But this is panic talking, not intelligence. In 1992, it was an election year. Had the government of the day not fallen, it would have faced elections a scant four months later, and the result would have been the same. Additionally, in 1992, the Prime Minister was determined based on which party had the most Members of Knesset elected. Even had all six right-wing parties united, and garnered ten seats, Labor still had 12 seats more than the Likud. Yitzchak Rabin would have become Prime Minister in any case.
By 1999, the Netanyahu government had violated the policies upon which it was elected. Netanyahu promised in the 1996 election campaign to continue the Oslo process only if security for Israel's citizens was assured, and if he received reciprocity from the PLO. Yet he signed the Wye Agreement, and implemented its first stage, while terrorist attacks were taking place at the very same time. Two Israelis were murdered near Moshav Ora while negotiations were ongoing at the Wye Plantation, and a soldier was beaten to within an inch of his life immediately prior to its implementation.
Prime Minister Netanayhu needed to fall for this reason. The assurances he received in the Hevron Agreement have yet to be actualized, and reciprocity has still not been achieved. The integrity of the Land of Israel has been threatened, and this is something that should be neither tolerated nor even considered by any Jew who values a Jewish presence in Israel. Inasmuch as Netanyahu allowed this threat to remain, he did not deserve the continued support of Jews who remain loyal to the Jewish State in the Land of Israel.
These fear mongers believe with all their fear that Barak will win. In that case, they will blame Ichud Haleumi. But I will still thank them. For despite the fact that Barak is a far worse alternative for Prime Minister than even Netanyahu, there is something that the blamers are failing to recognize.
The Israeli political climate is shifting sharply and steadily to the left. If, as expected, the current trend continues, the left would have a much easier time winning the election that had been scheduled for only next year than they are having now. For, in another 18 months, who knows how far this shift can progress. We already have one party, whose entire existence is based on spewing hate toward anything religious or Jewish in Israel, and this party is receiving 6 seats in the polls. We have another, that has made a history of supporting every self-hating Jew in the country, that consistently wins nine or ten seats. And otherwise intelligent people continue to vote for these parties.
The other effect of the recent fall of the government is that what remains of the Israeli right has united and strengthened. What was the smallest and weakest party in the outgoing Knesset, and a few straggling ideologues in some heretofore ideological parties, have now coalesced into one strong, ideologically sound party, whose policy is clear, and which has rejected the divisive politics of blame which are the worst feature of Israel's culture.
Let no one think that a two-member party and a couple of stragglers brought down the government. This government collapsed on itself. The Likud voted its own government out of existence because it has lost its own ideological underpinnings. The National Religious Party contributed to this collapse by giving Netanyahu a parliamentary blank cheque to reach whatever agreement he could at Wye. The NRP, suffering from an ideological identity crisis within its own ranks, can no longer stand strong to Netanyahu's right, as they pledged to do in the 1996 campaign.
It is only with a strong, united, ideologically-driven, and values-guided party -- one that is not afraid to make the necessary decisions, no matter how difficult, in order to defend their principles and the Land of Israel for the People of Israel and the Torah of Israel -- that Binyamin Netanyahu can be made to withstand the pressure and temptation to seek the solution of least resistance.
And that is what it all boils down to. Those laying blame are, in their own way, seeking the path of least resistance. In their minds, Netanyahu's abandonment of Israeli territory is better, somehow, to Barak's abandonment of Israeli territory. The path of least resistance leads these blamers to forget that ANY abandonment of the Land constitutes an abandonment of the history and yearnings of our people, and an abandonment of the bountiful and magnificent gift bequested to us by G-d in the Torah. The Jewish nation has never survived by seeking the path of least resistance. We have survived by making the necessary difficult decisions, and by remaining steadfast in our struggle to proceed through whatever impediments G-d and history place in our path. Only through such steadfastness can our basic ideology and purpose be maintained as we meet the challenges of the future.
Copyright 1999. Reproduction in print or electronic format by permission only.
