lead the State of Israel to an execution of the "two states for two people" idea, which is the minimum that will allow us to live in this small and tumultuous island.

 

I shared my impression with some friends. One of them, former minister Haim Ramon, a veteran and experienced politician, kept mocking me every time I presented the news from the bureau of the Likud prime minister: "He's deceiving you, leading you on, lying to you without batting an eyelid."

Another friend told me at the time, "That's the exact reason why your friend Rolando Eisen hired him at the time as his sales agent at the Rim furniture company."

 

Netanyahu is the best sales agent the people of Israel have had in the past generation. He is capable of selling sunflower seeds to a nut and seeds' manufacturer and coffee packs to the Strauss food company.

 

Bibi's friend, Ronald Lauder, said several days ago on television that the Israeli prime minister is a "great communicator" and praised his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly. Lauder, an American, likely didn't pick this definition by chance. It was used in the past to describe President Ronald Reagan. He was called a "great communicator" in America, but as a person who had the honor – not the pleasure – to spend some time with the American president and remembers the cards written for him at the White House which he used to read from, I will cautiously write that I did not perceive the American president at the time as the messenger of wisdom on earth.

 

Netanyahu has definitely succeeded. The Israeli public opinion bought him, his character, his plans and his thoughts. He says exactly what the people think. Bibi's language is the language dominating the Israeli street today. He has managed to convince the people sitting in Zion that he, and only he, holds the key to the safe called "the citizens of the State of Israel."

 

The truth is that there are in fact two Bibi Netanyahus. One is realistic and understands what is going on around him and around us. He doesn't want to control millions of Palestinians under any circumstances, but – and this is where the second Netanyahu comes in – he is unwilling to jeopardize his position as prime minister even if it jeopardizes the future of the State of Israel at the moment, and some will say – even its existence.

 

The late Yitzhak Rabin once said, "For me, the premiership is an option, not an obsession." For Netanyahu – and even those surrounding him are under this impression – it's an obsession. Netanyahu is unprepared, by no means, to give up on the politician's suit in favor of the leader's suit. As someone once said, "A politician thinks about the next elections; a leader thinks about the next generations."

 

The recitation, the speech is the most important thing for Netanyahu. That's probably why he puts so much effort in communicating with the public he is communicated with. The public, I must admit, buys all these shticks and tricks.

 

At this stage, it seems, Netanyahu cannot see himself anywhere but in the prime minister's residence and is unable to imagine any other option apart from the premiership. The only alternative he may accept is being the president of the United States. It's possible that if you'll ask him about it, you'll receive a typical Jewish answer phrased as a question: Why not, actually?

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.22.14, 09:48
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