Benjamin Netanyahu is
conducting a brutal election campaign: He depicts the Palestinians as a
cruel enemy and the continuation of the peace process as an existential
danger. He has put the clock back for many years.
His two rivals – Ehud
Barak and Yitzhak Mordechai – are afraid to denounce this brainwashing.
They hide the peace process, the Palestinians, the Oslo accords, the
life-work of Yitzhak Rabin.
This is the seed of
disaster. Long after this ugly and mendacious election campaign will be
forgotten, the fear of peace will dictate the action of the new
government - whoever may be in power.
But the
Israeli-Palestinian peace was and remains the foremost existential
interest of Israel, the guarantee of its future and the basis of its
security and well-being.
Gush Shalom, Ha’aretz, May
7, 1999