PeaceWatch Volume 7 #9
August 14, 2005
Bibi Netanyahu quit the Israeli government, an event that should be a cause for quiet celebration and
deserves some comment.
This site began its life as Bibiwatch - commentary on the bad old days
of Bibi Netanyahu. It is lucky we changed the name to PeaceWatch. There has not been much peace to watch, but watching
Bibi after he lost office would have been a real bore. He was so bad that even Ehud Barak, for all his faults, seemed
like a welcoming savior. In office again as Minister of the Treasury, Netanyahu proved his love for poor people by
making more and more of them with feed the rich and rob the poor Bibinomics. Bibi will become famous as the Likud
politician who made the left like Sharon.
Ever one to chose expediency over principle, Bibi loudly announced his opposition to the disengagement.
Unfortunately for the Israeli economy, however, he remained glued to his ministerial chair for a long time, denouncing
the policies of his own government. This would be a "protest deluxe" - supporting the disengagement with his vote
while denouncing it in his speeches. Bibi carefully refrained from leaving the government when his departure might have
actually stopped the disengagement, because it was not politically expedient.
When Bibi finally quit this week, the right forgave him his egregious betrayal and made him their
uncrowned leader. Even so, Bibi as head of the Likud would get only 17 Knesset seats according to polls, as opposed to
the current 40 seats, and in contrast to 24 seats that would be given to Ariel Sharon as the head of a breakaway party.
In 1996, in a fit of national madness, Israelis chose Benjamin Netanyahu over Shimon Peres. Bibi's
slogan, plastered on every bumper sticker, was "Only Bibi is good for the Jews." As it turned out, Bibi was good for
nothing. With a policy of speak loudly and carry a wet noodle, Bibi managed to alienate just about everyone. In 1997, by
opening a gateway in a subterranean passage under the Temple Mount, Bibi generated a grand rehearsal for the Intifada of
September 2000, presumably in order to stop the Oslo process. However, Bibi then strangely retreated and allowed the
Oslo process to limp along, signing the Hebron agreement a few months later. A very strange tactic - to create an issue
and a battle to prove a point and then leave the field without a fight. The only points he proved was that terror and
violence paid, and that he had no idea what he was doing. Initially, Bibi held out interminably against implementing
Israeli obligations under the Oslo accords. He cited illegal possession of arms by Palestinians, illegal numbers of
"policemen" and other violations. Inexplicably however, Bibi then meekly collapsed in the Wye accords, promising to
implement Further Redeployments (FRDs). But then, he didn't implement his promises, leaving Israeli policy to drift
without a rudder once again! In his book, "The Missing Peace," Dennis Ross revealed that Bibi never really cared about
the confiscation of illegal arms, an issue he had built into a deal breaker. He was willing to settle for a sham of
collecting a few pistols.
The only thing that Bibi really implemented was settlements and lots of them. He tried to please
everyone and finished by alienating virtually everyone, including his own party. How fortunate for him that Likud voters
have short memories!
Bibi, like the terminator, will be back. We will all, undoubtedly, have Bibi to kick around some more,
so don't change into sneakers yet. His plan, it would seem, is that when the disengagement is followed by Palestinian
violence, Bibi will do to Sharon what Ariel Sharon did to Barak: He will materialize from the shadows to rescue Israel
under the banner of "Let the IDF Act" or "only Bibi is good for the Jews." Of course, if Bibi was in power, he would
have done exactly what Sharon did, because there was nothing else that could be done. However, there is nothing quite
like a good dose of sleazy demagoguery to confuse and inflame a complex political situation.
The truth is, and has always been, that Bibi is only good for Bibi, which means he is good for nothing.
Shalom, 'Hamor, velehitraot.
Ami Isseroff
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