Netanyahu is just a mirror

[geek tragedy]

Nations get the leaders they deserve, goes the saying. Given that Benjamin Netanyahu is about to become Israel's prime minister, we should ask what this teaches us about Israel in 2009.

Netanyahu is seemingly cosmopolitan. He grew up in the United States; he speaks excellent English and seems to know the world. In reality, though, he is locked into a worldview that is strikingly devoid of differentiation. Together with Avigdor Lieberman, he believes that Israel is the West's representative in the Middle East, but seems to have no clue that the West has largely washed its hands of Israel, because of its behavior. Behind his sophistication lies a worldview that is insular, suspicious and devoid of complexity.

Netanyahu is seemingly committed to the values of European liberalism - the rule of law and the idea of human rights - and he has been arguing for years that only the emergence of democracies in the Middle East will bring peace. But his proposal for what he calls an "economic peace" expresses a blatant disregard for human rights. It assumes that Palestinians will be quiet and happy if only they have better living conditions, and that their dignity and demand for self-determination can be swept under the carpet indefinitely. Since 1985, Netanyahu has been talking about terrorism as a force that has erupted onto the world scene, but he seems never to have taken into account that the movement he heads very much believed in such violence in the 1930s and 1940s, and he has never understood that Palestinian resistance is no different in its nature and motivation from Etzel and Lehi were in their day.

Israel prides itself on being the only real liberal democracy in the Middle East. Yet since 1967, it has acted as though it assumes that Palestinians are sub-human, and can be appeased with the perks offered them by Israel for serving its economy. All governments since 1974, including Rabin's and Barak's, have expanded settlements, operating under the assumption that trampling human rights and the dignity of Palestinians is a viable course of action. It has never internalized the understanding that liberal democracy is an all-or-nothing affair: Either all humans, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or color have the same rights, or liberal democracy becomes a sham.

We should not be angry at Benjamin Netanyahu; after all, he only presents Israel a mirror of its own choices. Looking in the mirror is not always a pleasant experience. It can make you see that you have grown into a nation that has little reason to be proud of its choices. But sometimes looking in the mirror can also be the first step toward deciding that it is time for change.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072521.html

Israel is something of an island now--the Western democracies consider it part and parcel of the Middle East, while its neighbors still view it as a foreign invader or toe-hold for imperialist interests. Is this tenable?

[Viva_Daddy]

1. We shouldn't gloat. Bush was our mirror.

[geek tragedy]

2. And he's been repudiated. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

3. After eight years. I hope Nutty doesn't last eight months!