Posted on 04/05/2002 4:46:31 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Although Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that if he were in charge, he would make Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial incursions into the Palestinian territories look like casual weekend maneuvers, Sharon has elected to dub the former prime minister as his public relations point man, according to a Voice of Israel radio broadcast Thursday.
After leaving a meeting with Sharon, Netanyahu announced that he would be leaving for the United States next week – to do what he has already been doing: stating the Israeli cause in the strongest and clearest terms, including his personal mantra that the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat must go.
According to the radio report, translated by BBC, Netanyahu accepted the P.R. position under the condition that he would not coordinate his information campaign with the foreign ministry but rather deliver the same messages he has already been touting in Israel, the U.S. and around the world.
One of those messages, said Netanyahu after the meeting, is that the Israel Defense Forces should "complete” the military operations in Palestine, without giving in to pressure from whatever source to withdraw prematurely.
That same day Netanyahu appeared on Russian TV with some of his standard hard-line rhetoric: "Imagine that in Chechnya they didn't just want what they are seeking today, but imagine the Chechens saying that they wanted to seize Moscow and destroy Russia as a country! What would there be to discuss with them then?”
If You Can’t Beat Them …
Israel watchers see the move by Sharon as curious but perhaps canny. Netanyahu has consistently been challenging Ariel Sharon, the sitting prime minister from his own Likud Party. Netanyahu’s featured criticism: Sharon has been soft on ending terror by failing to aggressively take steps to remove Arafat.
For his part, Sharon knows that Netanyahu seeks to regain the prime minister’s post, and, furthermore, that his personal popularity and job performance evaluations are down in the polls while Netanyahu’s star is once again rising.
Last month Time reported that one poll showed 73 percent were unhappy with Sharon’s government, and two right-wing ministers had already quit because of potential early elections. Time also noted that Netanyahu was "ready to pounce” if Sharon’s coalition collapses or when the government’s term expires in 2003.
Netanyahu became prime minister in 1996, but was roundly defeated by Ehud Barak in 1999’s general election. Since the raging bloodletting of the current intifadah, however, Netanyahu has been steadily moving up in his own party.
In the 3,000-member Likud central committee, Sharon has the support of 630 members, and Netanyahu has 1,680 in his corner, according to a recent Israeli press poll.
A popular feature of the refurbished Netanyahu image has been his continued reminders to all who will listen that under his administration, Arafat was contained and deterred, and the average Israeli could live without fear of constant impromptu suicide bombings.
Comparing Arafat to bin Laden
Netanyahu has been winning support from more than his party. Reacting to the latest position statement by President Bush, noted Israeli writer Norman Podhoretz wrote in the Jerusalem Post of his frustration with the American president:
"[Someday] He will understand that negotiating with the Arafat or his henchmen can no more result in security for Israel than the United States can protect itself against future attacks by negotiating with Osama bin Laden or any other anti-American terrorists.”
As for Netanyahu, he has been all over the American media – since well before receiving his semi-official status from Sharon. Some recent examples of his uncompromising talk:
CNN: "So I think the only difference between him and Hamas is that Hamas calls for Israel’s destruction in Arabic and in English, whereas Arafat only does it in Arabic.”
Fox: "But I think the important thing is the regime has to go, and the regime has to go because the only way you fight terror - you don't fight terror by going after the needle, the individual terrorist in the haystack, you go after the haystack.”
CNBC: "Well, I think I've said more than once, and maybe to you, and I'll say it again. Yes, I would let him go, I just wouldn't let him come back. And I think that removing him and his regime would enable, first of all, the possibility of democratization, of freedom.”
ABC: "I think Arafat is as bad as they come, and the only difference between Arafat and bin Laden is that we know where Arafat is, that's the only difference.”
CBS: "Hell, he was offered a Palestinian state and all of the - the West Bank - Judea, Samaria and Gaza, with half of Jerusalem as its capital, with the uprooting - not the freezing - the uprooting of dozens of settlements just less than two years ago at the Camp David Summit. He turned it down because he doesn't want a state next to Israel, he wants a state instead of Israel.”
Arafat is flaunting his victory that was given to him by the US, right in our face.
Now we will truely see if we are truely fighting terrorism or cowtowing to the Arabs.
If you want on or off me Israel/MidEast ping list please let me know. Via Freepmail is best way.............
So we PRAY!!! An end to the traitor, Peres.
Bibi can remind viewers and comotose liberals how Bill Clinton, James Carville & Co conspired to interfer with the history of Israel by working to elect Barak. I would love for Netanyahu to discuss whether or not Marc Rich money paid Carville's salary when he worked for Barak.
And most of all, I would love to see intelligent speculation on how this current crisis would never have happened if we hadn't had the Barak regime in place during the last few years of the Clinton administration. Barak and Clinton totally screwed the peace process...that's what happens when personal legacy becomes more important than anything else....even world peace.
That's nuts. Could you imagine Dick Cheney and Condi Rice spreading conflicting messages for long? It's unthinkable.
If that's right, I withdraw my protest. Peres needs to be completely undercut. He's the Jewish version of Jimmy Carter.
Goodbye haystack!
"The peace process" are three words.
And the three words are the Titanic.
Barak and Clinton merely rearranged the deck chairs.
And in so doing assumed Absolute ownership, operation, control of -- and responsibility for -- Daschle Arafat and all of his murderers and of all of his subsequent murders.
Thats me..and it is excellent news.
Bibi should be careful. He could be accused of being cruel, as such logical statements might cause a dangerous process to begin in the minds of liberals and other mentally handicapped people - namely, rational thought.
Yep. I saw him on Fox News last night and I was throwing stuff at the TV.
It's times like these when we wish we could delete a previosly posted message here on FR...LOL!
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