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| Copyright 1998 by the authors and the PEACE group. May be reproduced intact provided that credit is given to the authors, and to the PEACE Mid-East Dialog Group, including addresses listed at the bottom. | |
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Clear Messages |
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elections continue their inexorable approach. A majority of the Knesset legal and
constitutional committee have petitioned chairman Hanan Porat of the National Religious
Party to bring the matter before the committee. That was not the only sign. After
approving a monetarily virtuous budget targeting 4% inflation, Netanyahu had second
thoughts, saying the target would be the same as this year. He also approved a plan that
would supposedly create 50,000 jobs by the end of the year. These "jobs" will
consist of vocational retraining courses for non-existent work places. The reality,
meanwhile, is that real per capita GDP decreased by half a per-cent in the first half of
1998. Last Sunday Ehud Barak returned from the United States, announcing that he was going to bring a clear message to the Israeli public, and it appeared the race was on. He promptly tripped over his shoelaces, as word was leaked of secret negotiations regarding a national unity government. Don’t worry Ehud, the Israeli public got the message. Barak hastened to say that his condition for entering the government would be a change in the laws, giving him, as Deputy Prime Minister, equal powers with the Prime Minister. It is difficult to understand how such a two-headed horse would move, or in what direction. In any event he added, his first priority now was bringing about new elections. And so another national unity government balloon was punctured and floated slowly down to oblivion. Oh yes, the peace process. As negotiations with the Palestinians came to a dead halt, Prime Minister Netanyahu took a decisive step. He went on vacation. It seems you can fool most of the people most of the time after all, but it is hard work. Bibi needs a rest. It would not be fair to say that this government is totally unconcerned about the peace issue. In an interview with the German publication Focus, Defense minister Mordehai was quoted as saying that "the depth of peace [with Syria] will be equal to the depth of [Israeli] security." This aroused a great furor in the Israeli cabinet, causing Mordehai to change his version of what he said and what he meant to say several times. In the end, the only certainty is that he said something about "Syria" and "Peace," but this was enough to arouse the gravest anxiety in Arik Sharon and in some members of the Third-Way party. Perhaps the clearest message was that of Meretz Chairman MK Yossi Sarid: "the depth of the negotiations with Syria is equal to the depth of empty patter of the Prime Minister and his cabinet, which is equal to the depth of the negotiations with the Palestinians, namely: zero depth."..."[W]e will have negotiations with the Syrians just as there will be a second redeployment, just as there was a first redeployment, just as Israel's soldiers will leave Lebanon... Ami Isseroff |
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