Are his statements to the effect that a two-state solution is imperative for Israel’s demographic future merely lip service or does he really believe this thesis? Is his commitment to the negotiations earnest or is it a cynical and political game of survival in which Netanyahu is leading the Americans, the Palestinians and chiefly his justice minister, Tzipi Livni, by the nose and all he wants is to buy time so that he can continue clinging to the premiership?
Having followed Netanyahu since his return to Israel in 1988, after serving as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, and his subsequent immersion in local politics, most Israeli commentators are convinced that the latter scenario is the correct one. Netanyahu is not a radical ideologue. He is a professional survivalist. He will do anything to remain in office. He is not cut out for making big decisions. He doesn't care to leave his mark on history. He doesn’t have that kind of personality. The only mark on history he does want to leave behind is to break the record of longest-serving Israeli premier, a record that David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, still holds. Netanyahu will soon break this record, but then what?
Israel is witnessing an intense internal struggle between the moderates and the extremists. It’s a struggle between a pragmatic public willing to pay a high price for quiet — Israelis want quiet; peace is something only a handful believe in — and those who want to make noise, thinking the bigger the commotion, the better the situation. Espousing the theory of chaos, the latter believe that the closer we get to Armageddon, the more we will be able to formulate the rules of the game and maybe reshape the entire region. In other words, what they want is to establish the third Jewish kingdom, set up a Palestinian state in Jordan and annex all the occupied territories.
By April 11, an outpost inhabited by such radicals remained in the settlement of Yitzhar. Earlier in the week, the police demolished a few illegal structures that settlers from Yitzhar had erected. In response, a few dozen students from the extremist rabbinical college Od Yosef Chai, located inside the settlement, proceeded toward a small military post established to defend the residents. Expelling the six reservists sleeping there, they then went on to completely vandalize the premises. Never in the history of clashes between the police and military and radical settlers has such an incident been recorded, whereby the radicals defy the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — the sovereign in the territories — and simply trash a military bivouac.
In response, the IDF, on April 11 took over the Od Yosef Chai rabbinical college, whose activity has been discontinued. Defense Minister Moshe "Bogie" Ya’alon decided that he has had it up to his neck. Enough was enough. Drawing his political strength from the settlers, Ya’alon — with his hawkish views and mistrust of the Palestinian leadership — has become the settlers’ darling. That, however, does not make him an anarchist. Straight as an arrow, Ya’alon views the rule of law as his guiding principle. So if the Yitzhar settlers managed to upset him, it means a red line has been crossed. Thus, in Yitzhar, the IDF reclaimed its sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. Israel’s problem is that it isn’t only the radical settlers who threaten to rob the IDF of its sovereignty. The Palestinians, with the whole world behind them, also have their eyes set on that.
Netanyahu finds himself right in the middle of it all. Being in a precarious situation, he knows that he must pursue the negotiations with the Palestinians. The prospects of the Palestinians being inducted as a state by the UN, dragging Israel to various international tribunals while concurrently advancing the boycott of Israel in various forums, simply terrify the Israeli premier. At the same time, he is well-aware that if he goes the extra mile vis-a-vis the Palestinians, he will lose his coalition, the political right and his status as the “leader of the right-wing” to Bennett.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/04/ron-dermer-netanyahu-obama-republican-party-bennett.html##ixzz2ymo2CVho
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