Jay H. Ell is depressed over the 2015 Israeli election results. Mostly, he is in a catatonic state over the behavior of the probable next Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, who has by sheer dint of personality projected himself as the face of Israel. In addition Netanyahu has thrust himself into the international limelight as the representative of all Jews. The only comfort Jay H. Ell can take is that opposition to him and all he represents is alive and well in and outside of Israel.
All this begs the question as to why he is so despondent at the outcome of a highly democratic process, which in and of itself, is a beacon of enlightenment in the Middle East region. Is Jay H. Ell overreacting to the whole situation especially bearing in mind that he is the first to argue that Israel is a victim of double standards in a world where antisemitism is on the rise? (Blogs: “Evil - Isis and Hamas, World Hypocrisy and Anti - Semitism”, "The Caliphate,Sharia Law, Hamas,Isis or IS , Israel, Europe, War Crimes, Alma Aladdin, (George Clooney’s Wife), and Alice in Wonderland” and “Abbas and Arafat the Same DNA - So Let’s Get Real”).
LEADERSHIP, NETANYAHU AND FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTERS
Leadership, as Bibi Netanyahu well knows, is crucial as to the direction a country takes and to history itself. Bibi has made no bones about the fact that he sees himself as Churchill who undoubtedly saved the world from fascism and was the figure of the twentieth Century. Netanyahu fantasizes himself as the savior of Israel and Western Civilization against Islamic expansionist fundamentalism. (Blog: “Iran: Bibi’s Churchillian Fantasy and Obama’s Lack of Transparency”).
Netanyahu is a member of a unique and prestigious group of Prime Ministers who have served Israel. While these often represented opposite poles of Israeli politics no one ever accused any of them of ever putting their own political ambitions ahead of Israel’s best interests. Jay H. Ell will argue that Netanyahu has just done that methodically and with malice of forethought. It is harsh criticism that Jay H. Ell is directing at Netanyahu as it can be argued that to a lesser or greater extent all political leaders have to have an unflinching confidence in their own abilities and vision. So the burden is to argue why Netanyahu differs from his predecessors.
Israel’s former Prime Ministers from Ben - Gurion to Begin, Golda Meier to Sharon, Peres, Barak and Rabin to Shamir all were true to establishing a peaceful Israel and never ever gave up the covenant of the deal that lead to the founding of Israel - a two State solution. This they did in spite of provocation and in a far more hostile Arab world than exists today. They were ever mindful of the assistance they were receiving from whomever and more recently, both in the political and financial arenas from America. It is not an exaggeration to argue that without the United States Israel would not be in the powerful position today which, incidentally, Netanyahu feels is powerful enough to kick the US in the teeth.
IRAN, NETANYAHU AND HIS PROTECTOR AMERICA
No other Prime Minster has been so deliberatively and consistently provocative and dismissive of an American Administration as Netanyahu. He has run against the American President in the United States, twice, and for his own objectives has antagonized him to the extent that Obama is no longer meeting with him or his duplicitous Ambassador. All this the Israeli Prime Minister has done while asking and receiving massive additional aid for Israel’s dome defense and munitions in its recent war against Hamas. This aid was accompanied by political support where the POTUS argued what is Israel supposed to do when rockets rain down on them? That political support was extended into the biased courts of world organizations. In short Netanyahu expected America to do what was right while he did what suited him regardless of how he embarrassed the American administration and made them look ridiculous. To the criticism of his actions Netanyahu replied to the effect that it was easy to mend relationships but he had to lead on Iran.
To effect his aims he thus openly attacked the American Administration accepting again an invitation to address Congress on the danger of any deal with Iran. He, admittedly in an eloquent fashion, said nothing new and then used that address on his election website confirming, what had been alleged all along, that this whole production was a political stunt.
Netanyahu has every right to have fears on a future Iranian accord, which is shared by half the Arab world, the whole free world, the whole of the American Congress and even Jay H. Ell, (Blog: "Iran: What is Obama Thinking?"), but he should have shared his doubts with the US Commander in Chief and the other negotiating countries in private. He would have not have been the first Israeli PM to have disputes with the American President but all have disbursed their doubts behind closed doors.
NETANYAHU’S ELECTION CAMPAIGN
IRAN
The Israeli Premier called this election two years earlier than scheduled as he was having trouble governing. (Blog: “Netanyahu Is the Issue in Crucial Israeli Elections”).He fired two key Coalition Ministers from his Cabinet and proceeded on the basis that he and his Likud Party would gain an unassailable position at the hustings. His strategy would be Israel’s security and the Iranian threat. The fact is that his security personnel, almost to a man, believed that his Iranian assessments were wrong, and cautioned against his Congress speech as this would hamper relationships with the Obama administration. More significantly they did not share their Commander in Chief’s urgency with regard to Iran and implicitly were counseling a waiting attitude in connection with the ongoing negotiations. His security personnel felt so strongly on this issue that they wrote an open letter to the Premier signed by over a 100 former employees exhorting him not to proceed. Later they lead anti - Netanyahu rallies. Their concern was reportedly shared by the Israeli Generals.
It is history that Netanyahu defied his Security experts on the Iranian security situation. Presumably he had read Boris Johnson’s recent Churchill biography where it was recalled that the British Prime Minister, while in the shower, had boomed to his son Randolph, that the strategy to win the war was to involve America. So that is exactly what Bibi set out to do, regardless of the consequences.
THE ARABS
Bibi’s initial Iranian Security policy to win the election had gone awry and it was beginning to look like that gamble had come unstuck. The Zionist party of Herzog and Livni were giving him a run for his money. What is more the electoral turnout was forecast to be on the low side as the right were not fully motivated.The Iran ploy had not done the trick so the Churchill wannabe pulled another rabbit out of his racist hat. This time it was the Arabs. He frightened his right wing out of their nooks and crannies by giving them code that the Arabs were taking over Israel via the ballot box. He raved on that the left wing NGO’s were bringing the Arabs to the ballot boxes by the busload. Thus rather than reflect what a true democracy Israel was and that all sectors have the franchise, an argument often used by him under different circumstances, he appealed to the basest of instincts to arouse his uninspired following.
THE PALESTINIAN STATE
The Arab scare wasn’t enough to shake his disillusioned base out of their stupor so he broke the covenant and pledged that there would not be a Palestine State as long as he was in power. The very raison d’être of Israel’s moral position, a two state solution, was to be sacrificed on the altar of Bibi’s ambition. Now Hamas and Abbas have not exactly been cooperative of late and the prospect of an arrangement is not exactly imminent but if you want to own the high ground and claim to be the civilized party this is not the way to go.
This had to be the last straw for the exasperated Obama administration that spend much of their political capitol defending the concept that a two state solution cannot be foist on Israel as it has to be negotiated. Now Bibi says he doesn’t want one so why bother? Let slip the dogs and let the United Nations impose one. What will follow is sanctions and boycotts and self righteous indignation. Bibi will scream it is not fair. It isn’t but what is?
WHAT WAS BIBI THINKING IT WOULD ALL LEAD TO?
What Bibi was thinking that anything but anything must be done and said to win the election. He would sort it all out later. And so he did within two days. He said that he didn’t say what he said. The Washington Post headlined, “Backtracking, Netanyahu Says He Wants a Two- State Solution”. Bibi baldly maintained, “I don’t want a one - state solution. I want a sustainable peaceful two - state solution. But for that circumstances have to change”. The “circumstances” are changes in the region’s political and security landscape. Bibi forgot what he said two days earlier and blamed the failure of peace negotiations on Hamas who was a terrorist organization and the Palestinians who would not recognize the Jewish State. He didn’t even bother to say he had been “misunderstood”.
Meanwhile Obama was having none of it, having thrown away all pretense at one way civility, he initially did not even bother to even congratulate the Premier on his triumph. A WhiteHouse spokesperson, Josh Earnest, commented that Netanyahu’s announcement was “deeply concerning”. Netanyahu’s statements undermined the values and democratic ideals that are an important part of what binds America to Israel, Obama’s official argued.
Other reports, quoting anonymous sources, claim that the US Administration are contemplating backing a UN resolution to end the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and impose conditions to ending it.
You cannot have it both ways Bibi. You cannot claim to be the paragon of virtue and then behave like the other side and maintain, like they do, that the Palestinians have no right to exist as a State. Bibi’s retraction was a joke. Who can now believe anything the self appointed messiah says?
So the Israelis and all those who support Israel’s right to exist are left with Netanyahu as their spokesperson. All the depressed can do is cross their fingers that there is still a way to go before he actually gains the premiership.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
* Israel’s standing in America, generally, has taken a knock but sentiment is still very much in favor. Imposing a solution to the Palestinian - Israeli impasse might create more problems than it solves as the Palestinians are hopelessly divided and up until today they would only accept, what Netanyahu wanted two days ago, a single state. The Congress, although the Democrats are still seething at what they saw as an insult to their President, are still sympathetic to Israel’s cause.
* Bibi’s international credibility has to be rock bottom. He has given the Palestinians the opportunity, which they have already seized upon, to claim the high ground. Their chief negotiator took no time to broadcast to the world. “That we told you so and that we accept Israel’s right to exist”. He can easily say later that isn’t what he meant as there is precedent for that type of thing.
* Iran is still looming large on the horizon and the way the cookie crumbles will have a bearing on the whole outcome. Obama holds all the cards. He can walk away from a “bad” deal and say he tried. If he gets a deal that he can justify he becomes incredibly powerful and Kerry can collect the Peace Prize as Barak has his already. On the other hand if the deal sucks Obama is in for a rough house and Bibi will be forgiven.
* If Iran turns sour on the Republicans they will abandon Bibi as surely as they embraced him. Addressing Congress as the maven on the subject can be a two edged sword if it turns out you were talking rubbish.
* All this mess was so unnecessary. Was it so important for Bibi to become Premier that he complicated the already complicated issue?
* Now if Netanyahu had stayed at home and not spouted all that trash the bones and all the polls said that he would have not been Prime Minister. Then about half of Israel would have been ecstatic and Jay H. Ell would have not been depressed. Herzog would have been welcomed everywhere as a light at the end of the Hamas tunnels. The latter’s line on Iran is exactly the same as BIBI’s except he would have minded his own business and listened to his Generals and Security people and let the Iran and six nation talks play out. He too would have not sold Israel down the river and would have made it much harder for Abbas and Hamas to duck talks. Life would have been far less complicated for everybody.
That is why Jay H. Ell is catatonically depressed about the election outcome in Israel.
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