Two years ago, this writer published an article in the now-defunct magazine Betzedek predicting that Netanyahu was going to lose the next election. The argument went something like this: Since taking office (the piece was written a year into Netanyahu's reign), Netanyahu had demonstrated that he was pursuing "Oslo Lite," which was basically a slightly watered down version of the Oslo "peace process" as conceived by Labor/Meretz. Netanyahu had abandoned Hebron, which even Peres had not done. He was intent on continuing the process of one-sided Israeli concessions (notably later in Wye), and was not serious about conditioning these on PLO compliance, rhetoric notwithstanding.

In short, Netanyahu offered the electorate a second-rate version of Oslo, and the Likud was trying to be in fact had been trying for decades to benothing more than a Me-Too Labor Party. The Likud was appealing to voters by arguing that it stood for pretty much the same things as did Labor, but would pursue these things more skillfully than Labor.

Since no one in Israel considers the Likud more competent than Labor in anything, this boiled down to offering voters a choice between a second-rate incompetent Labor Party pursuing Oslo half-heartedly, or the original classic true Labor Party. As with Coke Classic, when offered such a choice, it seemed likely voters would prefer the original.

In the short time the Likud held office, Netanyahu managed to achieve record levels of failure and embarrassment. Having been the victim of Labor's anti-democratic campaign before the previous elections (in which free speech dubbed "incitement" was declared by Labor to have been the cause of the Rabin assassination and Netanyahu was accused openly by Labor of having been the murderer), the Likud did nothing to capitalize on its victimization after its 1996 victory nor to discredit the Left's McCarthyism. Instead, the Likud tried to out-McCarthy the Left, agreeing that "yes, incitement had caused the assassination," but trying to claim that the Left was more guilty of incitement than the Right. In a sense this last point was true, but it made the Likud look idiotic, like the scene in Seinfeld where Jerry and his girlfriend are arguing over who is the bigger Shmoopy.

The Likud continued the prosecution of anti-Oslo dissidents, and the leaders of Zo Artzeinu, the anti-Oslo protest movement, were actually convicted and sentenced under Likud's reign for "incitement and sedition" this for blocking traffic intersections. (Not a single conviction for "incitement" of anyone on the Left or any Arab took place under Likud rule.) The Likud victory in 1996 was in part thanks to the street protests organized by Zo Artzeinu; Netanyahu rewarded it by prosecuting its leaders for "incitement." On election day, 1999, Ha'aretz carried a bitter letter from Zo Artzeinu's Moshe Feiglin expressing the view that there was no reason to vote for Netanyahu as he differed in nothing from the Left.

Despite Netanyahu's campaign rhetoric about how Barak would divide Jerusalem, despite the pyrotechnics of the last month of the campaign regarding the closing of Orient House, the PLO's "foreign ministry," there was not a single day of the Netanyahu administration in which the PLO's illegal offices did not operate in Jerusalem under Netanyahu's nose, including Orient House and including the PLO "police."

The very worst crime of the Netanyahu government was its conversion of Oslo into a national consensus. Until 1996, Israel was clearly divided over the "peace process." After 1996, the entire world could insist, thanks to the Likud, that the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Israel to its 1949 borders or worse was inevitable. There was no longer any serious questioning of this within Israel, so how could there

The Likud victory in 1996 was in part thanks to the street protests organized by Zo Artzeinu; Netanyahu rewarded it by prosecuting its leaders for "incitement."

Thanks to the Likud government, there was no longer any serious opposition in Israel to Oslo-suicide. Netanyahu was pow-wowing with Arafat and his representatives. Likud leaders were talking openly of adopting Labor leader Yossi Beilin's plan allowing the PLO capital to be set up in Abu Dis in East Jerusalem. Opposition to Oslo became moot and mute. This will be entered into the books as Netanyahu's contribution to history. The would-be Churchill of Israel decided to outflank Chamberlain in trumpeting his own support for Munich.

Over the past three years, the Likud made it crystal clear that it was not the least interested in becoming a party of ideas. It had no interest in the ideological vibrancy and rebirth that sent the Republicans of

(Continued on p.4)

June 1999               - 3 -               Outpost