Israel Matzav

An open letter to Bibi

David Solway has the right prescription for how Prime Minister Netanyahu ought to be behaving. Of course, Bibi might have to look up some of the words in a dictionary....

There comes a time when there is no substitute for moral principle as opposed to political contrivance, the calisthenics of strategy, and diplomatic finesse. There comes a time when you must stand up for what you believe — if indeed you do believe — and be willing to risk the consequences, as did your brother Yonatan at Entebbe, in the conviction that strength, dignity, and adherence to the rightness of your cause will eventually carry the day. This is how a true leader conducts himself, despite the incessant squabbling of the petty politicians and cabineteers who surround him, the detractors ranged against him in the left-wing press, the sell-outs and the vainglorious, the soi-disant “peace” organizations and the opposition parties, and the intricacies of statecraft and perceived political expedience. Moreover, a true leader does not allow himself to be insulted, as did Shimon Peres who meekly accepted Turkish PM Erdogan’s slanderous broadside at Davos. There comes a time when dependence and propitiation have outlived their usefulness.

Your road is clear. You must confront the so-called “international community” with pride, moxie, and ministerial resolution. The string Quartet that is playing can scarcely hold a coherent tune, for all its posturing. Besides, the autocratic mentality it exhibits, presuming to interfere in your own affairs and impose its writ upon the nation it aims to despoil, should be robustly parried at every turn. There is no reason to pussyfoot and make nice, especially considering the endemic corruption of the Arab-dominated UN, the dismal colonial past of Europe, and the totalitarian history of Russia. Who are they to speak? This should be made evident in your public statements.

At home, you must not hesitate to insist upon transparency in the funding of left-wing NGOs by foreign governments, a form of internal meddling that would not be tolerated in any other country. The pseudo-democratic clamor of “liberal” Jewish organizations scrambling not to be unmasked need not disturb you unduly. It is they who have their backs to the wall, not you. While you’re at it, you should not recoil from investigating and acting against a potentially treasonable professoriate abusing tenure and paycheck at many of Israel’s universities by agitating against the interests of the state and indoctrinating the minds of their students, who are Israel’s future. Further, a building moratorium, whether official or de facto, foisted upon Israeli communities must be regarded as a non-starter. As for the bruited withdrawal to the 1967 borders and the ceding of the Golan Heights to Syria, this would be the death of Israel — you cannot even contemplate the possibility of assenting to a map of the indefensible.

I cannot pretend to know your secret councils or to render a definitive analysis of your character and intent. This is beyond my competence and prerogative. Others seem more confident. Your opponents have assailed you for many different and contradictory reasons — either you are too “hard right” or too malleable toward the left or too unconvincingly centrist. It seems there are many Netanyahus, none of them coinciding with any other — a fluctuating image that you have lent yourself to and are therefore partly responsible for. Even those kindly disposed to you find themselves wondering. The problem is, this is no time to present an image of omniform vagrancy or amorphousness, like Hamlet’s cloud which is a camel one moment, then a weasel, next “very like a whale.” The boundaries of your public personality cannot afford to waver or to be variously interpretable, no more than Israel’s borders can be left to the world’s discretion.

One thing, however, is undeniable. A giant rears up before you as it has before every Israeli prime minister. It is the “champion” of a multitudinous cohort who wishes you and your people harm and will not be pacified by words, tactics, conciliations, or arguments made from a position of weakness. It has many identities, both domestic and foreign, but it is always the collective Philistine who has your destruction at heart. Nonetheless, you have technological savvy, a brave people (not counting the lefties and the profs), a just cause, and a powerful deterrent working for you, more than sufficient to make an enemy think twice before imperiously and unilaterally pushing an agenda for your disempowerment or striking militarily — if, that is, you would stand your ground and let it be known that, unlike the last two inconclusive operations in Lebanon and Gaza, the aggressor would be decisively crushed. It is they and not you who should fear being “erased from the map.”

Read the whole thing. We'd be better off if Bibi would stop being so chummy with Mrs. Clinton (see picture above). She won't be around next term anyway.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:35 PM