Netanyahu's Unforced Errors

 

 

[In our time, the fruits of appeasement ripen overnight. df]

JPOST.COM, 03/23/2013

Erdogan: Too soon to drop case against IDF officers

Turkish PM says it is still too early to fully restore diplomatic ties with Israel, appoint new ambassadors; Hamas praises Erdogan for winning apology from Netanyahu on death of nine Turks in IDF raid of the 'Mavi Marmara.'

###

 

 

[It's an understatement to say I don't like Obama or his designs on Israel. But the last time I looked Israel was a grown-up nation and Netanyahu was a grown-up man, age 63. If you take a close look at his record – three terms as PM spanning three US presidents - you find a consistent trail of tragic cave-ins and costly betrayals spread all over the map. Wye, Hebron, Gaza, Bar Ilan, "the freeze,"and now a humiliating "apology" to Turkey that Netanyahu promised he would never give. (Which as you can see is starting to blow up in Israel's face.) Either Netanyahu has a low tolerance for "pressure," or he has something besides Israel's security on his mind. Choose one or the other, not both.

 

Are you beginning to see a pattern here? I do too. Bibi talks like a nationalist but walks like a leftist. True confessions. There was a moment or two which I thought were redeeming. Netanyahu's upbraiding of Obama in the Oval Office in 2011 and the tough noises he made in the run-up to the chalkboard pep talk the PM gave at the UN last year. That led me to believe that if he had to, Netanyahu would go against Iran alone. As it turned out, as it often does with the man, these were nothing but rhetorical flourishes signifying nothing - and I was wrong to cut Bibi the slack.

 

Hopefully, I've learned a lesson and so have a few more people in Israel and the USA too. In any event, the acid test will arrive by the end of this year. Come December, if Iran is still working on their nuclear weapons unmolested, no one can say that Netanyahu had fooled them again. And those who persist will earn the appropriate title - "diehards."

 

Still, I am not completely pessimistic. There is always the potential for a positive outcome. Israel is bigger than one man, and if her people choose life, the frenzied Arabs and the lunatics in Iran could yet keep Netanyahu honest. Mind you, that's a hope not a prediction. df]

 

 

 

Dan Friedman
NYC