NETANYAHU WOULD BE A DISASTER FOR A PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI PEACE PACT
AT A TIME WHEN A NEW U. S. PRESIDENT WILL ACTIVELY SUPPORT A “TWO STATE SOLUTION” TO THE MIDDLE EASTERN STALEMATE, IT WOULD WRONG TO HAVE A MAN LIKE NETANYAHU IN OFFICE.
The political milieu in Israel is confusing at best and chaotic to most people who view it from outside the country, especially those of us in the U. S. that has only two parties and while there are factions within both parties here, in Israel “factionality” is a way of life.
There were over 100 political parties participating in the most recent election in one way or another, however, the major contenders for control of the Knesset consist of five parties—Kadima [28], Likud [27], Yisrael Beiteinu [15], Israeli Labour [13] and Shas [11] along with the number of seats they captured in the race.
The Knesset has 120 seats and the great challenge is for one of the major parties to entice a sufficient number of minority parties to join with them to acquire a majority of the 120 seats and thus to form a new government.
This is a crucial election for the Mid-East Peace Process. The U. S. finally has a president who will deal with the two belligerent parties in a fair and equitable manner which is something George Bush never did. In fact, for seven of the eight years he occupied the White House, he ignored the Middle East and its overabundance of conflicts that could ignite into a major war at any time.
Like most Americans I have supported Israel, but I have also been extremely critical of those Israeli governments that expanded settlements on the West Bank, that built a massive fence similar to the “Great Wall” that literally appropriated land from Palestinians, divided churches from their membership, farmers from their land, and established enough “check points” along the border for workers employed in Israel, students who attend school there and shoppers to be forced to go through an absurd labyrinth symbolic of the contempt with which many Israelis feel for the Palestinians.
Ehud Olmert, the outgoing Prime Minister has failed his country, betrayed himself and was a major disappointment to many of us in the U. S. who had unwarranted faith in the man and his ability to finally bring peace to the region.
After his government’s invasion deep into the intestines of Gaza, the army’s killing of eleven hundred (1100) citizens and injuring another two thousand, nine hundred sixty four (2,964) out of a population of 409,680 according the 2006 census appeared to much of the world to be a blunder of gargantuan proportions. Only thirteen (13) Israeli’s were killed.
There is absolutely no doubt that the persistent launching of small, short ranged rockets by Hamas from Gaza while doing very little damage and killing few Israeli citizens, encouraged Olmert and his cabinet to make one final effort to silence the madness that so often spews out of the mouths of Hamas’ leaders.
In fact, the Olmert cabinet made a major error. They went too far, killed and wounded too many Palestinians and gave the broader and less sympathetic world another reason to hate Jews.
After the election of Obama, Israel felt that the new president would not support their efforts to restrain Palestinians and specifically, suppress the delusions of the leaders of Hamas that their government will be capable of surviving very much longer in the conditions in which their people are forced to live, or that they have any chance of driving Israel into the ocean.
I simply do not see even the Arab leaders most sympathetic to their cause such as Iran’s president Mamoud Ahmadinejad, Syria, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and varied and sundry al Qaeda groups coming to their aid. The price is too high and the success of such a venture, improbable.
It is the Palestinian government and Hamas in particular that should be objects of the fury of the Israeli people for the suicide bombers, the rockets and the other examples of aggression they have endured, not the Palestinian people who are among the most abandoned peoples on earth.
On the other hand, Israel has always extended the fist of anger rather than the open palm of friendship. They have few leaders in recent times that fought hard for peace.
Yahweh was extremely clear that for Israel to keep the title, “the Chosen People,” they must live by the laws of God. To fail to do so would bring down a heavy penalty. Much of the chaos the Israeli people have endured for these many years is a result of their failure, or their government’s failure to give life to the laws of Yahweh, especially those who think of themselves as “the Chosen”.
This election is an opportunity to do just that. America has elected a new president who will bring a new sense of fairness and justice to the table when he pursues the Middle Eastern peace. Bush was detached from the peace process. He was so blatantly prejudice toward Israel that he alienated many of our friends in the region and the remainder of the world. Obama will not side with either party as long as they are sincere about their interest in bringing peace and pursuing a two-state solution. The president openly supports a two-state solution; Israel’s more right wing parties are opposed.
In view of Obama’s participation in the peace process, the selection of a new Prime Minister is crucial if peace is ever to come.
To that end, the worse thing that Shimon Peres could do is to anoint Benjamin Netanyahu, of the right- wing Likud party, as the person to attempt to form a new government.
It is reported by the Associated Press on February 20, 2009 that Netanyahu has picked up the endorsement of an unidentified anti-Arab politician which AP’s Steven Gutkin predicts will ensure Netanyahu the Prime Minister’s job.
The news services carried the story on February 19 that Avigdor Lieberman head of Yisrael Beiteinu a minority party winning only 16 seats in the next Knesset called on Peres to choose Netanyahu as the man to form a new government.
The top vote getter was the Kadima Party under the leadership of Tzipi Livni who many see as the logical new leader of the country. She was, after all, the top vote getter—not by much but by enough and her position on “land for peace” rings true with many American Jews would believe the state of Israel made a terrible mistake in devastating Gaza simply because, as many believe, they feared that Obama would not be as supportive as Bush in the efforts on the part of many right wingers in the country not to abandon any of their precious “Holy Land” for peace or any other logical reason.
Ahmad Tibi, Chairman of the United Arab List-Ta’al faction said that he “still waiting to hear President Peres make a moral statement against Chairman Lieberman (which Tibi labels a fascist) and his Yisrael Beiteinu Party.
My opinion of Netanyahu has been formed over many years:
Ø Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to expand settlements on the very land set aside by the United Nations for the new Palestinian state. To provoke the rest of the world because of a very small segment of the Israeli population that believes that they reside on “the Holy Land,” and that they were appointed by Yahweh as the keeper of the land is a myth, the real world can no longer tolerate.
Ø For Israel’s president, Shimon Peres to tap the leader of the Likud Party the very party that Ariel Sharon left because they were too adamant on the issue of a Palestinian state and even less compromising when the issue of “land for peace” was the subject of the peace process. Sharon formed the Kadima Party for the purpose of allowing Israel to have a softer face to the world on the issue that has dominated the Middle East since 1948.
Ø Netanyahu will only be able to form a government with a coalition even more conservative, or right-wing than his own antiquated views.
Ø And last but not least, Netanyahu is the darling of America’s Christian Right, which by the way, is no longer the force they once were because their ideology was to conflict-ridden that the country was on the brink of a real war of religious contradictions. Netanyahu may have the support of the religious right, but the religious right is one of Obama’s major enemies and will fight him on every social issue he pursues.
Ø
John Dewey wrote these words that appear to me to sum up the problem the new Prime Minister will be forced to face with a population of older Israelis who are clinging to the antiquated view of history and the world. That is why Shimon Peres must be particular cautious in choosing the person he selects to attempt to form a new government. Many Israelis are tired of war, of extreme taxation to pay for the war, of the insecurity and anxiety that conflict engenders; the Palestinians are also tired of war, poverty, homelessness forced on them by the leaders of these two countries who would rather save their own asses in the political arena rather than to muster the courage to bring peace. American Jews, Jews from around the world and the world at large is getting impatient with the childishness with which the politicians continue to play the game gotcha.”
Hear the words of John Dewey:
“Old ideas give way slowly; for they are more than abstract logical forms and categories. They are habits, predispositions, deeply engrained attitudes of aversion and preference.”
It takes leadership to change the habits, to redefine or give new meaning to words and perceptions of history that long ago outlived their value and validity, and have finally arrived at the juncture where the time has come to reframe the aversions and the preferences that keep people from seeking peace at the price of continuing hostilities.
12:14:10 PM 
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