NOW that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has skirted political disaster over the Bar-On scandal, the focus of attention in the Middle East will shift back to a potentially larger disaster that he has succeeded in generating: deadlock in the peace talks.
Like a bull in a china shop, Netanyahu has, in 10 months of political ineptness, inflicted irreparable damage on the once- promising process of forging peace in one of the most volatile regions of the world.
He displayed obduracy and inconsistency over the deployment of Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Hebron. Having humiliated potential peace partners such as King Hussein of Jordan, Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, relations with Hafez al-Assad of Syria were a non-starter.
Netanyahu’s decision to continue with the controversial Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem has dangerously inflamed passions, threatening the very security he was elected to deliver. He is accused of displaying arrogance mixed with rashness and indecisiveness.
As we know from our own recent history, you cannot both placate the right wing and forge a relationship with your negotiating partners on the other side of the barricades.
A section of the Israeli electorate no doubt rues the day they dumped Shimon Peres and the Labour Party because the process of trust and hope that gathered momentum after Oslo in 1992 has, for now, disappeared.
The most damaging casualty of Netanyahu’s disastrous 300 days is the credibility of the United States as an honest broker. Bill Clinton’s willingness to back Netanyahu, right or wrong, has allowed peace to be hijacked by a right-wing minority in the Likud Party.
Without the assured, knee-jerk backing of Big Brother, an isolated Netanyahu would be forced to turn his back on the right wing and commit himself to mending fences.
The role of middleman should be taken by a nation or world body that enjoys the trust of the fractious elements of the Arab world, and is willing to get tough with Israel.