For at least 25 years most Israeli statesmen have been lying, misleading the world, the Israelis and themselves, until Netanyahu arose. Better late than never.
By Gideon Levy for Ha'aretz | Mar. 22, 2015
I would like to say thank you to
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thank you for telling the truth. Last
week you were revealed as the first Israeli prime minister to tell the
truth. For at least 25 years most Israeli statesmen have been lying,
misleading the world, the Israelis and themselves, until Netanyahu arose
– he of all statesmen – and told the truth. If only this truth had been
told by an Israeli prime minister 25 years ago, maybe even 50 years
ago, when the occupation was born. Still, better late than never. The
public rewarded him for this truth, and Netanyahu was elected for a
fourth term.
Netanyahu said last week that if he were to be
reelected, a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch.
Plain and simple, loud and clear. This simple, pure truth was the case
for all his predecessors as well – all the prime ministers, peace lovers
and justice seekers from the center and the left, who gave false
promises. But who thought to admit it before him? Who had the courage to
reveal the truth? The latest of these deceivers was Zionist Union
leader Isaac Herzog: His daring plan included five years of
negotiations. The public rewarded him for that.
After all, one
had to deceive the Americans, bluff the Europeans and cheat the
Palestinians, fudge things for the Mideast Quartet and lie to some
Israelis. One also had to play for time, to build settlements and get
rid of every possible Palestinian partner – Yasser Arafat, who was too
strong; President Mahmoud Abbas, who is too weak; and Hamas, which is
too extreme. One has to play for time, so the Palestinians become more
extreme and everyone understands that there’s no one to talk to.
Now comes the man who is considered a bluffer, and only he tells the
fateful, historic truth: there will be no Palestinian state. Not during
his term, which now seems eternal. And not after it, because by then it
will be too late. The end of negotiations, the end of games. No more
shuttle diplomacy, Quartets, emissaries, processes, outlines, mediators
and plans. That’s it; it will not happen.
It had no chance from
the very beginning. In Israel, there was not one single prime minister –
including the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates – who intended for one
second to let a Palestinian state be established. But the bluff of the
century was convenient for everyone. Now Netanyahu has put an end to it.
If Israel had played its cards openly from the outset, as Netanyahu has
done now, perhaps we would be in a different place, a better place.
If only Israel had told the truth: that it covets the occupied
territory for itself and will never give it up; that hundreds of
thousands of Jews are living there and it has no intention of evacuating
them; that it does not care about international law, and cares nothing
for what the whole world thinks; that the Palestinians have no rights
there; that Abraham our patriarch is buried there; that Rachel our
matriarch weeps there; that Israel’s security depends on it, and that
the Holocaust is at the door. The reasons are many and varied, and they
all say one thing – now and forever, from Hebron to Jenin. Yes to
autonomy, to self-administration, to village leagues or a Palestinian
Authority. But no to a state. Never.
If an honest leader like
Netanyahu had arisen years ago, we Israelis would have known, the
Palestinians would have known, and so would the whole world: it will not
be. Then it would have been possible to deal with other solutions,
instead of wasting time cheating, time in which hatred only grew and
blood spilled for nothing. We could have begun long ago to think of
alternatives to the two-state solution – and there’s only one: one
state. And we could have begun debating what regime it would have – and
there are only two: democracy or apartheid. Instead, we were misled.
Now Benjamin Netanyahu has come and put an end to all this. We must be
grateful to him for this. History will remember that he was the first
Israeli prime minister to speak the
truth.