Israel: Sharon and Netanyahu --- Compare and Contrast

An article by The Jerusalem Post's Gil Hoffman questions Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's desire for peace and accuses him of being a student of the "Sharon school of thought".

It is a curious accusation. Netanyahu was critical of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's 2004 Engagement Plan. He not only vetoed the Gaza pull-out plan in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, but also submitted his resignation prior to the approval of the plan by the Parliament.

Recent events, however, have forced a reassessment. Sharon's spokesman Ra'anan Gissin has no doubts. He states that Netanyahu, like Sharon, moved to the center of the political map after becoming prime minister, formed a national-unity government, and is expected to approve a prisoner exchange with the Palestinians. He continues:

Those who claimed to be Sharon's successor failed because the tsunami waves that came after his disappearance were too much for them. The tragedy is that his fiercest critics such as Netanyahu turned out to be his real successors. Netanyahu hasn't formed a Kadima [Party], but he has realigned his own party in the Center to allow himself to make the decisions he has to make regarding the fate of the Palestinians.

Other Sharon advisers, however, have snubbed Netanyahu and do not put the two leaders in the same category. For instance, former Sharon strategist Lior Chorev says:

Netanyahu is now facing the same poison from extremist elements in his party that Sharon did from him, but without the leadership and courage that Sharon had.

The question is whether Netanyahu has the courage to understand that leadership has a price and will 'walk the walk' and not just 'talk the talk.' Bibi hasn't proven yet that he will do what he says. We are waiting to see if he will be a leader or a slave of his Likud.

Sharon's legislative adviser Oren Magnezy sees eye-to-eye with Chorev:

We will only see if [Netanyahu] has really changed if he takes on the settlers and his political base. When I believe he has made the leap into compromise, he will have to apologize to Sharon, but I don't think he has made that leap yet.

Israel: A Grand Construction Strategy, Step by Step

On Tuesday, after  the approval of 900 housing units in November and 700 new apartments in December, Israel's Jerusalem municipality approved the construction of a further four apartment buildings in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erakat responded, "We condemn this decision in the strongest language and we condemn the Israeli Government's continuing construction of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank....Netanyahu's government is talking about peace and negotiations in a way that is totally opposed to the reality on the ground where settlement activity is continuing."

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Stephan Miller, spokesman for Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, was far happier about the decision, "As far as the municipality is concerned, building can begin".

Power Politics in Palestine: A More Confident Fatah Today?

Following "positive" steps towards Egypt-Saudi Arabia-brokered peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and the State of Israel, sharper statements have started to come from the former against their rival party, Hamas.

Haaretz reports that, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior member of the Fatah movement, on Sunday dismissed Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal's remarks that the warring Palestinian factions were close to a deal for reconciliation. He said:

If Meshal means what he says, he should go to Egypt and announce his party's commitment to Palestinian reconciliation. We urge Hamas to sign it so that we begin implementing the agreement.

Israel Inside Line: Lieberman’s “Enough” Declarations
Israel-Palestine: Gideon Levy “The Time for Words is Over”

Meshal had already started his visit to Saudi Arabia as soon as he was briefed about Egypt's Israel-Palestine: Gideon Levy “The Time for Words is Over”"bridge" role reiterated by Israel and the Palestinian Authority following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Cairo. The best destination was Riyadh since it was the only country that could be involved in the process after Egypt. At a meeting with Saudi officials in Riyadh, Meshal said: "We achieved great strides towards achieving reconciliation. We are in the final stages now."

Besides, the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas stated in an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper on Sunday that the PA had "verified information" that Hamas was planning attacks in the West Bank:

They are pushing some people to carry out violent acts in the West Bank. But we won't allow anyone to sabotage our internal security.

Israel Inside Line: Lieberman's "Enough" Declarations

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Saturday roared at an ambassadors conference held at the Foreign Ministry. Referring to an interview with the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas who had said that unilateral IDF actions, including the killing of the three Palestinians, had caused him to reconsider the current joint security pact; Lieberman said: "We have paid enough. We have made many gestures and received nothing in return."

At the same conference, he implicitly targeted Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gaby Levy, who has been keeping a low profile not to increase tension between two allies and making efforts to mend ties between them. Lieberman said:

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The era of groveling is over. I have seen several ambassadors whose identification with the countries where they are posted is so great they are constantly trying to justify [to Israel] the other side's point of view. This stance is wrong. There should not be an attitude of groveling and self-effacement.

We will not look for friction and confrontation but we will also not turn the other cheek. For every action there will be a reaction and this is the policy I demand from the ambassadors.

On Sunday morning, Lieberman warned Abbas regarding his statement in the interview. He spoke to Israel Radio:

We've made a series of gestures to Abbas, including [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's policy speech at] Bar Ilan, the removal of West Bank roadblocks, the settlement construction freeze and allowing him to hold the Fatah conference in Bethlehem. We've made enough gestures.

[And yet] I have heard Abbas recently threatening to end security cooperation with Israel. He's the only one who would lose out from that, both personally and from the point of view of the PA.

Israel-Palestine: Gideon Levy "The Time for Words is Over"

Haaretz's Gideon Levy has written another powerful article on the peace process between Israel and Palestine,  criticising the Israeli government for talking and talking but taking no action:

Well, here we are. A new year begins at midnight, and for the Middle East, 2010 will be a year of negotiations. Peace envoys are warming up at the starting line, document writers are polishing draft agreements for the envoys, advisers are coming up with their own phraseology, pundits are piling up verbiage, photographers are aiming their cameras, and diplomats are packing their bags and sharpening their tongues. George Mitchell will be here soon, Benjamin Netanyahu has already been to Cairo, Mahmoud Abbas is on his way. In the end there will be a summit. In Washington they'll be elated, in Europe they'll be exhilarated, the settlers will fulminate and the leftists will somnambulate. Yet another scene in the theater of the absurd, another act in the endless grotesque burlesque. Here we are again: The season of negotiations is upon us, negotiations that amount to nothing.

Already the archives are bursting at the seams with plans and initiatives, outlines and parameters, all already thick with dust. Never before has there been so dangerous and so protracted a conflict with so many wars and so many peace plans. From the first Rogers Plan [named after the US Secretary of State William Rogers] of December 1969 to the second and third Rogers plans and up to the present, it's been a horrifyingly dreary tale of sterile diplomacy, a 40-year journey to nowhere.

Everything has already been written and all the plans are amazingly similar, which isn't surprising. If you want peace, just go to one of the drawers and randomly pluck out any of the plans, it really doesn't matter which, and start implementing it. And if you want a "peace process," you're invited to join the coming festivities, including the killer hangover.

One could, for example, pull the original Rogers Plan out of the mothballs. William Rogers himself has been dead for years, but everything is right there in his plan: withdrawal to the 1967 borders, recognition, sovereignty, peace. It was Israel that rejected it. Forty years on, and we are wallowing in the exact same spot. You want to be a little more up-to-date? Take Bill Clinton's plan - everything's there too. So why start off yet again on another campaign of tortuous language? Why do all the Uzi Arads [National Security Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu] and George Mitchells have to wear themselves out?

Benjamin Netanyahu has already undergone his "historic turnabout," he's reportedly ready to discuss, certainly discuss, the '67 borders, with territory swaps and security arrangements. Even the timetable has already been set - two years, of course it's two years, it's always two years, two years more. At the end, Israel's ultimate triumph will be declared: There's no partner. Again we'll hear that the Palestinian president is "a chicken with no feathers" or that the Palestinian leaders are "a gang of terrorists," and again we'll hear that there's no one to talk to.

There is no Palestinian partner, because there is no Israeli partner who is ready to take action. The day that Israel starts acting, together with the Palestinians, the partner will be there. Even Nelson Mandela wasn't the Mandela we know until he was freed from prison and South Africa was placed in his hands. He too refused to give up armed resistance for decades, but when he was given a true opportunity, he followed a path of peace. The key was in the hands of F.W. de Clerk, not those of Mandela. Israel, too, has that key. Now that it is no longer possible to halt everything because of terrorism, since there is almost none, Israel has lost one of its best weapons. When there is terrorism, one cannot act, and when there is no terrorism, there's no reason to act. But don't worry, it will be back, if nothing happens. The experience of the disengagement won't help either, because the continued imprisonment of the Gazans means that nothing has changed in their lives.

The last person to touch the dream was Ehud Olmert. Countless "excellent" meetings with Abbas, photo ops and bold speeches in abundance. Almost courage, nearly accord, a "shelf agreement" any minute now. Meanwhile, at the edge of the shelf are two lost wars and more settlement construction. All the fine words were rendered worthless by the action on the ground. Because this is the supreme test: It doesn't matter what the Israelis say, it matters what they do.

The time for words is over. Stop negotiating, start doing. Lifting the blockade on Gaza and declaring a perpetual freeze on building in the settlements would do more than a thousand formulations. Someone who wants two states doesn't build even one more balcony. This is the litmus test of Israel's true intentions. Without taking these steps, everything else is a waste of time, the time of the negotiators and of all of us. Does Netanyahu mean to take any of these steps? That is very doubtful, troublingly so.