From the Editor

Israel's Idiot Guru

Observing the ineffable Shimon we are struck with the need for a new term to take its place alongside "idiot savant:" the idiot guru. Out of office, Shimon Peres has become a sort of "fool-for-all-seasons." His lugubrious voice is familiar to those who watch public television, as he intones about food preventing war for the Archer Daniels Midland Company. More remarkable was his brief appearance on a public television "Natural World" special broadcast over New York's Channel 13 on the evening of April 10. The program was critical of dams along the Mississipi, which, it was argued, produced dying trees in the wetlands of Louisiana. Suddenly, Shimon's face flashed upon the screen, and he intoned solemnly "We have to replace the fire of hatred with the water of existence." What did that have to do with dams on the Mississipi? What did it mean? Who knows? Who cares? The idiot guru had propounded a new profundity.

On the home front, Shimon produced another corker-of-the-month. Responding to Netanyahu's charge that Labor had selected its most leftist slate ever, Peres proclaimed: "There was no greater leftist than Moses...The most socialist of socialists." (See Jerusalem Post International Edition, February 26, 1999)

At last sighting, Shimon was offering his services as peacemaker for the Balkans. From the New Middle East to the New Balkans. A Machiavellian NATO, seeking victory without casualties to its soldiers, would offer to end all hostilities under the condition that Milosevic accept Peres as his negotiator.

Israeli Policy

A wise political observer has offered a definition of appeasement appropriate to all three leading contenders for Prime Minister: "A person who continues to feed meat to a tiger in the hope the tiger will eventually become a vegetarian."

A Will to Live?

Recent Gallup polls reveal that only 3% of the public plan to vote for Benjamin Begin as Prime Minister less than the 4% planning to vote for Arab candidate Azmi Bishara who proclaims (as noted in last month's Outpost) the Jewish nation is "a fiction with no right to exist." What this means is that even Jewish residents in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the fate of their communities in the balance, have for the most part determined to vote for candidates who will abandon them. On March 15, a disheartened Begin issued an open letter to these communities:

"...[T]here is no doubt that Mr. Barak and Mr. Mordechai and Mr. Netanyahu plan to continue and abandon parts of Samaria, Judea and the Gaza Strip to the PLO and Hamas. The three have in effect resigned themselves to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the territory that has been transferred and will still be transferred to Arafat's control....From the standpoint of protecting our country, every vote given to Mr. Netanyahu or the Likud in the coming elections is a wasted vote. Moreover, such a vote means that the voter, a resident of Samaria, or Judea, or the Gaza Strip, not only has accepted the establishment of a PLO-Hamas state next to his home, but also effectively gives Mr. Netanyahu a license to continue abandoning the territory. If Mr. Netanyahu gets your support he will abandon the territory in your name."

Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis points out the folly of a settler vote for Netanyahu. Lerner argues: "This week when Ehud Barak proposed a national referendum to approve any treaties, Prime Minister Netanyahu called the elections a national referendum. Well the first round certainly is that. And that's the logic of the Begin candidacy. In the first round a vote for Netanyahu is not a vote for the 'viable alternative.' It is a vote endorsing the policies that Netanyahu actually followed these last three years." Lerner points out that the best way to let Netanyahu know the Hebron and Wye agreements were disasters is in the first round when a vote for Begin is a vote against the mistaken policies of the last three years. Since it is clear no one will get 50% of the vote, those opposing Netanyahu's policies -- and the residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza are necessarily foremost among them -- have the luxury of being able to vote for Begin in the first round, while leaving their options open for the final round.

Outpost               - 2 -               May 1999