There’s been quite a bit of commentary in the US blogosphere about the unsourced observation in this Haaretz article today that Israeli PM Netanyahu has been heard to refer to Obama’s two high political advisers Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod as “self-hating Jews.”
Be that as it may. It strikes me that the much bigger story in the article, which is by Barak Ravid, is the picture he paints of disarray and something approaching panic in the high ranks of Netanyahu’s administration.
This, at a time in which Pres. Obama and his team have been maintaining their firm pressure on Netanyahu to completely freeze Israel’s construction of its quite illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
So far, neither side has backed down in this confrontation– though Obama has not yet taken any of the real-world policy measures that are potentially at his command, to back up his demand on Netanyahu.
Their conflict thus currently has many of the aspects of a staring match. Who will blink first? Or will Obama do something else that might radically change the nature of this engagement?
Ravid starts out today’s article by reporting on a press conference the centrist Kadima Party– currently in opposition– organized yesterday, 100 days into Netanyahu’s premiership, under the banner “100 days, zero gains. It’s the same old Bibi.”
Netanyahu responded in what looked like a distinctly panicky way, dispatching five of his advisers to quickly hold their own counter-press conference– though with no clear and discernible theme.
Ravid:
- An atmosphere of permanent crisis has surrounded Netanyahu’s bureau ever since he took office, so it was no surprise that the press conference also had an air of panic. The five advisers – National Security Adviser Uzi Arad, cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser, director general of the Prime Minister’s Office Eyal Gabai, political adviser Ron Dermer and Nir Hefetz, who heads the public relations desk – arrived at the meeting without a prearranged, uniform message. Over and over, they cut each other off.
… [D]espite the unified front they tried to present, it is clear that all of Netanyahu’s aides dislike each other: They are constantly badmouthing each other and blaming each other for leaks. Arad, for example, demanded that Hauser undergo a lie-detector test and is now demanding the same of Hefetz. And the latter two say “it is impossible to work with” Arad.
Compounding the problem is an inexperienced bureau chief, Natan Eshel, and a former spokesman, Yossi Levy, who is still clinging to his office and refusing to give it up to his replacement, Hefetz – who, for his part, is kept out of half the discussions.
Netanyahu appears to be suffering from confusion and paranoia. He is convinced that the media are after him, that his aides are leaking information against him and that the American administration wants him out of office…
It was in this context that Ravid wrote,
- To appreciate the depth of [Netanyahu’s] paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama’s senior aides: as “self-hating Jews.”
Now it is possible that Ravid was doing this reporting from a personal perspective that might be pretty much pro-Kadima.
Kadima, remember, stayed out of Netanyahu’s coalition because its leaders decided they wanted to hear Netanyahu firmly expressing support for the goal of a two-state solution with the Palestinians. (Which he finally did a couple of weeks ago, but only in a very circumspect way.)
There is certainly one way of looking at a possible US strategy wherein if Washington presses Netanyahu very hard on the settlement freeze and other peace-process issues, at some point his present rightist coalition partners would leave the coalition and Livni could step in and impose a few conditions of her own.
Or even take over completely as PM and form her own governing coalition.
Kadima did, after all, get one more seat in the February elections than Likud did. And unlike Labour leader Ehud Barak, who effectively broke his party in two because he was so eager to be Netanyahu’s Defense Minister, Livni has done a good job of holding Kadima together, despite the party’s many apparent internal ideological contradictions.
I imagine it is this idea that a powerful and credible Livni is just waiting in the wings for his coalition to split that is spooking Netanyahu these days– and a big reason why he is so resentful of the pressure he evidently feels he is under from Washington.
Anyway, to me that’s the importance of Ravid’s story today. The “self-hating Jews” business strikes me– if indeed Netanyahu said it– as pretty par for the course within Israel’s famously hard-fighting political culture.
The funniest part of the Haaretz article was this:
“He thought that his speech at Bar-Ilan would become mandatory reading at schools in the United States, and when he realized that Obama gave no such order, he went back to being frustrated,” one of his associates said.
Bibi went to high school in the US, didn’t he? And college too? And he thinks that the POTUS can just issue a decree mandating that a speech be read in schools across the US?!
It’s called grandiosity, Lars, one of the primary characteristics of the disorder known as narcissism
@Lars: I think the “associate” was indulging in sarcasm at Bibi’s expense.
@Helena: What do you think of the idea (which some writers are promoting) that Rahm Emanuel isn’t really into the two-state solution, but just wants Netanyahu replaced by Livni as PM because she would essentially follow the same policies as Netanyahu (the same policies every Israeli government for years has followed: expand settlements, stonewall the peace process, and occasionally slaughter Palestinians when they get uppity) but with more sugar on top? In other words, the idea is that Rahm doesn’t really want a Palestinian state, but he wants an Israeli PM who won’t be as obvious as Bibi (to say nothing of Avigdor Lieberman) about opposing the two-state solution. I’m not sure I completely buy this, but it doesn’t seem inconsistent with the available evidence so far.
“the same policies every Israeli government for years has followed: expand settlements, stonewall the peace process, and occasionally slaughter Palestinians when they get uppity”
Make that every Israeli government since 1967.
“It’s called grandiosity, Lars, one of the primary characteristics of the disorder known as narcissism”
Actually, grandiosity is more so one of the characteristics of a bi polar disorder, Shirin
Actually, Naseer, grandiosity is part of the definition of NPD, and is the first diagnostic criterion. That is why NPD is often referred to as the “God complex”.
Here is the definition:
“A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts…”
And the first three characteristics listed:
– “Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).”
– “Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.”
– “Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions).”
It’s the economy stupid! What Kadima MKs meant when they said “It’s the Same Bibi” referred mostly to what brought his first adminstration down – the economy.
Just this week, he backed down from removing the excemption that would allow charging VAT on fruits and vegetables. Up until now, he had consistently maintained that this was critical to his economic plan. To make matters worse, he publicly embarassed his minister of finance, who was sitting next to him, and who earlier that day was telling the press that the bill would pass despite oppositin from within the Likud.
The issue of settlements and two states is currently seen internally as relatively minor, or within the general context of Netanyahu not doing well under pressure. On the other hand, I suspect that Obama looks like he’s going to have a lot more than he bargained for on his plate. (Has anybody else noticed how visibly gray he’s become over the past 100 days? Usually it takes till the end of the first term.)
BTW, Shaul Mofaz is only one step away from bolting Kadima and taking a few MKs with him. There’s even a bill (the “Mofaz Law”) in the Knesset that I believe is now in its final reading that would allow him to do this with fewer MKs than previously allowed. (It would allow a Knesset faction to break away from its parent party based on an absolute number of MKs, instead of a relative proportion.)
Gee Shirin. Are you giving us a clinical definition of your affliction?
“…they wanted to hear Netanyahu firmly expressing support for the goal of a two-state solution with the Palestinians. (Which he finally did a couple of weeks ago, but only in a very circumspect way.)”
What Netanyahu expressed “support” for lacked most of the basic prerequisites to qualify as a state, therefore I would not say he expressed “support” for a two-state solution.
And I don’t find Livni better in any real way than Netanyahu. In fact, Netanyahu might actually be better because he does not have the sense to pretend to be anything other than what he is, and therefore makes absolutely clear what is going on. Livni would be like hiding the cancer with a band aid, while Netanyahu makes the diagnosis very clear.
So far, neither side has backed down in this confrontation– though Obama has not yet taken any of the real-world policy measures that are potentially at his command, to back up his demand on Netanyahu.
How does failure to take real-world policy measures differ from backing-down?
How does enabling mass-murder when you could prevented it differ from mass-murder itself?
Netanyahu Adviser Hints at Need for Even Bigger Nuclear Arsenal
Uzi Arad, the National Security Adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today rose the spectre of the nation’s mutually assured destruction doctrine, and said that Israel would need to dramatically strengthen its arsenal to ensure that the nation has the ability to totally destroy Iran in case they decide to attack.
Arad insisted that Israel must “become tremendously powerful, and create a situation in which no one will dare to realize the ability to harm us.” The Israeli government has a significant undeclared nuclear arsenal which it occasionally accidentally admits too.
Iran, by contrast, is a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has no nuclear arsenal….
Widely regarded as Netanyahu’s most trusted adviser, the hawkish Arad has been an outspoken opponent of Palestinian statehood and has called for measures to reduce their numbers through “family planning” initiatives. Despite his pretense at seeking to shore up Israel’s retaliatory capabilities, Arad has also been a long-time advocate of attacking Iran.
The Green Light for Israel’s attack on Iran is going to turn out to be the smoking gun that morphs into the mushroom cloud that Condoleezza Rice fantasized in Iraq.
Saying you’re sorry is not going to be of much note at that point in time.