Labor to Barak: wipe that silly smile off your face and stop waving that middle finger at me.
Ehud Barak’s self-regard knows no bounds. But one thing about him is endlessly amusing: he has no sense of irony. Take this wonderful statement from the Jerusalem Post:
Barak said that the faction’s agenda will be “first of all the state, then the party, then the media, and only then ourselves.” He vowed that he and Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, Simhon, Deputy Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Orit Noked, and Wilf would “do what’s best and what’s right for Israel.”
Let’s reverse that: first of all for Barak, then for his media stenographers, then the State. Notice I left out Party because he has none. He is a party of one, the Party of Self-Regard.
Barak even dissed his former ally Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who resigned today as trade minister rather than continue to play Barak’s game by remaining in the ruling coalition. Barak, according to Gideon Levy, called the former Israeli general, “post Zionist.” Imagine, Ehud’s playing the Im Tirzu game. He talks like Meir Rotter spitting leftists from his mouth like broken teeth.
I don’t know what Fuad is planning. There can’t be much remaining of the Labor Party’s carcass after the vultures pick it clean. But at least he did the principled thing and gave up his ministerial portfolio when he saw the handwriting on the wall. More than you can say for the other guy.
Bibi gave me another laugh when he claimed that Ehud’s split from Labor strengthens his coalition. I love it when a politician tries to aggrandize hisself and in the process disproves the very point he’s trying to make:
“The government has grown much stronger today, in its governance, in its stability — and this is important for Israel. The whole world knows, and the Palestinians know, that this government will be around for the next few years and that it is with this government that they should negotiate for peace.”
Another deluded Israeli pol who thinks that his short political shelf life will outlast Palestinian steadfastness and suffering. Bibi himself admits he will be around for another few years (at most hopefully) and in effect tells the Palestinians to outlast him. Which they will. There is only one thing that ends suffering: justice. Not even death ends suffering when a nation is the one doing the suffering. Because the suffering is transferred from one generation to the next. By comparison, the life of an Israeli politician is but the wink of an eye.
It would appear from recent developments that those presently in control of Israel’s ship of state look set to be put over the side sometime in the not too distant future. A new hand at the tiller, in all probability that of Kadima’s Ms. Livni, may very well decide on a course other than that followed up till now.
But how much room will she have for manoeuvre? The overall position will not have changed all that much. There will still be many who feel themselves trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea; no apparent means of safe exit anywhere in prospect. And charting a course on such a storm-tossed voyage is not helped if the wind seems never to blow in the right direction.
Instead of sailing forever against the wind, it might make more sense to change tack and use its power to carry the vessel to landfall in a fraction of the time traditionally allowed for. And 60+ years of tradition might well be considered by some to be long enough.
Finding the answer here has always suffered from a surfeit of caution, an unwillingness to face challenges that are all too obvious and which, if left unresolved, will swamp every weak effort made to address them. If the way ahead is merely to be probed and prodded in the most tentative manner, testing the waters on each and every occasion, progress will be agonisingly slow. Much better to decide on one single route, cram on full sail and run the gauntlet of whatever comes alongside. Sometimes the sheer speed of an advance will carry the day whereas picking one’s way slowly through real or imagined dangers will only cause them to intensify, not diminish.
So, what is the fastest method that could be applied to the situation? What might yield the most immediate results?
More talks? More diplomatic activity? More foreign aid? More combatants with arsenals of bigger and better weaponry? Over the years, these seem to have prolonged the issues rather than remedied them. But whathen is there left to do? Keep on hoping for a miracle? Yes, I think a miracle is definitely needed and it may be up to all of us to produce it.
My own take on the matter would seem to parallel a visit to the dentist.
Sure, there may be some pain, not always the case and you might become a little more tense than is usual but, once the procedure is over, it’ll be an entire six months before the next check-up. Look after your teeth in the meantime and your next dental appointment might not be so bad. And the next. And the next.
As is well known in dental and other medical circles, prevention is always better than cure. And cure is always to be preferred over disease even if, at times, some small or even larger measure of discomfort is deemed necessary.
PS: My apologies for the many nautical references here; I think it’s because I once owned a small boat. Major apologies if the item on dentistry was not well received.
RE: Ehud Barak
MY SNARK: For some strange reason, the word ‘sleazy’ comes to mind.