Home Post-Victory Wither Bibi Netanyahu?
Home Post-Victory Wither Bibi Netanyahu?

Post-Victory Wither Bibi Netanyahu?



Netanyahu's victory in the Likud primaries was inevitable but the real challenge has only begun. Netanyahu now faces a dilemma primarily of his own making, he is a statesman adept at making speeches and poor at actually committing to the resolve necessary to see himself and the nation through tough times.

The Israeli public today is more dissatisfied with their government than at any time in the past, even including the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. The one thing the man in the street agrees on is that it's time for a change. All that is required is someone credible to step forward and make that change from a slogan into reality.

Before Oslo plenty of left wing activists had dreamed of an accord with Arafat. But it was as implausible and as improbable a policy then as Israel reconquering Gaza and the West Bank would be today. What made it real is that prominent Israeli statesmen like Rabin and Peres were able to see it through by acting as if it was inevitable. If the impossible is to happen twice, if Israel is to end the Palestinian experiment, then Netanyahu must learn from Rabin and Peres and commit calmly and transparently to a reconquest of Israel.

Those most afraid of a change are those in power. That is why this government continues to remain in power and the Knesset still sits. For now no real effort has been mounted to remove them and so the same corrupt asses hold down the same grimy Knesset seats and the same parties squabble and make their dirty deals disdaining the public will which they feel free to ignore.

To win Netanyahu will have to do more than show up and make speeches. He will have to fight an uphill battle. Yet Netanyahu has spent too much of his political career playing it safe. His campaign thus far has consisted of simply showing up. It might be enough to win the next election but not with a solid majority. And with all sorts of third parties like Gaydamak's likely to leap into the fray, the next Knesset is likely to be even worse than this one.

The reality is that few people inside Israel like Netanyahu. But that's okay. No one in England much liked Churchill. Netanyahu makes speeches like Churchill but he doesn't act on them. Netanyahu's last chance rests on an ability to do more than talk but to lead by setting out two clear alternatives, the path of continued compromise and a long bloody struggle of negotiating tables and battlefields inside Israel itself or a single decisive campaign to destroy the terrorist presence within Israel and demonstrate to Israel's enemies that the nation stands ready to fight against all who would do it harm.

Comments

  1. Anonymous15/8/07

    You offer two roads that Bibi can take. One is the "Safe but deadly" road that leads to the end of a Jewish State. The only difference being how soon and who will sign the death warrant. The other road may be difficult but has a chance of success. Considering that one of Bibi's first acts was to try to throw Feglin out of Likud is a very bad sign. It suggests that he is not to be trusted. Or that he is weak towards the Left wing technocrats. He should have said that while he does not support all of Feglin policys he welcomes all people that will strength our efforts. Weakness means that those evil forces continue to control the outcome.

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  2. well moving against feiglin was practical politics considering that feiglin had gone against him twice

    It wouldn't have happened if Feiglin had supported him,

    It may reflect a certain amount of pettiness or political intrigue but doesn't really speak to his intentions via a vis terrorism and the future of israel

    and the reality is there are too many examples of what happened to likud prime ministers who didn't drive out persistent rivals like shalom or worst of all sharon

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  3. Well, based on public comments he's made in the US I am hoping that he'll take a strong stance against terrorism and turn things around in Israel.

    OT--Rudy Guiliani is now to the best of my knowledge the only presidential candidate publicly saying a Palestine stae would be a mistake. Maybe Netenyahu and Guiliani could reinforce each other and the US and Israel.

    It's a hope...

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  4. Anonymous16/8/07

    Netanyahu is not a friend of the Jewish State. He has shown no particular sentimentality or commitment towards Israel in the past. Why should he start now? He's ambitious but his pettiness and lack of graciousness bothers me. And his rhetoric is much more musclar than his follow through. He talks a good game.

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  5. Anonymous16/8/07

    I hear your point of view. I guess I have a deep fear that Bibi is not the one who will re-establish Jewish Pride.

    As Tamar Yoneh pointed out, now is the time to ignore petty differences and come together.

    Does disenfranchizing people help or hurt? I would think there are other ways to deal with Feglin.

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  6. Anonymous16/8/07

    Erev Tov to all.
    Everyone has made plenty of good statements here and this is good: when Jews think, this makes it possible to see all sides. I wish to share this with you, a story from a book entitled "Flames of Faith," about Chassidism.

    The story was about a man named Schneeweis, a Kapo in one of the concentration camps of the Auschwitz system/conglomeration.

    This Schneeweis was, according to the account, terrible to our people, his own people. He was hated and feared for his complicity with the Nazis.

    Then one Yom Kippur something in him snapped. The SS brought in big trays of food for the prisoners (to tempt them on Yom Kippur), and Schneeweis stepped forward. "We cannot have this food...it is Yom Kippur."

    The SS in charge told Schneeweis that if the Jews did not eat, it was subverting discipline, ergo the war effort. Schneeweis said, "You don't understand...we Jews do not eat on Yom Kippur."

    The SS shot him right in the head, but LOOK WHAT HE DID! He stepped forward and turned himself around, praise G-D, and stood for others.

    Let us all pray that one of ours...Netanyahu, whose brother Yosi died commanding the raid on Entebbe...let us pray that one of ours will have the same fire placed in his heart that Schneeweis did. He's one of us! A Jew! Read Vayikra 19.

    As a former Green Beret I led a life of violence and wickedness before I found teshuvah and dedicated my life in the service of the Living G-D and Klal Yisrael. I also lived through Katrina...in it...while it destroyed New Orleans.

    I know that even a man such as myself (worthless in the eyes of men at one time) can still turn his life around (Yekezkel 18).

    The Living G-D can raise anyone from the depths of despair and the shackles of iniquity that imprison the person!

    Pray that Netanyahu will see...see the plight of our people, see the growing menace of the hordes of goyim...see the travesty of things in Eretz Yisrael by the erev rav (Hepzibah, Gush Katif, etc.)...see the path that G-D wishes for him to take.

    Let us not condemn him over and over for his past or "Dionne Warwick" his future before he acts.

    I'll tell you what party I am for: for the man who will step forward and on camera say, "I will lead our people by Torah to honor the name of the Living G-D."

    That is the man I look for, or, better still, when all of us become that man: together.
    Shalom, my heart poured out to you, klal yisrael.
    Yesha Galluzzo

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  7. Bibi wants to be a nothing oops, centrist, which is the same.

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  8. It just find it said and really hard to understand when the very lives and survival of Israel is at stake now more than ever all parties cannot unit--it should be a basic human instinct.

    It shouldn't matter what political party. Survival is survival. Unless people like Olmert are totally planning on bailing ship and moving out of Israel once it is destroyed.

    I think it is time to ignore petty differences. But the bottom line is Israel needs leaders that will put their feet down with the arabs and say no more land. period.

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  9. Sorry. Typo. I meant to write "sad" not "said" and "unite" instead of unit.

    I'm the queen of typos but there comes a point where even I say to myself enough! Rewrite.

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  10. What makes the Bibi of this year different than the Bibi of 1996? More mature? More confident? More thoughtful? Bibi back then was the PM of strength, negotiating with Arafat to give land to arabs. This time, Arafat is gone. What will be his excuse to NOT negotiate with the terrorist in a suit (Abu Mazen)?

    The current polls http://aprpeh.blogspot.com/2007/08/and-away-we-go.html show that Israelis see very little difference in the heads of the major political factions. Who would be worse, Barak or Bibi or Livni? That will be the elimination question Israelis will take with them to the polls. Who will do the least damage?

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  11. Anonymous16/8/07

    The best of the worst is Bibi. Just how much better depends on the Party's roster. If he packs the polls with Kadima wanna-bes then we will continue the same downward spiral. The only difference will be the rate of decent and who signs the paperwork.

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  12. Anonymous17/8/07

    Yesha Galluzo says:

    "I'll tell you what party I am for: for the man who will step forward and on camera say, "I will lead our people by Torah to honor the name of the Living G-D."

    Yesha, I'm with you. Let this man come forward - no equivocating but emphatic. No apologies. No pretend peace. Proud to be a Jew.

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  13. Anonymous17/8/07

    It would be nice if Netanyahu would choose to be different from so many of the other 'leaders' in Israel and actually be pro-Israel. I'm tired of feeling like I'm watching some twisted present-day version of the "The Ten Commandments" movie, with all the so-called 'leaders' playing the part of Dathan who did everything he could to stop Moses and the Israelites from doing what G-d wanted.

    People often say that Israelis should care even more about their Land because of its holiness and their religious history there, which they should, but even ordinary people in ordinary countries have a natural instinct to protect their land and not turn it over to their enemies. What is WRONG with these leaders of Israel? Good grief. If they hate themselves and their Land and their people and their history and their religion so much, why not just leave, and let someone who cares defend it!

    And then of course we have our own leaders who can't wait to give away America to Mexico. No surprise I guess. If someone is going to insist on another country committing national suicide, seems only fair to do the same to your own. I expect to hear any day now that for demographic reasons all Americans must be forcibly expelled from California so it can be given to the Mexicans.

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  14. I just posted a solution for Israel. They won't buy it though.

    There are no candidates in Israel. They are unmanly and quivering.

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  15. --- "a single decisive campaign to destroy the terrorist presence within Israel and demonstrate to Israel's enemies that the nation stands ready to fight against all who would do it harm." - Amen! Hindsight is a too late discovery, but it can still be useful. What should have been done at -67 war, lies still ahead of the People I love. Everyone, not loyal and faithful to Israel, should been exiled. Borders, including Gaza, the Westbank, all Jerusalem, should been established and reinforced strictly to protect the country. This would have prevented the loss of thousands of innocent lives. It would been little, if any, "Oslo conspiracies" and noisy demonstrations = case closed. This can still be accomplished. The world will cry faul, whatever Israel does - humanistic or patriotic - it makes no difference, because the world is never any friend of the Chosen People. A strong Israel with internal unity, with no heathen traitor gangs inside her borders, would be a too impossible challenge to the neighbours. (See Nehemiah 6:16). If Bibi shows firm leader strenght, I believe the aforesaid will become reality. Always praying for Israel - Majoko

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  16. Anonymous28/8/07

    As an American I sometimes think Israelis are more critical of their leaders than we are, and that's saying something! In the real world inspite of perceived weaknesses and past wrongs, only Bini really stands out as a leader who finally really gets it! I see changes in him to be much stronger this time around. There is no time to hesitate and no better time to ask for help from those who get it. Never again, and never alone again, and he gets it! Show compassion when deserved, but give up not one blade of grass, please!!
    Remember the "Promise." No one occupies Israel's territory but Israel... did ya all forget to read the book?? Forget the small stuff. I've watched the boy for 20 years...he'll make it!

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