My Story 40

After my "run-in" with the law, I pinned great hopes on Netanyahu to lead Israel in a different direction. My hopes were soon dashed. Harassment from the authorities continued unabated. Netanyahu would take a brave stance, quickly followed by a reversal of that stance, followed by a situation worse than had existed before. This pattern has continued unabated. Soon after his election, he authorized the opening of the recently discovered Hasmonean tunnels under the Kotel area. The Palestinian Authority spread reports that these tunnels were actually meant to destabilize and destroy the Al Aksa Mosque. Riots ensued. At that time, there were joint patrols with Israeli and Palestinian forces. The Palestinian "partners" opened fire on their Israeli "partners". Bibi took a firm stance; closing the tunnels and giving the PA more parts of Hebron than even Rabin had proposed. The "Peace Process" was back on track. He attended the disastrous Wye River conference, in which Israel agreed to further withdrawals from parts of the Shomron. Bibi gave these redeployments the euphemistic term "beats" (pe'imot). Few were fooled by this terminology. Bibi assumed that the Right was in his pocket, and he didn't need to concern himself with them. This was a fatal error in judgment. In the 1999 elections. he lost by a wide margin to Ehud Barak. Bibi's erratic behavior had alienated Right and Left alike. Barak had been a distinguished military leader, but with an albatross around his neck. In 1992, he had been in charge of a top-secret military exercise, rumored to be in preparation for an Israeli raid on Sadam Hussein's palace, in retaliation for the 39 missiles that landed in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. Something went very wrong, and Israeli artillery shells landed on our own troops. Five were killed, many others wounded. Barak stood on a hilltop, saw what happened, called for help on his cellphone, and took off in his helicopter. This soon became public. Barak was severely criticized in the media for not staying to help, or at least flying the wounded to hospital.. A quick military review acquitted him of all wrongdoing. The result was a great loss of faith in the military on the part of the citizenry. Barak was henceforth dubbed "Ehud Barach" (Ehud Fled). After he was elected PM, he asked the courts to review the case. They said that there was insufficient evidence to say that he had committed a crime. He publicly announced that he had now been exonerated, which was clearly not true. His approval rating was all of 3%. But then came the bombshell. He had proposed new peace terms to Arafat, which included nearly the entire Old City of Jerusalem, except for the few square blocks that make up the Jewish Quarter. The public was shocked, There was a wide consensus that Jerusalem would always remain the undivided capital of Israel. At a Jerusalem Day commemoration, the speakers denounced him to his face , while his wife wept. Shortly thereafter, Arafat gave his emphatic answer. "NO! All or nothing!" Barak was finished. He resigned as PM, but stayed in politics. He has several times attempted a return to power, but was greeted with derision. He was later under investigation for receiving a huge corporate grant for "research". As he was never considered a scholar, this has been widely suspected to be a political payoff of some sort. He has also been implicated in the Epstein scandal. After resigning as PM, he called for new elections, only two years into his term. Israel's supposedly ultra-hawkish, ultra-nationalistic military hero, Ariel Sharon, amazingly came to power, only to fail miserably. His first "heroic" act, was to declare a one-sided cease-fire. Eventually, he abandoned the Jews living in Gaza, and presented Gaza as a gift to the Arabs. At this point, I lost my faith in Israel's ability, or even desire, to survive. We are now seeing the results of his treachery. As I shall describe in my next post, I tried my best to get into a different framework that would allow me to stay in the Holy Land, but avoid politics. That will be the next part of my story.