Paul Gottfried writes: For Bibi there is no realistic choice in negotiating with the Palestinians but to allow a two-state solution. Neither he and his party nor presumably those who belong to what is counterfactually called “the Zionist Union Left” want to deal with an eventual Arab Muslim majority, which may well develop in Israel, unless Israeli Jews, and not just the ultra-Orthodox, start producing large families. Although Netanyahu in an eleventh-hour bid for votes nixed any support for a Palestinian state, once assured of an electoral victory, he immediately backtracked and explained that he only opposed such a political entity because its present leadership would endanger his country.
Netanyahu, also in the heat of battle, accused the opposition of “busing Arabs to the polls,” an accusation that greatly disturbed the Obama administration. Needless to say, the GOP and the employees of the Murdoch media had absolutely no moral problem with Netanyahu’s insensitive statement. Of course if a Republican politician were to accuse the Democrats of enticing blacks to the polls, that remark would spell the end of that hapless creature. Both his colleagues and the “conservative” press would demand the head of this “racist” Republican, even before Fox-News’ erstwhile friend Al Sharpton began grousing.
I also have no doubt that many who voted for Likud or who are willing to coalesce with it believe that Israel should expand to include the West Bank (and perhaps a lot more) and that the Israeli Palestinians should be stripped of all political rights. After all, Netanyahu and his family come from the right-nationalist wing of the Zionist movement, and the Revisionist Zionists, starting with their founder Zeev Jabotinsky, called for an Israel “on both sides of the Jordan.” This was to be achieved while subjecting the native Arab population to Jewish colonial rule. Jabotinsky was an effusive admirer of Mussolini and was truly shocked when the Duce went over to the dark side by allying himself with Nazi Germany. Despite the quasi-fascist genesis of the Zionist tradition from whence the Likud (and its predecessor Heirut) emerged, Netanyahu has shown himself to be more interested in Israeli security than Israeli expansion. If he’s unfortunately allowed the building of settlements on the West Bank that will likely result in escalated tensions, that’s the price he’s had to pay to form and preserve a parliamentary coalition. He needed the support of the Orthodox parties, which has brought in its wake an unwise settlement policy.
Almost involuntarily I am drawn to Netanyahu as a figure of stature. Despite the nonstop announcement by Republican politicians and Fox-news lackeys that Bibi is “another Churchill,” as a person of the Right, I can warm up to this patriot. Indeed I respect Bibi more than Winnie, who was a frenetic war-monger, ordered terror-bombing in Central Europe during the last sixteen months of World War Two and did more than FDR to appease and flatter Stalin. I believe that Netanyahu is telling us the truth when he says he is concerned first and foremost with the survival of his country, and I never mistake the global democratic drivel that I hear him spewing on Fox-news with his sense of organic nationhood and his love for his own people.
I also can’t help contrasting this Israeli leader who takes bold stands in defiance of “world opinion” to the pygmy politicians who now abound in the US and in much of Western Europe. With the exceptions of Jeff Sessions, Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban, I find no Western leader whom I would want to see running a state in which I happened to live. In contrast to Bam, Hillary, Jeb, Romney, Merkel and the rest of this fatuous, largely indistinguishable crew, Netanyahu devotes his life to his people and its continued existence as a cultural and historic as well as political nation. Whether or not one agrees that Iran poses an “existential threat” to Israel, I have never met an Israeli who didn’t believe this was the case. Israelis may have a nuclear arsenal with which they could respond to an Iranian attack, but they have no interest in engaging in such a devastating struggle. They would rather nip the threat in the bud. Moreover, as I explained to the surprise of the editor of a German nationalist publication who was interviewing me, if I were living in Israel, I would favor the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities before my enemies tried to make good on their promise to destroy me.
