Thursday, December 28, 2006

Tsipi Livni Goes Solo on Olmert

Israeli FM Tsipi Livni with U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice last February (State Dept.)


Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is said to be furious about reports that Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni met with Fatah officials Yasser Abed Rabbo and Salam Fayyad earlier in the week. Livni apparently organized the meetings without Olmert's approval or knowledge. According to Ha'aretz, she
outlined her plan to negotiate with moderate Palestinians and shape the future of the peace process. She advocates an Israeli pullout from the West Bank east of the separation fence and the establishment of a Palestinian state - which would also be the solution to the Palestinian refugee problem - in the evacuated area.
No wonder Olmert is ticked off. Here is someone finally showing initiative and an interest in some kind of progress. In a recent post, Zach, over at Epichorus, quips that
Unlike President George W. Bush, who has conveniently shortened his title of Commander-in-Chief to "The Decider," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cannot even make the decision whether or not to change his title to "The Vacillitor."
Livni is making him look bad.

I don't know if there is a Tsipi-bandwagon yet, and I'm not sure I would jump on it, but Israel desperately needs some real leadership, and neither Olmert nor Peretz are providing much of anything these days. I don't think Livni shone during the war with Hizbullah, but I think if she had been given more breathing room, she might have made a difference then. As Israel's representative in Europe and the U.S., she has certainly out-performed Olmert.

2 comments:

Zachary Goelman said...

SWEET! I GOT BLURBED! KISHKUSHIM KICKS ASS!

Anonymous said...

The road to peace or war leads to Damascus.

It was so since the time of the Maccabim, and will be in the foreseeable future. All the peace talks with the fake imperially created entities, the Palestinians, Jordanians and Lebanese will serve nobody. It is not the wish of the colonialists British (and French) and their inheritors the Americans that creates real nations. They only create mess. Most of the wars and tensions in the world are their creation, from South Africa to Nigeria to Pakistan and India, Sudan etc. So long that we follow their path, their ridiculous creation the UN circus and political axiom, we will get nowhere. We are denying our neighbors any national legitimacy, throwing them ultimately in the jaws of Allah. Then our only savior will be their Allah. So long we repeat the “western” democratic rhetoric’s, their hypocritical illusions and fantasies; we will rip democracies such as Hamas and peace such as the Iraqi peace.
I would give Damascus, on a silver platter, with many strings attached, most the old Syrian Ottoman province carving our self as much as we want, and can cope with, from Eretz Israel. They will be thankful. They will take care of Hamas, the PLO, Nasralla, the Phalanges, Aoun, King Abdulla and all the rest of the clowns running around in their back yard. I would forge economic ties with them and protect them, for a dear political price, from their enemies, the Saudi Wahabies and the “democratic friend of Hamas, the Muslim brotherhood. I would even help (always for a price) against the investigation of the Hariry assassination another one of the Lebanese whores. What hypocrisy talking against dictatorships when we supported for money most of the dictators that ever exited and still are, in Angola for example. Here we have a dictator in trouble that has the ability and the national legitimacy to clean all our mess. Yet we choose to fall, like fools, to the dirty game of the petroleum Machiavellists influencial groups and of the western mass media that is selling news and advertising to ignorants.

Divide and rule is the weapon of the weak. We are nor weak. We are not temporarily visitors. Fighting and/or negotiating from a position of strength with the real opponent/enemy are the only ways to seriously resolve problems. It was wrong to protect Jordan, and Lebanon from Syria. It was wrong to bring Arafat and his cronies and to put them in our mist. Syria since 67 was never a real hazard to Israel. It was definitely not a threat after the end of the cold war. I would give Lebanon for the Golan, Jordan for Jerusalem and the parts of the West Bank that we need. The Syrian will be much obliged. Let’s face it, Jordan exists because of our protection, and Lebanon would disappear in one day if we were not around. Let’s face it the Syrians de facto control Hamas and Hezbollah. They triggered both the kidnapping of Shalit and the last “Lebanese war”. They were asking for our attention. Yet we chose no to notice it.

Livni and Olmert are small grey people. They specialize in paper work, in legal documents, documents that will never mean anything to the Arabs. We, alas, don’t have people with vision and charisma. Arabs live in a different world, a world of emotions and pride, a world of history and fantasy. They live in a world of clans and tribes, a world based on force and trust a world of rulers and subjects. They would evolve on their own pace. It is time, after over a century to learn in what neighborhood (as Barack call it) we decided to live. We can win wars, we can bring technology and wealth but we should not dream that we have the capacity to change other people cultures and tradition.

Shaul Ha Cohen