The continuing stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians has generated continuing polarization, which leads to more stalemate and more polarization. The first ominous sign was the election of the Hamas to lead the Palestinian authority. The second ominous sign was the inclusion of right wing political figure Avigdor Lieberman in the Israeli government. You would think that both these events, each one of them signaling radical polarization, would have caused consternation. They did for a while, but in the Middle East people get used to anything, don't they?

Given the failure of the Labor party, the leading candidate to replace PM Ehud Olmert is our old friend Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party. Remember that this Web site (http://ww.ariga.com/peacewatch)  got its start as "BibiWatch." We may have Bibi to watch again. It may be difficult to imagine a situation that is much worse than the current stalemate, but a little thought shows that it could be worse. In the Middle East, when it could be worse, it almost inevitably gets worse. Bibi Netanyahu will be a fitting Prime Minister for a country whose President is Moshe Katsav. 

It is incredible that Israel cannot come up with a better leader than "Bibiyahu," or a better policy than that of the Likud. At home, their policy seems to be to starve the poor and feed the rich, and to take money needed for defense and infrastructure, and use it to build settlements. It was Bibinomics that left the IDF without the money to train properly for the last war, and without the equipment to fight it. Abroad, their policy is apparently to annoy everyone, and to make sure that Israel and Zionism are really identified with colonialism, reaction, occupation, cruelty and cynicism. Is this the same country that produced David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin?  The leadership crisis is so bad in Israel that people, even dovish Israelis, lionize Ariel Sharon  and have become nostalgic for Menachem Begin.  Even people who totally disagreed with their views now appreciate that at least Begin was a man who really believed in something besides sticking to his chair in the government and handing out favors to cronies and that Sharon, at his prime was not totally incompetent. At least we would like to believe that it is so. 

Ami Isseroff

Notice- Copyright