A Leftist's assessment of Israeli public opinion
Aluf Benn asks President Obama to be more 'specific' in his anti-Israel statements, but in the meantime, he also gives a pretty fair diagnosis of why most Israelis aren't interested in hearing what Obama has to say: Obama has not succeeded in enlisting even one supporter in Israel's public arena or political establishment, who will stand up to Netanyahu and call upon him to accept the president's initiative and gallop toward a "two-state solution." The Israelis don't think establishment of a state headed by Abbas will improve their situation in any way. The hard-core ideological left is fighting the Israel Defense Forces in the name of pacifism, and striving for a binational state in the name of equality and liberalism. The right is striving for a binational state in the name of the Greater Land of Israel, fulfillment of the Bible's promises and the security afforded by dominating the hilltops. [That's not what the Right is striving for, but let's leave that alone for now. CiJ]That's it folks. It's not Obama who can bring peace to this region. It's the 'Palestinians.' And most Israelis have awoken to the reality that the 'Palestinians' feel no urgency to make peace. There's a reason we refer to Abu Mazen as "Abu Bluff."
The Israeli political center, which stretches from Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar of the Likud party, through MKs Tzipi Livni and Shaul Mofaz of Kadima to President Shimon Peres (most recently of Kadima) and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Labor, in effect accepts the assessment of Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that a solution to the problem is not possible, that the Arabs will never recognize a Jewish state and that Israel's only strategic option is deterrence backed by the use of force.
On Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly, Obama spoke of the "girl in Sderot who closes her eyes in fear that a rocket will take her life in the night." His concern is touching, but most Israelis believe that Operation Cast Lead reassured the children of Sderot far more than the peace process Obama proposes.
The public opinion polls Netanyahu reads indicate a clear trend: Most Israelis these days are more troubled by domestic issues, like education and violence, than by Jewish settlements in the territories or even the Iranian threat. The public wants the government to improve its quality of life, not to hold more peace conferences. Abbas is perceived as recalcitrant, not as a partner to an agreement.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:22 PM
3 Comments:
Let's be clear: what Benn wants is what his former editor David Landau said he wanted in 2007 and what most on the left want: an imposed solution, i.e. for Obama to rape Israel. That is the only way the majority of Israelis can be coerced to go along with what are obviously suicidal concessions.
What the left cannot bring itself to admit is that the Middle East conflict is a zero sum game. One side will prevail; the other will fail.
And the Palestinian Arabs would not have it any other way.
R-MEW Editors,
Funny you should mention that. I read Benn the same way and was thinking of linking the Landau story (I've referred to it enough times on the blog to have it handy), but I didn't want to encourage people to read Benn's entire article.
The Israeli peace camp has withered into insignificance. The kind of concessions the Israeli Far Left wants are unacceptable to mainstream Israel and with visceral Arab hostility to Israel, its clear there won't be negotiations happening any time soon.
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