Israel: Livni Challenges Prime Minister Netanyahu's 100 Days

In Israel, the Netanyahu Government has concluded its first 100 days with the claim that it has "broad national consensus" for its concept of a two-state solution. Some, however, are still to be convinced.

Tzipi Livni, the head of the opposition Kadima Party, laid out the challenge:

The prime minister still does not really believe that this is the right path for Israel but he understands that this is the right thing to say… Netanyahu doesn't really believe that two states, a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, even a demilitarized one, is an Israeli interest… But the prime minister was surprised to encounter the outside world and placed Israel, to my great sorrow, in the position of the party that is rejecting peace and then he understood that at this stage he needs to utter the words "two states".

Speaking to Army Radio, Livni called Netanyahu’s new-found support for a two-state solution  “the height of hypocrisy”:

Everything this government does is superficial… When the public looks at Bibi, it understands that he is playing with words, that there is no process here… This is a government that is trying to survive, that zigzags, that is not dealing with the financial crisis.

To some extent, of course, Livni's position stems from domestic political calculations. The more ground that the Netanyahu Government gives because pressure from the Obama Administration, the better placed Livni will be within the context of a Washington-led settlement. If progress is slow, which is what the Obama Administration is also expecting, the Kadima leader's challenge will be even more important for the US. So Livni, having lost to Netanyahu in March, may already be plotting her domestic and international revenge.

Comments

[William Josephs]

Greetings,

I am a non-Orthodox American Jew. I have been to Israel on extended stays three times. I care deeply about Israel. As a student of history, I am fully aware of our triumphs and sadness, especially in the shadow of the British. However, they did not have to do that much to stir Arab hatred, as shown by the massacres at Hebron, Etzion, the Arab alliance with Hitler, the attacks upon us in 1948, and on and on.

We do not teach our children to hate but we know that countless Moslem Arabs do. They have not observed our treaties and they have bombed us repeatedly, so full of hatred and indoctrinated so early in their lives that their own lives are seen as meaning nothing. In psychology, we call these types "bad hysterics." Ever ready to yell and scream about all things external, insightless about themselves.

The wall, however sinister it is portrayed, has saved Jewish lives. We have made mistakes; the worst in Lebanon (how could our intelligence failed us so completely?). However, our future will be insecure by giving in to hate-filled, irrational, Moslem Arab religious zealots. Hezbollah and Hamas, even if weakened, will seize any opportunity to attack us if we turn over the West Bank. In the best of circumstances, (and doubtfully ever accomplished) they could not be trusted to yield to Jordanian oversight.

They will send rockets, just as they did from Lebanon and Gaza. Their hatred is so intense that they are happy to defeat themselves, as for example, destroying the hot houses we left them that earned a substantial amount of money. Instead of establishing a huge beach resort, with untold support from all point, they chose hatred. As a further measure of how they will act, just look at their behavior amongst themselves. Misogyny and murder, revenge carried on for generations; this is at the core of the identity of more than 70% of Arabs, mostly Moslems. Yes we have alienated the others who under better circumstances, would as in the past, gladly have worked for us. They kvetch loudly because they are terrified to acknowledge that this is is the position in which their Moslem brothers have placed them.

The problem is that much of their mentality is of victimhood; not from their own people, although you can be sure that when Egypt occupied Gaza, they were repressed and oppressed.

So Netanyahu is doing what he can to protect Israeli's. I voted for Obama and believe that all of the machinations we see are like Kabuki Theater, so that Moslems can for the moment, feel some acknowledgment. But an individual as brilliant as you must realize that (especially today) they will never be satisfied until Israel no longer exists. I know there are people who would go back to the 1966 borders. What a poor idea. They will never be satisfied.

We have an expression here that must have an equivalent is Israel. "You want to see where you're going, look where you've been." We know how Arab Moslems behave; we've been there (done that). Look how oppressed the Christians have been in recent years. That's what they do; and they want world domination. (How sad that we Americans enabled the Afghani's to defeat the Soviets. There never would have been a Taliban and Alqaida would have been very weak.)

I know that Israeli's are weary from permanent war. However, there is no "two state solution," only two states. And ours would be gravely endangered with only more difficult war.

I know you would like to be PM. I've been impressed with you. But don't think Arab Moslems will be placated. There is too much at stake.

With appreciation and respect,

William Josephs, Ph.D.