Posted on 08/19/2002 3:57:39 PM PDT by 1bigdictator
08/19/2002
Israel's Most Dangerous Politician
by Steven Plaut Arutz Sheva August 18, 2002 The world's media is suddenly all ecstatic at the fact that Generalissimo Amram Mitzna has decided to toss his kafiya into the race for Labor Party chief. Because Mitzna is to the left of the current party chief, ‘Fuad’ Ben-Eliezer, and indeed is to the left of Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, the Jewish anti-survivalist Left is celebrating, and the world's anti-Jewish media has discovered a new great messiah of hope and peace. If Mitzna takes the Labor chiefdom and then gets elected prime minister, or so the media think, he will lead Israel down the Oslo path to its dénouement of complete surrender and national suicide.
Mitzna is just the latest in an endless series of retired generals from the Israeli military (generals retire in their 40s usually) who then enter politics, almost always through the Labor Party. Most of these emerge as ultra-doves and similar lefties. The worst of these took over leadership in the Labor Party and led the country into its current lake of blood. Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak were arguably the two worst prime ministers the country ever had. They were both ex-generals who led the country to the brink of self-destruction. Many other leftist ex-generals occupied numerous other power positions in Labor.
Which brings us back to Mitzna. Amram Mitzna is the slick Clinton-in-a-beard far-leftist mayor of Haifa. He is soft-spoken and eloquent and may be the dirtiest and most corrupt politician in the country.
Mitzna had been the general in charge of the central command during the ‘First Intifada’ of the late 1980s, when most of the violence was in his turf. He dealt with it by introducing the New Strategy of defeating Palestinian savagery by understanding it and showing his good will and empathy for the rioters. When he left the army, he parachuted into Haifa, where he had never been a resident, a city that has yet to have its first non-Labor Party mayor, and ran for mayor. As mayor of Haifa, Mitzna spent a great deal of time courting the Far Left and letting everyone know he would be willing to take the country to new depths of leftist Oslo self-debasement and self-destruction. He is in favor of holding appeasement talks with the PLO even while the PLO mass-murders Jews. He supports concessions to the PLO even beyond those Yossi Beilin would offer. His strategy is to challenge the other Labor leaders from the Left and garner Arab support for his candidacy. In other words, he is more Ehud Barak than Ehud Barak himself. As mayor, he repeatedly courted and spoke before the Arab communist party Hadash.
Despite his cultivated speech and smooth manner, Mitzna is a corrupt Tammany Hall politician who runs Haifa like a petit Indonesian gangster or Third World crony gang leader. His strategy has been to build up a power base at the expense of Haifa residents by striking corrupt dirty deals with large contractors and builders having Party connections. In a typical Mitzna deal, a contractor is granted special zoning variances that allow him to build a 40 story tower on a plot of land zoned for 3 stories and to pocket $40 million in undeserved profit, or to construct a shopping mall on land that belongs to the public or is supposed to be a park. In gratitude, the contractor than quids Mitzna's quo, including funding his political career. One contractor made so much money on the mall Mitzna allowed him to build illegally that he could put in a bid for acquiring the Israeli national telecom company. Mitzna has sought to turn Haifa into a Hong Kong of 50 story monsters all to benefit his crony friends. ‘Hizzonah’ Mitzna used Haifa as a base to build up a war chest and a power base, waiting his chance to challenge the Labor Party machine and take over the party leadership. His chance came when Ehud Barak crashed and self-imploded.
It is not clear whether Mitzna actually believes in anything other than getting himself elected. It is not clear whether Israel would survive a period of Mitzna reign over the country.
For the lastest news from Jerusalem, Israel and the Jewish World visit
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.