First came Limor Livnat, claiming that the unilateral disengagement plan “goes against everything I was brought up to believe”, and then in the same breath announcing her support for it. As Education Minister, Livnat should be giving far more weight to core beliefs, values systems, and education. Instead, she flippantly paid lip service to the education she received and then flamboyantly turned her back on all the values she was taught, preferring instead to step into line behind a still-powerful locomotive of a Prime Minister.
Next came Binyamin Netanyahu, finally allowing the other shoe to drop and declaring once and for all that he does support Sharon’s plan. Two weeks ago, he placed three conditions on his support, and now that they have all been met, Netanyahu erased yet another line dividing him from the political center, where deals rather than values guide decision-making.
And today, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom abandoned the position he had staked out as the Likud’s most right-wing senior minister. After Netanyahu’s declaration yesterday, though, it is not surprising that Shalom also fell in line. What it shows is that Shalom is still far too weak to make up his own mind about serious policy issues and must leave those decisions to others wiser than himself.
Which brings us back to Netanyahu. He has long been regarded as a cunning politician. For the past three years, he has bided his time, waiting for the opportunity to present itself when he could convincingly reclaim the party that was once his. With unilateral disengagement, Sharon presented him a glittering opportunity though, and Netanyahu failed to grasp it. What is more, Netanyahu – once the master public relations guru – sounded downright nonsensical in explaining his reasoning today.
On Israel Radio’s English news broadcast this evening, Netanyahu sought to explain that, “If you were an Ariel resident 48 hours ago, you had to have been concerned not just for your community, but that your very home would be destroyed. You would have looked at the residents of Gush Katif and said that the same thing could happen to me. Today that is not the case, and I regard that as a great achievement.”
Six months ago, the residents of Gush Katif were as secure in their homes as the residents of Ariel. No Jewish citizen of Israel was worried that the Israeli government would drive them from their homes. And certainly, no one dreamed that Binyamin Netanyahu would support such an idea.
Now, however, Netanyahu has been given a promise by Ariel Sharon that the community of Ariel will remain a part of Israel, and in return, Netanyahu has agreed that Gush Katif can be abandoned and destroyed.
Netanyahu claims as an achievement that Ariel residents can sleep easier tonight. But the 7500 residents of Gush Katif must now fight tooth and nail for their very homes. Rather than viewing that as a national tragedy, Netanyahu has given up their hope, preferring the residents of Ariel over them. The immense loss that the abandonment of Gush Katif represents is a loss greater than his supposed achievement in Ariel.
For the past 35 years, the Likud has led the nation in championing the settlement enterprise all over the country. Under their leadership, the residents of Ariel, like those of Gush Katif and all other areas of Judea and Samaria, have become national pioneering heroes, covering the Jewish heartland with Jewish communities and ensuring that at least a good portion of it will never be abandoned to Arab hands. Last week, even President George Bush granted them this victory.
But Sharon has turned his back on all that. And one by one, Likud ministers are following suit. What was once – not so long ago – the party of national pride, honor, and achievement, is today exercising left-wing policy where no left-wing government would ever be able to manage.
Likud voters must beware of the constellation now arrayed against them. There are none among the senior leadership of that party who can legitimately claim to be the heir of the Likud’s underpinning ideology. The senior level of the party is now made up of opportunists and left-wingers in the guise of nationalists.
The Jewish tribe of Binyamin was symbolized by a wolf. The Likud’s very forefather, Vladimir Jabotinsky, was called Binyamin Zeev – Benjamin the wolf. Netanyahu, it seems, is following closely in the image of a wolf – a wolf in Likud clothing.
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
