In answer to Netanyahu’s continued emphasis on the economy, Sharon stated that an economic recovery program could not be fully implemented without an end to terrorism and the renewal of security for Israel. Here is where the problem begins.
Sharon basically stated that Yasser Arafat and the other Palestinian terrorists hold the key to Israel’s economic health. The problem is that Sharon has done nothing to take this key out of Arafat’s hands and return it to Israeli control.
Sharon has had two years to restore security. It alone is what he was elected to do. And while his close relations with the US government, his consigning the Labor party to irrelevancy, and his ability to convince the world not to deal with Arafat have been noteworthy and laudable, security is no better now than it was when he took office.
More people were killed in the month of March 2002 alone than in the entire combined terms of his two predecessors as Prime Minister, including the first four months of the current violence. In that one month, there were only 60 fewer dead than in the entire First Intifadah, which lasted close to six years. It took the Seder Night Massacre in Netanya, the single worst terrorist attack in Israel in the past 20 years, for the IDF to be turned loose on the “terrorist infrastructure” in Palestinian-controlled areas.
Ariel Sharon was a great general. He was a powerful cabinet minister who worked hard for thirty years in politics and 25 more in the army to make Israel what it is today, and he deserves much credit for his achievements. As Prime Minister, though, those achievements are hard to find beyond the three listed above.
Which brings us to Netanyahu. His response last night to Sharon’s security position is that one of the first tasks he will complete as prime minister is the expulsion of Yasser Arafat from Israel. In this, Netanyahu continues to shortsighted, ineffective, and even counter-productive diplomatic policies he pursued in his first term. Netanyahu the Great PR Guru should know that expelling Arafat will only serve to unleash him once again on world stages where he will be able to make his case before world leaders who are already not necessarily on Israel’s side. And while Arafat is gallivanting around talking up world leaders and convincing them of the Palestinian cause, the Palestinians on the street will become more convinced that he is their true leader. He will be as effective as he was from Tunis, and will eventually return to the same welcome he received in 1994.
Expelling Arafat will serve to defeat the aims of any security policy Netanyahu implements, just like Netanyahu’s signature on the Hevron and Wye agreements destroyed the security he worked hard to build up during his first term. The gains the Palestinians made in those two agreements have been used to bludgeon the Israeli population as terrorists now have more places to hide because of them.
Yasser Arafat is the most murderous man alive today. He has more Jewish blood on his hands than anyone since Hitler, and he should not be anywhere near Israel. Come to think of it, he should not be anywhere near people, period. Yasser Arafat, more than any other person alive today, deserves to be killed and his body disgraced publicly.
There are those who claim that doing so will only make Arafat a martyr. So be it. I would rather have him a dead martyr than a living terrorist or someone who gets other terrorists world sympathy. But even this claim is overly simplistic. If the Palestinian people are truly a nation, if they are truly interested in democratic norms and living in peace with their neighbors, then Arafat’s martyrdom will not last long. I use as an example the late Yitzchak Rabin.
Rabin was murdered for political motives, and was immediately cast as a martyr to all those who believed in left-wing extremism in Israel. Every leftist politician in the country claimed to be the true heir of Rabin’s legacy in pursuing peace, regardless of the fact that none of them actually have any clue what Rabin envisioned or how he was pursuing his aims.
But as the dream of Oslo was exploded by the reality of Oslo – that Israel’s left-wing was pursuing policies leading to the complete destruction of the country, the Rabin martyrdom that went with it has faded.
In fact, the closest leader of the left to Rabin’s policies has been Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who is also the most hawkish of the leftists. And he is foundering so badly in the Labor leadership race that Labor itself threatens to become irrelevant to a nation whose voters have already moved beyond Oslo and Rabin’s martyrdom to more realistic issues.
Netanyahu proved in 1996 that he was able to take a nation being hit by frequent bus bombings and other terrorist outrages and give it relative quiet in the short term. But he also proved that he has a distorted long-term vision of where this country should be diplomatically or defensively. It was that short-sightedness that allowed Ehud Barak to trounce him in 1999. It is that short-sightedness which has hamstrung every right-wing government between Begin and Sharon, and which Sharon has tentatively ended while losing sight of the immediate needs of the country.
And statements like last night’s in favor of expelling Arafat, threaten to return that short-sightedness unless Netanyahu can assume a more long-term vision of his aims. What is needed from the Arik and Bibi show is an alternative that can combine the long-term strategy of Sharon – banishing his external and domestic opposition to irrelevancy while at the same time currying international favor – with the short-term security Netanyahu provided during his term of office. Sadly, last night’s episode showed neither.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
