We thank Guy Frankel for his critical help in translating these posts from the Facebook page of Meretz party chair Zehava Gal-On:
August 20th
Foreign Minister [Avidgdor] Lieberman recently wrote on his Facebook page, once again, [that] “we must subjugate Hamas!” (his emphasis). He even said that if I were Prime Minister I would “undertake a military operation to topple the Hamas government”.
If I’m not mistaken in counting, we are talking about the 3452nd has suggested to subjugate, trample, crush, and conquer Gaza, not only in the context of Operation “Protective Edge” but over the course of the last five years. I’m not really sure if Lieberman is serious regarding his infantile suggestions, since he usually makes these statements in front of TV cameras or on his Facebook page, yet when he sits in the cabinet meetings and has to make actual decisions, he’s a lot less “bold”.
So since Lieberman brought it up, if I were really Prime Minister, I would have made sure that we never even gotten to the point of launching “Protective Edge”. I would have, some time ago, frozen settlement construction, come to an agreement with Abu Mazen over the peace process with the backing of the Arab League and the international community, and recognized the Palestinian unity government so that there would be someone to talk to in the Gaza Strip.
But if after 64 dead soldiers, 2000 dead Palestinians, and the fact that residents of the south are still living under rocket fire after this operation that didn’t change a thing, the Foreign Minister is still talking nonsense with populist statements about “deterrence”, I know exactly what I would do if I were Prime Minister–I would have sent him home.
Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed this evening at a press conference his new spin: “a new diplomatic horizon”. We know how good Bibi is at making statements, we all remember the promising speech at Bar-Ilan, but no one is going to buy this bluff. Netanyahu was given a blank check for the last five years to promote a diplomatic horizon, and instead he chose the path of stagnation, a dangerous treading of water, procrastination, victimization, and political resistance.
Over the course of the last 9 months, during the period of “sort-of” negotiations with Abu Mazen, he frantically built settlements, refused to recognize the peace initiative of the Arab League, didn’t place his map on the table [for what a final settlement would look like], caused difficulties and invented excuses, ended negotiations due to the establishment of a Palestinian unity government, and dragged us into a war in Gaza.
Does anyone think that a hesitant Prime Minister, who is cowardly and passive and unwilling to take risks really going to promote a “diplomatic horizon”? The Prime Minister’s new spin will not only fail to bring security to the residents of the south and throughout Israel, it’s simply not feasible. Not because there is no diplomatic horizon, but because Netanyahu is not going to change: His strategy is to manage the conflict, provided that he doesn’t have to make any touch decisions.
In order for us to live with the hope that we will overcome the desperation that we are engulfed in during this period, we don’t need catch phrases from Netanyahu’s spinologists, but rather elections that will replace this awful government.
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