It worked in 1978. Took two weeks for Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to agree on their treaty. It worked with Bosnia under President Clinton, and it worked at the Wye Plantation between Netanyahu and Arafat. But Ehud Barak, the man-of-war-turned-man-of-peace, the hero du jour of the Israeli left, just couldn't pull it off.
This is not the first time either. Remember a few months ago that Ehud Barak attended another of these open-ended summit ideas opposite Syria. At that time, the then Syrian president Hafez Assad didn't even bother to attend. Barak had to settle for his foreign minister, Farouk A-Shara. During that summit, Barak offered Shara everything Syria was asking for except water rights in the Sea of Galilee. Of course, Syria has nothing to offer Israel that is of any practical value in return. And yet, without losing anything, and with just about everything to gain, Syria turned Barak down flat.
This month, the sequel played out. Barak went to Camp David trumpeting his four "red lines" and within 24 hours had crossed them all. For the first time in history, an Israeli prime minister agreed to recognize another state west of the Jordan River, to welcome hundreds of thousands of Palestinian "refugees" into what is left of Israel, and to divide Jerusalem. He did it without the Knesset approval, and returns to a minority government with the backing of only 1/3 of the Knesset.
And with all that Barak gave up, with all that he risked, with his government in tatters over his abandonment of Israel, Arafat simply turned around and walked away. Barak wasn't really asking for much of anything from Arafat. Mere words that would be written down, stored somewhere, and forgotten within a day. In return, Arafat would be getting Israel's heart and soul -- exactly those things he has been stating all along were his aims. And he turned it down.
Things like this don't just happen, and they certainly don't just happen twice to the same leader within half a year. So what gives?
Some will say that Barak didn't give enough. Indeed, the various Arab leaders are already saying this, as are many on the Israeli left (those who apparently can't remember what it is they are doing in Israel). Others might say that it is simple intransigence on the part of the Arabs. Indeed President Clinton has been making noises in this direction for two weeks, but we can rest assured those will stop as soon as he remembers to clear his throat.
I prefer to look at it this way. First, Barak got elected on the promises of being able to bring peace in our time from a position of strength. After all, he is the most decorated soldier in Israeli history and he knows just what Israel's security needs are. He is the latest in a long line of Israeli generals to utter this phrase, and the latest to have absolutely no clue about Israel's real security needs when those are weighed against the mad rush to give everything away to the enemy for no return.
He also got elected on a platform of repairing Israel's social ills ("Prime Minister of Everyone"), strengthening Israel's welfare and social services programs ("300,000 unemployed, why not Netanyahu?"), and a universal draft for yeshiva students ("one nation, one draft"). In all these areas, Barak has failed miserably, either through simple neglect (a four-month doctors' strike and a two-month disabled strike), purposely acting opposite to his promises (the Tal Commission legislation), or both (failing to creat jobs while supporting proposals to increase Knesset members' perks).
And now, it seems, Barak has finally suffered his big failure, the knock-out blow to end his miserable term of office. He has not once, but twice, crossed his own red lines with no more than a passing nod in order to sign some sort of agreement with belligerent neighbours. And both times, he has failed to bring home that agreement.
This morning, Zionist Israelis and Jews everywhere are breathing sighs of relief. Song can be heard in the cities of Judea and the spaces of Jerusalem. For another week, another month, Jerusalem is ours. So why complain about Barak's failures when we should be rejoicing?
Well, Barak's willingness to cross his own red lines will, like that of Rabin and Netanyahu before him, be remembered by his erstwhile interlocutors for future rounds in this battle for our homeland. The next time someone decides that negotiations would be a good idea, Arafat and his henchmen will trot out the positions adopted by Barak during the past two weeks and demand that these positions form the "starting point" for future talks. Without such assurances, they will refuse to even attend.
And from such a starting point, Israel will be forced to concede even more to a terrorist who will use his gains to forcibly take even more.
I prefer to call a spade a spade. Ehud Barak has endangered this country. He has created a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital, and any attempt to block Arafat will result in bloodshed.
When the next war is over, Israel should carefully look at its recent "leadership". Rabin, who signed off on Oslo, Peres who created that monster, Beilin and Savir, who were the driving forces behind it and who continue to behave more leftist than even Meretz, and Ehud Barak. The man who gave away Jerusalem. These "leaders", blind men of vision, senseless men of wisdom, should be brought before a truly independent commission of inquiry. They should be investigated for abandoning the Zionist ideal, the Land of Israel, the Historical Dream of our Homeland, and the Aim of every Jew for the past 2000 years.
No court in this land today will hear the case, and no court in the land in ten years will be able to pass just sentence on these men. But history will judge them. Not as peace-makers, but as the ultimate deserters, those who abandoned their homeland, their history, their security, their people, and their future.
In the meantime, now that Barak is back, let the flood of no-confidence motions begin. The sooner the Knesset gets rid of Barak the better. He is not the Prime Minister of Everyone. He is not the Prime Minister of anyone. He is not even a tool in the hands of Arafat. He is simply pointless. The sooner the Knesset puts him out of our misery, the better.
Copyright 2000. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
