Today's Situation

Shalom and Netanyahu versus Sharon, Helen Clark versus Israel, Terje Larsen versus Arafat

Thursday, July 15, 2004 13:15

There was Silvan Shalom, the foreign minister, going angrily public to a couple of hundred supporters from the Likud Central Committee about his opposition to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to expand the government, because practically every constellation leads to the inevitable conclusion that Shalom could lose the foreign ministry. So much so, that this morning’s headline in Maariv was ‘Omri Sharon: Silvan wasn’t born foreign minister’ followed by ‘Shalom associates: Sharon was not born prime minister.’

Not that Shalom would ever say it’s his personal future that he’s worried about. Nossir, he told Israel Radio this morning, ‘the truth is that it’s the fate of the Likud and the state that is at stake.’ If Labor joins the government, it won’t be a ‘unity government’ it will be a government that divides the people. Why? Because it would be ‘Leftist, elitist, secular,’ and Likud is a party of the people, who love Jewish tradition. And Shalom, as he’ll never let anyone forget, is originally Tunisian. The Likud cannot afford to be the Right flank of the government, said Shalom, whose control over a few hundred delegates to the Likud Central Committee gives him much power inside the party.

Woman Crucified # 3 by Silvia Rosenberg, mixed media on recycled paper, 20x30 cm.

ut not as much power as Binyamin Netanyahu, who this morning openly attacked the Sharon plan to bring in Labor, because it will mean a change in Netanyahu’s economic policies, which, according to the finance minister is concerned, have ‘rescued’ Israel from its ‘Labor-run Bolshevik past.’ He said that Sharon doesn’t need Labor to join the government to pass the disengagement plan, ‘because it already has a majority in the government and in the Knesset.’ Labor can join – ‘if they accept all our platforms and policies,’ said Netanyahu, ‘but there’s really no need for it.’ In fact, he said, the strike that began today at the ports to protest government-imposed privatization of the three ports (Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat) passed into law yesterday in the Knesset (by a 20-seat majority), was proof of why Labor should be persona non grata in the Likud-led government.

Nine months of negotiations between the state and the longshoremen, who are worried about their pensions, their salaries and their jobs, failed to reach an agreement between the sides and Netanyahu wants the ports competing with each other, to bring down prices. The workers say that Netanyahu’s plan is to hand over the ports at cheap prices to his ‘billionaire friends’ and that they are fighting for their survival. Netanyahu says that the strike is an example of Histadrut refusal to give up power that it doesn’t deserve. The strike is estimated to cost about NIS 200 million, about $43 million, a day.

Another battlefront was Yasser Arafat declaring war on Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, the Norwegian diplomat who shepherded the Israelis and Palestinians into the Oslo accords, who has been in the region on behalf of Kofi Annan since the Olso accords were signed. Larsen has long tried to remain sympathetic to Arafat, even when the Palestinian leader would draw him aside and explain that the Israeli Mossad was behind the latest suicide bombing or how the Palestinians had nothing to do with the Karin A arms smuggling boat caught by the Israelis on its way from Iran to Gaza. As a result of his friendship with Arafat, albeit a friendship that reportedly has been under enormous strain in the last year, Larsen was boycotted by Sharon for the last two years, as part of Sharon’s policy to boycott any foreigner who also meets with Arafat.

But this week, Roed-Larsen apparently had his fill of Arafat, telling the UN Security Council that the Palestinian Authority was in ‘paralysis’ and that there is a ‘steadily emerging chaos’ in Palestinian areas., Arafat, he said, lacked the ‘political will’ to conduct reforms he has long promised, and Arafat is giving only ‘nominal and partial support’ to security reforms demanded by Egypt. The monthly report also accused Israel of being overly aggressive in the territories and not stopping settlements. But it was Larsen’s comments that the PA is ‘in deep distress and is in real danger of collapse,’ and had made ‘no progress on its core obligation to take immediate action on the ground to end violence and combat terror, and to reform and reorganize’ that infuriated the Palestinians.

Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh went to news agencies in Ramallah last night in response, saying ‘Mr. Roed-Larsen's declarations at the Security Council are unacceptable, and he is not welcome in Palestinian lands.’ Thus, the UN’s special envoy became persona non grata. The Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Arafat nephew Nasser al-Kidwa, said no formal decision had been made yet, but that the Palestinian delegation would take up the issue of Roed-Larsen’s report with Annan.

nd far from the Middle East, there was another battlefront. Two alleged Mossad agents were given six-month prison terms in New Zealand for illegally trying to obtain New Zealand passports. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the case ‘seriously strained relations’ between the two countries and canceled some planned joint events planned for later this year, including a state visit being prepared for Israeli President Moshe Katsav to New Zealand next month. Israelis will now need special visas to visit New Zealand, as well. Clark said ‘there were very strong reasons to believe’ the two Israelis ‘were acting on behalf of Israel's intelligence services.’ The two have denied media reports that they were members of the Mossad. Perhaps most interestingly, Clark pointedly noted that three months ago, when the men were arrested, New Zealand asked Israel to apologize to clear the atmosphere – and Israel simply ignored the request.

Foreign Minister Shalom said this morning that he was ‘certain’ relations with New Zealand will be cleared up in the near future. He did not say how and certainly did not apologize. Israel never – or almost never – admits anyone works for the Mossad and there is no reason to believe that it will change policy this time. Most likely, Jerusalem will just be patient and wait for the three to serve their time and be released, then wait a little while longer, reckoning that eventually the anger in Auckland will blow over.

Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. For the meanwhile, however, it’s another Western country offended by an increasingly isolated Israeli government at odds with almost everyone, except the Bush administration, which is also losing patience with the Israeli inability to remove the so-called ‘illegal outposts’ in the West Bank. The two White House officials, Stpehen Hadley and Elliot Abrams who have the Israel portfolio in the National Security Council, were here this week for a ‘maintenance’ visit, asking about the Israelis about the disengagement, the outposts, a freeze in settlement construction, and easing humanitarian conditions for the Palestinians.

They weren’t meeting with the press, so nobody knows what they thought about the list of 28 outposts that Israel says it will remove soon. Several of the outposts have been removed, including a few that have been repeatedly removed, and meanwhile have grown bigger than ever. Defense ministry officials, including Likud deputy defense minister Zeev Boim, openly say that the ministry has to provide security for the residents, meaning paving roads and installing electricity and water infrastructure – for the soldiers guarding the settlers, who are actually breaking the law by being in the outposts. No wonder the New Zealanders don’t understand why the Israelis didn’t think it necessary to apologize.

You're reading 'The Situation' Monday-Friday mid-day reports from Israel by Robert Rosenberg The text on the Ariga Home Page changes Monday-Friday, around 2 P.M. Tel Aviv time (GMT+2, EST+7, PST+10). Photo of the Day, courtesy of BauBau changes on average once every 12 hours Paintings by Silvia Rosenberg (unless otherwise noted) change weekly.

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