Rabin’s Revenge: The Government Will Fall Before It Agrees to Concessions to Palestinians - Opinion - Haaretz.com
“Mr. Prime Minister, if you don’t promise in your own voice that the reports of weapons being transferred to the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority are mistaken, there will be consequences for you.” That is what National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted a week and a half ago after the Jerusalem-based Arabic-language daily Al-Quds reported that Israel’s government had agreed to steps to bolster the PA.
Then, lest there be any doubt about those “consequences,” Ben-Gvir added, “If you intend to seek to be a second Oslo government, please inform your ministers and the public and we will act accordingly.” An entire generation that sought peace could surely help answer the question of what Ben-Gvir and his ilk mean when they say “we will act accordingly.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was also furious. His Religious Zionism party immediately sensed that this step was taken as part of the feelers being put out toward opposition politician Benny Gantz, with the goal of forming “a leftist government that will seek to revive the Oslo Accords.”
Netanyahu managed to calm them down when he “clarified” that he didn’t send weapons, but only a few armored vehicles, and the storm passed. But it was important as a reminder to anyone who thinks the current government could commit to any significant gestures toward the Palestinian Authority, much less territorial concessions, as part of a three-way deal with the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The messianic far right is still the messianic far right, and there will be no surprises. They will quit the government if there is any real meat to the package of gestures toward the Palestinians, and not because they are vegetarians. And they will kill before they hand over territory – and their target won’t be Gantz.
Let’s also recall that Netanyahu’s problem doesn’t end with Religious Zionism. His own Likud party also has many members on the religious Zionism spectrum. Yuli Edelstein, Danny Danon, Nissim Vaturi, Moshe Saada, Tally Gotliv and others published an open letter to Netanyahu this week, prior to his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, in which they wrote, “We will agree only to peace for peace, without ceding any of the territory of our homeland.”
All this must be taken into account when deep in delusions about what we’ll do with that 64 million shekels ($17 million) we won in the lottery – sorry, I meant the summer’s dreams about “significant progress between Israel and the Palestinians” as part of an agreement with Saudi Arabia, under the Churchillian leadership of the man without qualities, Netanyahu.
Then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, signs the first part of the Oslo Accords, on the White House lawn, in 1993.Credit: Ron Edmonds/AP
There’s no reason to succumb to the trap of the leftist’s dilemma – should we support Netanyahu in exchange for peace, even with the Palestinians? There is no such possibility. There is no more Netanyahu, even when he is in power.
I won’t get into the question of Netanyahu’s potential – that is, what he could have been if he weren’t himself (that is, absolutely nothing). He has had every governing coalition he wanted. After deceiving Gantz and publicly humiliating him and then linking up with Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, there’s no longer any room even to imagine him leading any kind of constructive move.
Moreover, he has no one behind him if he draws away from his base to closer to Biden and Gantz. Even if Gantz were to join his government in place of Religious Zionism in order to go through with the Saudi move, the peace-seeking public wouldn’t accept his authority. And that’s before we have even started talking about the Palestinians.
This doesn’t mean, heaven forbid, that we ought to oppose an agreement. Who are we, Yair Lapid? On the contrary, Bibi, you have our blessing, go for it with all your might, give peace a chance. Give the Saudis uranium and the Palestinians land. We are men and women of peace. We supported Oslo, we’ll also support Oslo 2.
But one small piece of advice: Assign someone to watch out for you-know-who. After all, karma’s a bitch, and there’s nothing bitches like better than letting people get a taste of their own medicine. Yitzhak Rabin’s revenge, it turns out, is also best served cold. Who did you call an Oslo criminal again?