Ediblog.com
Playing Israeli Politician
By Ariel Natan Pasko
Dr. Yossi Beilin - let's not forget the man has a PhD - is truly following
in the footsteps of his political mentor Shimon Peres. "Peres'
Poodle," as former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called Beilin, has had
a dream of "peace" and recently acted out his fantasy at Geneva.
Like Peres, he's been rejected in the electoral realm of politics. And also
like Peres, since the Israeli electorate rejected him, and he knows
"better," Beilin has pursued his "dream" into other
realms. Beilin himself has called the Geneva Initiative - he helped author -
a "virtual" agreement that he hopes to make real.
From the 1970's-90's, Shimon Peres had been up and down the Labor Party
ladder of leadership. His arch nemesis was Yitzhak Rabin. Twice Yitzhak
Rabin led the Labor Party to electoral success. Twice Peres succeeded him as
prime minister - in parliamentary fashion - without being elected, after
unfortunate circumstances caused Rabin's fall. The first time Rabin fell
after the discovery of his wife's illegal foreign currency bank account in
America; the second time, with his murder. But the oddest fact of all is
that Peres has run for prime minister five times and lost five elections,
yet been prime minister three times. How has he managed to circumvent the
Israeli people's will?
We might not fully understand it, but Beilin does. He has managed to learn
the lessons well. What the people of Israel think, and how they vote is
neither hear nor there, it doesn't count. What counts is Beilin's
"dream." And what is Beilin's "dream"?
Dr. Yossi Beilin - a shrewd political scientist - during the last Israeli
election season received too low a position during the internal Labor
primary to be realistically elected to the Knesset - Israel's parliament -
so he moved to the further-left Meretz Party. He managed to get himself put
on the party's election list, but Meretz didn't get that many votes and
Beilin didn't get into the Knesset, the first time since 1988. Yossi Beilin,
like his mentor Shimon Peres lost the election.
But Beilin had already tasted power. He's been Deputy Minister of Finance,
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Economics and Social
Development, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Minister of Justice,
and Minister of Religious Affairs. His political drive toward the top seemed
unstoppable. Then the debacle called the "Oslo Process" became
apparent, and Yossi Beilin's secret back-channel involvement in formulating
the whole Oslo thing lost him credibility with "Joe Israeli," who
hasn't been too happy with the three-year-old Oslo War. Beilin paid
the price, the way politicians do in democratic countries - if Israel was
like it's neighbors, he probably would have been executed - instead he lost
an election and was drummed out of political life, temporarily.
But Joseph-Yossi had a "dream." So, he organized a political
movement called Shachar-Dawn to push it forward. Yossi has been driven since
the beginning of the 1990's to bring "peace" to Israel, or at
least, like his mentor, to get himself to the top of the political ladder.
Yossi understood that Israel was going through some hard economic times, so
like the Joseph of the Bible, he proposed a "new social-democratic
party." Swerving away from his obsession of "peace," Yossi
spoke words of social equality and economic justice just long enough to
build himself into a "complete" politician, with a full range of
policies. With the Geneva Initiative in his back pocket, bankrolled by
Switzerland and other EU states - who want to set-up the Geneva Initiative
as a counter-balance to the US's Road Map - he's cajoled members of the
Meretz Party to merge with Shachar. Yossi now stands to run for the
leadership of a combined party presently called Meretz-Ya'ad.
Joseph-Yossi had a "dream," he would be a leader over his
brothers. And so, Yossi Beilin spoke to the people's fears of economic
catastrophe. He promised he could "fix the economy" and bring
"peace" too. So, Yossi and his friends negotiated a "peace
agreement" unofficially, as private citizens - remember the Israeli
government does not back the Geneva Initiative - with private Palestinian
citizens.
It's not clear how much Arafat, or the Palestinian government supports the
Geneva Initiative, but it is known there have been several large
demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza against the agreement, and
Palestinian Authority religious leaders have issued a "Fatwa" -
Islamic legal ruling - forbidding any Muslim from signing an agreement that
gives up the so-called "right-of-return" of "Palestinian
Refugees." Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Arafat's own Fatah have circulated
leaflets calling the Palestinians involved with the agreement "traitors
and collaborators," and called for them to be brought to trial.
But Yossi has a "dream" and a little opposition from Israelis or
Palestinians won't stop him, especially since he has a blank check from
Europe to chase his "dream." The Europeans finally found
their way and their "boy" to weasel into what had up to now been
an exclusively American adventure, the "peace process."
Circumventing Israel's democracy is second nature to the "poodle,"
just as his mentor taught. By the way, Shimon Peres himself has expressed
serious reservations about the Geneva Initiative, including the giving away
of the Temple Mount to the Palestinians and any further Jewish claims to it.
So have most prominent politicians in Israel, including those from both
large parties, Labor and Likud.
By linking Israeli fears of economic collapse, to Yossi's "dream,"
of Middle East peace, he is positioning himself to run for prime minister in
the future. But as the biblical Joseph - who really wasn't in charge - only
second to Pharaoh, Yossi Beilin if he ever became prime minister of Israel,
is in the pocket of the Europeans.
Yossi Beilin, the student of Israel's preeminent political animal, is on a
destructive collision course with Jewish history. Like the biblical Joseph
story in reverse, he seems willing to trade Israeli rights for grain, i.e.
EU money. But whereas the biblical Joseph was doing G-D's will to help
Egypt, who would later preserve the small nascent Jewish People - his
father, brothers and family - during the famine, Yossi Beilin is willing to
endanger Israel in a poorly worded suicidal "peace agreement," and
destroy Jewish culture in the process.
Joseph had a dream, he would rule over his brothers for their sake and G-D's
plan; Yossi "dreams" to lead for his own selfish interests, and it
doesn't matter how many Jews die in the next war after the "peace
agreement" is signed and sovereignty over vast areas of the
"Promised Land" are transferred to the Palestinians. The proof of
it is that he hasn't expressed any regret about the approximately 1,300
Israelis killed in the last ten years because of his "Oslo dream."
Joseph tried to preserve life during a famine; Yossi wants to throw more
than 100,000 Jewish "settlers" out of their homes and impoverish
them. And by moving the borders of "Palestine" closer to Israel's
population centers, put millions of Jews on the front lines.
Yossi has a "dream," but if it comes true, it will become Israel's
nightmare!