Practically since the Rosh Hashana War of Attrition started, Barak has been courting the Likud, and with it the rest of the parliamentary opposition, to join a "National Emergency Government". Barak won't call it a "National Unity Government" since he knows full well that national unity is not a reality in Barak's Israel. He's tried it before, and his policies prevented it from working.
Now, Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and others, all leading lights in the Labour party, have come out publicly and decisively against Barak's idea of a national unity government. The Likud's participation in the government, according to Peres and Beilin, would mean the death of the peace process.
Let's examine this for a minute. For three years, Binyamin Netanyahu was Prime Minister of Israel. Binyamin Netanyahu, the darling of the Israeli right-wing, the extremist par excellence. He led what was then called "the most right-wing government in Israeli history". He laid out, before the election, the entire right wing political program in Israel, and he was elected on its basis. For three years he ran this country, and for three years he negotiated with the worst murderer alive today: Yasser Arafat.
Twice Netanyahu signed agreements with Arafat, giving him more land from which he today launches attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. This land is used daily to fire guns at the Machpela Cave in Hevron, and to fire guns into homes in Jerusalem.
According to Peres and Beilin, the inclusion in the government of this Likud party, which still pines for Netanyahu's leadership, would be a death blow to the peace process.
Ehud Barak is an inept leader. That was proven long before the first bomb was hurled the day before Rosh Hashana. He leads this country with the support of barely one quarter of its people. His cabinet is now only a fraction of what it once was. And he has been rejected three times at the negotiating table by people he considered "partners in peace".
But one thing Barak has finally gotten right. He now realizes what the right wing has been screaming for a decade: Yasser Arafat is a terrorist, and not a peacemaker. Barak has come out publicly and said that Arafat is not interested in peace and that peace cannot be made with Arafat.
Now, Barak has a war on his hands. The first one in which he was not a soldier. Now, Barak actually has some responsibility. He must concern himself with protecting his nation as best he can. That means, necessarily, the formation of a unity government and the inclusion of as wide a segment of the population in his following as possible. No one is denying that this country is in for a rough ride the next few months, and Barak must provide the tools to make that ride as smooth as possible.
Enter Peres and Beilin. Yitzchak Rabin once called Beilin "Peres's poodle", and it is no suprise that the younger anti-semite follows his master even now. In fact, Beilin is the more outspoken of the two these days, but he takes his script from Peres's book.
These two hold the opinion that by including Netanyahu and Sharon, two architects of the Hevron and Wye agreements, in Barak's cabinet, the peace process will come to a screeching halt. Never mind that Netanyahu and Sharon have successfully reached two agreements with Arafat while Barak has failed miserably three times. Never mind that what this country needs is some unity for a change.
Rather, Beilin and Peres called a meeting of the rejectionist faction in the Labour party, with the intention of launching an all-out revolt against Barak and the idea of a national unity government. Barak, faced with such an intifadah from within his own party, attended the meeting to try to stem the rising tide against him from within his own party. He spoke to the crowd and was roundly rejected by them.
For the coup de grace, Beilin delivered this stunning quote: "'You came to power in order to continue on the path of the man who was killed with the Song of Peace on his breast,' said Beilin, referring to the fact that prime minister Yitzhak Rabin had a copy of the song's lyrics in his breast pocket when he was assassinated. 'Our job, if only in memory of this man, is to turn over every remaining stone - and there are still stones.'"
Beilin got one thing right in his speech. The last five words. What Beilin does not realize, though, through his often blatant anti-Israel and anti-Jewish positions, is that the stones are not concealing the peace he seeks. What the stones now fully reveal to those who wish to see, is that Rabin and the Oslo process that Beilin and Peres created for him, brought us war.
There are still stones indeed. But those stones are being hurled at Jews throughout the country by Arabs who are incensed at our presence here. Beilin calls this peace. And Beilin suggests that we accept this war and search in it for signs of peace.
There are still stones. What a shame that Yossi Beilin can't see them for what they are.
Copyright 2000. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
