Britannia Radio

Character Flaws and Systemic Flaws*

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

(May 3, 2011)

Back in September 1976, I had a private consultation with the political adviser to then Defense Minister Shimon Peres. I asked him, "What is Israel's major problem?" His surprisingly candid answer was, "We can’t lie as well as the Arabs."

I soon learned that Israeli prime ministers compete well with their Arab counterparts. They are second to none in lying about the "peace process." They are tongue-tied about the implacable hatred of Muslims toward Jews cultivated since the inception of Islam 1,400 years ago. Israel politicians lie because they lack the stamina to face the ugly truth that Islam’s theologically based hatred of "infidels" makes peaceful coexistence with Muhammad’s disciples impossible.

That murderous hatred, crystallized in the Quran, is preached in thousands of mosques throughout the civilized world where democracies, steeped in materialism, are again infected by the Munich syndrome.

Having often said this during the past few decades, I was happy to read Caroline Glick’s Jerusalem Post article of May 2nd "The Fatah Fairy Tale." Whether intended or not, her article should be construed as a devastating expose of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s appeasement of Mahmoud Abbas and the PA and to say Tzippi Livni would be worse merely avoids the issue

Glick’s article also reveals, perhaps unwittingly, Israel’s flawed system of multi-party or coalition cabinet government. I hope she will not object to my abbreviating, paraphrasing, and going a bit beyond her courageous article.

Glick begins by referring to an Arab Jerusalemite, Fahmi Shabaneh, who "joined the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service in 1994." Apparently, he was tasked by Mahmoud Abbas "with investigating Arab Jerusalemites suspected of selling land to Jews. Such sales are a capital offense in the PA.... A few years ago, he was put in charge of a unit responsible for investigating corrupt activities carried out by PA officials." For a while, says Glick, "Shabaneh collected massive amounts of information on senior PA officials detailing their illegal activities.

These activities included the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid; illegal seizure of land and homes; and monetary and sexual extortion of their fellow Palestinians."

"Over time," however, "Shabaneh became disillusioned with his boss." What happened was this. Shabaneh was appointed to his job "around the time Abbas was elected PA head in 2005. Abbas, remember, is head of Fatah, whose corruption and terrorist activities are notorious. Abbas says Glick, "ran on an anti-corruption platform. Shabaneh’s information demonstrated [however], that Abbas presided over a criminal syndicate posing as a government. And yet rather than arrest his corrupt, criminal associates, Abbas promoted them."

Glick then notes that "With Israel and the US lining up to support Abbas after the Hamas victory [in the PA's January 2006 election], Abbas sat on his hands. Enjoying his new status as the irreplaceable 'moderate,' he allowed his advisers and colleagues to continue enriching themselves with the international donor funds that skyrocketed after Hamas’s victory."

The reader may wonder why did the West tolerate this? But Glick acutely observes that "since Abbas was deemed irreplaceable, the same West that turns a blind eye to his corruption, refuses to criticize his encouragement of terrorism. And this makes sense," says Glick, for "How can the West question the only thing standing in the way of a Hamas takeover of Judea and Samaria?" (This may also explain Netanyahu’s cringing to Abbas to resume negotiations.)

Glick then informs us, "Recently, Shabaneh decided he had had enough [with Abbas]. The time had come to expose what he knows. But he ran into an unanticipated difficulty. No one wanted to know. As he put it, Arab and Western journalists wouldn’t touch his story for fear of being 'punished' by the PA…. In his words, "Western journalists 'don’t want to hear negative things about Fatah and Abbas.'" Nor is this all.

Glick notes that "The State Department had nothing to say [of the ugly truth about Abbas and the PA. The EU had nothing to say. TheNew York Times acted as if Shabaneh’s revelations were about nothing more than a sex scandal."

Moreover, says Glick, "Just as the mountains of evidence that Fatah officials have been actively involved in terrorist attacks against Israel have been systematically ignored by successive US administrations and EU foreign policy chiefs—and also by Israeli governments—so no one wants to think about the fact that Fatah is a criminal syndicate.

The implications," says Glick, "are too devastating."

Now our intrepid Ms. Glick approaches the crux of the matter and asks: "While the American and European allegiance to the fable of Fatah as the anchor of the two-state solution accounts for the indifference of both to Shabaneh’s disclosures, what accounts for the Netanyahu government’s behavior in this matter?" Bravo, Caroline!

She answers: "Official Israel has nothing to say about Shabaneh’s information. Instead, in the wake of its disclosures, everyone from Netanyahu to Defense Minister Ehud Barak has continued to daily proclaim their dedication to reaching a peace accord with Abbas." Glick offers "two explanations" for this supine behavior. "First, the presence of Barak and his Labor Party in the government," she says, "makes it impossible for Netanyahu and his Likud Party to abandon the failed two-state paradigm of dealing with the PA. If Netanyahu and his colleagues were to point out that the PA is a kleptocracy and its senior officials enable terror and escalate incitement to deflect their public’s attention away from their criminality (as well as because they want to destroy Israel), then Labor," she adds, "may bolt the coalition." [This, I must inject, is quite a commentary on the patriotism of Barak and his Labor Party.] Glick’s first explanation of the government’s supine behavior omits a crucial fact: that Israel’s system of multi-party cabinet government produces such disasters.

As for Glick second explanation of the government’s craven behavior, she says that Israel’s—meaning Netanyahu’s—"denunciation of Abbas and his mafia would enrage the US and EU." She goes on to make this devastating if not legally insinuating statement:

"Apparently, Netanyahu—who to please President Barack Obama accepted the two-state paradigm in spite of the fact that he opposes it, and suspended Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria despite the fact that he knows doing this is wrong—is loath to pick a fight by pointing out the obvious fact that the PA is a corrupt band of oppressive thieves." In this bald statement Glick virtually accuses Netanyahu of moral cowardice if not treachery.

In any event, Glick insists "that Israel must end its support for Abbas. Every day he remains in power, he perpetuates a myth of Palestinian moderation.

As a supposed moderate, he claims that Israel should curtail its counterterror operations and let his own 'moderate' forces take over."

What is more, says Glick, "To strengthen Abbas, the US pressures Israel to curtail its counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria. To please the US, Israel in turn cuts back its operations."

Glick is operating on Netanyahu with a scalpel and a sledge hammer!

Glick then fires another broadside at Israel’s self-inflated Defense Minister Barak, but which again implicates Israel’s decrepit system of coalition cabinet government.

"It is clear," she says, "that Barak will threaten to bolt the coalition if Netanyahu decides to cut off Abbas. But if Barak left," says Glick, "where would he go? Barak has nowhere to go. He will not be reelected to lead his party.

And if Labor leaves the coalition, Netanyahu would still be far from losing his majority in Knesset." (Good shot Caroline!) But if Glick’s assessment about Barak is correct, she allows us to infer that Netanyahu is a feckless fool.

Glick doesn’t have to make this explicit. She doesn’t have to name Netanyahu when she says: "As for angering the White House, the fact of the matter is that by pointing out that Abbas is not a credible leader, Israel will make it more difficult for Obama and his advisers to coerce Israel into making further concessions that will only further empower Hamas."

Ms. Glick concludes by saying the government must break with the fairy tale of Fatah moderation.

I ask: What prevents Netanyahu from doing this, apart from his less than heroic character? One answer is this. For Netanyahu to expose the Palestinian Authority as a kleptocratic terrorist organization is to incriminate not only his own past behavior as a pusillanimous appeaser of the PA.

It would also incriminate the reputations of his predecessors: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert. It would tacitly admit that these mendacious prime ministers are morally complicit in the murder, maiming, and traumatizing of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children.

These are my own conclusions, not Ms. Glick’s. But Israel is most fortunate in having this gallant lady as its premier political analyst. Let’s advance her as Israel's next Prime Minister.

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*My apologies. Some readers received a garbled version of this article.