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FP 17. November, 2012

Haaretz Published Nov.16, 2012

Long live Haniyeh, down with Abbas
By Nehemia Shtrasler

Haniyeh is a man after our hearts, they say in the Netanyahu-Lieberman offices. He doesn't prattle idly about peace and compromise but fires missiles at the south and lets us return to the arena where we do so well: targeted assassinations, shelling and threats of a ground operation.

The surveys were unequivocal, the analysts agreed - the Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu slate would win the election; the only question was by how much. Top Likud people were already dishing out the spoils when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen ) dropped a bombshell.

In an interview with Channel 2, he made some remarks that were hard to swallow. He recognizes Israel, desires a two-state solution, would accept the 1967 borders, would forgo the right of return and would accept "a just and agreed-on" solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. Worst of all, he'd like to visit the town of his birth, Safed - as a tourist only.

In the Benjamin Netanyahu-Avigdor Lieberman offices, there was horror at the depth of the betrayal. What made him suddenly start talking about peace? Why is he undermining the cozy old order in which he plays the role of the subservient conqueree while we play the role of the enlightened occupier? His comments could move a number of Knesset seats from the right to the left; the election victory would no longer be a foregone conclusion. So they immediately went off to brief the media.

They told them that the remarks had been "taken out of context" - in Arabic he had said something else. They leaked information that he was a corrupt man who had stolen millions from his country's poor. They said he must be removed and the Palestinian Authority dismantled because that's the only way to stop the dangerous peace initiative.

People in the Netanyahu-Lieberman offices don't like Abu Mazen or his prime minister, Salam Fayyad. They're too moderate, they're too rational, they even care about security coordination with Israel. Instead of chattering on about peace, they should learn from Hamas' charismatic leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, who isn't ready for any kind of talks with Israel and only wants war.

That's a man after our hearts, they say in the Netanyahu-Lieberman offices. He doesn't prattle idly about peace and compromise but fires missiles at the south and lets us return to the arena where we do so well: targeted assassinations, shelling and threats of a ground operation. That's clear-cut language that proves to everyone that Netanyahu is a great leader and that the troika of Netanyahu, Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak is strong and brave and doesn't shrink from defending us against all the evil people around us. So that troika deserves another term.

They secretly hope that as long as the war in the south continues and the flames burn, the people will forget the silly social agenda and Abu Mazen's strange ideas about peace, which are a huge strategic danger. And if he continues to talk about peace, we'll be forced to destroy the PA as well; otherwise someone might take him seriously.

It was logical that Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin declared during the memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin that "the two-state solution is dead." He too is eager to make clear to Abu Mazen that his time is up. It was no coincidence that Jabril Rajoub, a veteran PLO leader, said "the time has come to stop the killing and suffering and make it possible for the Palestinians to set up a state alongside Israel within the 1967 borders .... Stop the settlements and let's talk about a solution of two states for two peoples." Rajoub made these comments just before Israel decided to assassinate the head of Hamas' military wing and make Abu Mazen irrelevant.

This is the clear choice of the Netanyahu government - a never-ending war, first in the north and then in the south. Once a country that sought a solution to the conflict, we have become a country of targeted assassinations. Once a country that sought peace and values, we have become a country that rejects any outstretched hand and any attempt at reconciliation. Under Likud, we have undergone a tragic change. We have become a people that is afraid of saying the word peace and that sees peace as a threat that must be thwarted by all means.

From the government's point of view, it would be better if Hamas gained control of the West Bank too and Islamic Jihad followed it there, and later Al-Qaida. Then everything would be crystal clear and there really would be no one to talk to.
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