Prof. Paul Eidelberg
In his book Breaking With Moscow, Arkady Shevechenko writes: “One day, while we were lunching at his dacha in Vnukovo, I asked Gromyko what he saw as the greatest weakness of U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. ‘They don’t comprehend our final goal,’ he promptly responded, ‘and they mistake tactics for strategy.’”
These words accurately describe Israel’s policy of “land for peace,” which it has pursued toward PLO chief Yasser Arafat. Israeli prime ministers simply refuse to take seriously Arafat’s final goal, repeatedly trumpeted as the destruction of the Jewish state. Only fools required Intelligence services to assess Arafat’s intentions. But then it was fools that signed various agreements with that murderous villain.
The fools are still in power, as the Gaza First Program of the Sharon Government clearly indicates. Representing the Government, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer signed an agreement with Arafat’s Minister of Interior, Abdel Razak Yahya, according to which Israeli occupation forces will withdraw from Gaza in return for a cessation of Arab violence in that area. It appears, however, that the success of Gaza First will depend on Arafat's Tanzim militia to keep the quiet – Tanzim, the most violent terrorist militia operating in the region!
What accounts for this incredible folly? Some say Mr. Ben-Eliezer is using Gaza First to secure his position as Labor Party chairman vis-à-vis rival candidates such as Amram Mitzna, an ultra-leftist, i.e., another Oslovian fool. But Gaza First has the approval of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the chairman of the Likud. Can it be that Mr. Sharon wants to retain Ben-Eliezer as his Defense Minister, and that he is using Gaza First to bolster Ben-Eliezer’s standing with the Left? If so, Sharon as well as Ben-Eliezer is jeopardizing Jewish lives for purely political reasons. This is more than folly.
Of course I am only speculating. But let us face the obvious fact that Israel’s system of multi-party cabinet government prompts ministers to pursue their own personal or political interests at the expense of the national interest. Which suggests that egotism underlies the folly of the five Israeli prime ministers who signed agreements with Yasser Arafat.
Does egotism produce fools? No doubt it does in many cases. Consider the following.
On July 25, 1994, president Bill Clinton, Jordan’s King Hussein, and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin offered toasts at a White House dinner celebrating the Israel-Jordan peace treaty signed that day. Appropriately, the toasts of King Hussein and of Mr. Rabin were of approximately the same brief duration as that of Mr. Clinton. It so happens, however, that whereas president Clinton used the first person “I” two times, King Hussein used the “I” ten times, while Mr. Rabin used the “I” no less than 33 times!
Shimon Peres succeeded Rabin. Mr. Peres brought to the premiership a reputation for advancing his own policies contrary to those of the various governments of which he was previously a member. But nothing better illustrates his egotism-cum-folly than his fatuous statement that “one can learn nothing from history.”
Turn, now to Peres’ successor, Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu stated on various occasions that no one ever expected him to (1) accept the Oslo Accords as a basis for the “peace process”; (2) meet with Yasser Arafat; and (3) withdraw from Hebron. Such a statement, unbeknownst to Mr. Netanyahu, is self-incriminating and therefore reveals his folly as well as his egotism. For if no one, in his own words, expected him to take the three steps mentioned above, it follows that Mr. Netanyahu betrayed those who elected him Israel’s Prime Minister!
Ehud Barak succeeded Netanyahu. Mr. Barak’s desperate pre-election attempt, supported by only one/fourth of the Knesset, to surrender 95% of Judea and Samaria, including the Jordan Valley and eastern Jerusalem, for an agreement with Yasser Arafat reveals an egotistical fool. It was this fool who publicly stated that had he been born an Arab he would have been a terrorist!
Finally, we return to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. What would you say of a prime minister who, in the midst of war, praises the enemy as Mr. Sharon did in an April 13, 2001 interview with Ha’aretz? What would you say of a prime minister who, in that same interview, said that his son Omri taught him “not to see things in black and white”? What would say of a prime minister who, without precedent and cabinet approval, sends his son Omri, a private citizen, to “talk” to Yasser Arafat, the greatest enemy of the Jewish people since Hitler?
The folly of Gaza First follows like night follows day. But fear not. That Israel continues to exist with fools as prime ministers is the best proof of God’s existence, indeed, that Israel’s own existence is in God’s hands.