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What other explanation can there be for the prospect that in the coming
elections two monumental failures will face each other?
Barak and Netanyahu, Netanyahu and
Barak: two Prime Ministers who did not succeed in finishing even one
term in office, two politicians of many promises who have not succeeded
in fulfilling even one of them, who have broken everything they touched,
who have destroyed Israel’s greatest achievement of the last generation:
the beginning of reconciliation with the Palestinian people.
Seemingly, Netanyahu and Barak are
very different types. But a harder look reveals that these differences
are superficial, and underneath they are remarkably alike. Both are
alumni of the General Staff commando unit, both are narrow-minded
nationalists, both adore force, both view the Palestinians as an enemy
to be subdued. Neither of them is able to create a relationship of trust
with other people or to cooperate even with their own ministers. Both
can’t stand independent people near them and surround themselves with
obeisant yes-man.
A question arises: What’s wrong
with the Israeli society, if out of millions of citizens it cannot
produce any candidates but these two serial bunglers?
(Contrary to a Hebrew proverb,
there is no comfort in the trouble of others. The same question can be
posed in the US: What’s wrong with American society, if out of more than
two hundred million citizens it produces two candidates who are so
mediocre, so boring, that nobody really cares who will emerge victorious
from the present ridiculous muddle? Is there something in modern
democracy that prevents an astute person of integrity and vision from
rising to the top?)
About Netanyahu, more than enough
has been said. When we got rid of him, the whole country emitted a sigh
of relief. The masses that gathered spontaneously on the evening of
election day at Rabin Square in Tel-Aviv, in an unprecedented outburst
of joy, celebrated the victory of Barak less than the debacle of
Netanyahu – a final debacle, or so it seemed.
The possibility – some say, the
certainty – that this person will now return to power, carried by the
enthusiasm of the masses, Is an insult to the Israeli public. Something
is basically wrong. Maybe we need a national psychiatrist.
The case of Barak is more complex.
It can be summed up in three words: a work accident.
We bought him like the proverbial
cat in the bag. He was advertised as "the man who can beat Netanyahu."
That was enough for us. It can be said that Barak is Netanyahu’s
revenge.
Rumor had it that Barak had been an
excellent Chief-of-Staff. Nobody asked: Wait a minute, in what did he
excel? In what way was he superior to his predecessor or successor? Did
he, in all his term as C-o-C, do anything that left a mark – except
oppose the Oslo agreement?
Afterwards he started on a
political career. In this rather short time he did nothing to show any
promise. It was not even a term of internship; for him it was only a
time of waiting.
His election propaganda sounded
good. "Peace with security within (I have forgotten how many) months."
"Money for education and not for settlements". We wanted to believe. We
wanted to believe that he was Rabin’s successor. After all, like Rabin
he was a former Chief-of-Staff; Rabin, too, was a tough security-first
person; Rabin once gave orders to "break the bones" of Palestinians,
before he saw the light and became a determined peace-seeker.
We should have listened when,
before the elections, Barak promised the settlers of Ophra and Beth-El
would remain forever where they are. Ophra? Beth-El? Two concentrations
of the most extreme, fanatical settlers, in the middle of the West Bank.
They, forever? But we told ourselves that it was only another election
gimmick. Now we know that this was the only honest statement he made
throughout the election campaign. All the others were invented by his
spin-doctors, professionals whose job it is to translate the results of
public opinion polls into propaganda lies. This single statement
reflected his inner truth, much like his declaration after the elections
that he feels closer to Yitzhaq Levy, the chief representative of the
radical settlers in the Knesset, than to Yossi Sarid, his loyal
left-wing servant.
Barak is not a successor of Rabin,
but of a nearly-forgotten figure: Israel Galili, the guru of Golda
Me’ir, who founded the settlements in North Sinai, including the late
town of Yamit, as well as Gush Katif in the Gaza strip. Galili, more
than anyone else, pursued policies which led to the Yom Kippur war,
leaving thousands dead.
Barak pretended to be someone else.
We elected him by mistake and he destroyed the chances of peace. He did
not fulfil any of his other promises either (except the flight from
South Lebanon in the darkness of night, after he had supported the
"security zone" throughout his years as Chief-of-Staff.) Anyone who
still has hopes pinned on him needs to have his head examined.
Barak is a work accident, like
Benjamin Neyanyahu. Their place is at a reunion of commando veterans,
not in the Prime Minister’s office. There we need a leader of vision,
wisdom and talent.
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ua / hagalil.com /
05-11-2000 |
