Netanyahu is, of course, an extreme rightist himself. But he likes to pose as a moderate, responsible, mature statesman. The moderates served as his alibi.
The new Likud has nothing to do with the original "revisionist" party that was its forerunner. The founder of the party some 85 years ago, Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky, an Odessa-born and Italian-educated journalist and poet, was an extreme nationalist and very liberal democrat. He invented a special Hebrew word ("Hadar") for the ideal Jew he envisioned: just, honest, decent, a hard fighter for his ideals but also magnanimous and generous towards his adversaries.
If Jabotinsky could view his latest heirs, he would be revolted. (He once advised Menachem Begin, one of his pupils, to jump into the river Vistula if he did not believe in the conscience of mankind.)
JUST BEFORE the Likud primaries, Netanyahu did something incredible: he made an agreement with Lieberman to combine their two election lists.
Why? His election victory already seemed assured. But Netanyahu is a compulsive tactician without a strategy. He is also a coward. He wants to play safe. With Lieberman, his majority is as sound as Fort Knox.
But what is going to happen within the fortress?
Lieberman, now No. 2, will pick for himself the most important and powerful ministry: defense. He will wait patiently, like a hunter for his prey. The joint faction will be much closer in spirit to Lieberman than to Netanyahu. Lieberman, the cold calculator, will wait until Netanyahu is compelled by international pressure to make some concessions to the Palestinians. Then he will pounce.
This week we saw the prelude. After the UN overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a state, Netanyahu "retaliated" by announcing his plan to build 3,000 new homes in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, the inevitable future capital of Palestine.
He emphasized his determination to fill up the area called E1, the still empty space between West Jerusalem and the giant settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim (which alone has a municipal area larger than Tel Aviv). This would in effect cut off the northern West Bank from the southern part, apart from a narrow bottleneck near Jericho.
World reaction was stronger than ever before. Undoubtedly encouraged behind the scenes by President Obama, the European countries summoned Lieberman's ambassadors to protest the move. (Obama himself is far too cowardly to do so himself.) Angela Merkel, usually a mat under Netanyahu's feet, warned him that Israel risked being totally isolated.
If Merkel thinks that this would intimidate Netanyahu or the Israelis at large, she is vastly mistaken. Israelis actually welcome isolation. Not because it is "splendid", as the British used to think, but because it confirms again that the entire world is anti-Semitic, and not to be trusted. So, to hell with them.
WHAT ABOUT the other parties? I almost asked: what parties?
In Israeli politics, with their dozens of parties, what really count are the two blocs: the rightist-religious and the ... well, the other one.
There is no "leftist" bloc in Israel. Leftism is now, like Oscar Wilde's homosexuality, "the love that dares not speak its name." Instead, everybody claims now to be "in the center."
A seemingly small matter aroused much attention this week. Shelly Yachimovich's Labor party has terminated its long-standing "spare votes" agreement with Meretz, and made a new one with Ya'ir Lapid's "There is a Future."
In the Israeli electoral system, which is strictly proportional, great care is taken that no vote is wasted. Therefore, two election lists can make a deal in advance to combine the leftover votes that remain to them after the allocation of the seats, so that one of them can obtain another. In certain situations, this additional seat can be decisive in the final division between the two major blocs.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
