THe Resignation Letter Of Binyamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu: Too Late For A Fight-back?
The letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, potrays the Israeli government and the pro-disengagement camp as a group that has gone into slumber or to bed with terrorism. It promotes Bibi as a Prophet whose warnings and predictions have always come to pass. Reminding the readers of his warnings in 1993 against the Oslo Agreements which he predicted would bring futher attacks on Israel.
Bibi seeks in his letter to run away from the impression of being seen as a weakling, for according to him, any concession or compromise with terrorism would only embolden the terrorist to increase attacks on Israel's security.
Bibi in his letter sees as horrific the unilateral and unconditional pull-out from Gaza, and dreaded the ceeding of the sea port to Palestine. He claimed such would be converted to a terror base for the terror boats of terrorism.
He lamented the backsliden state of policy under the present administration recalling with pride how Israel in the past used to show the world how to tame terrorism.
He challenged the government to conduct a referendum to determine the will of the electorates whose mandate, he claimed have been jettisoned by the administration.
He concluded on two notes: 1. The revolutionary economic reforms through which he had revamped the Israeli economy in the last two and a half years must be continued. 2. Declared that the pullout would divide the unity of Israel and endanger her peace and security, therefore he withdrew fom the cabinet.
I am convinced on the contrary that if we have to sleep on the same bed, and not necessarily with the 'witch' called terrorism, in order to morally stranglate her, then we must get done with the ugly but necessary task quickly.
The Roadmap to peace had clearly spelt out this inevitable and cautious terrain that Bibi refused to pass with the present administration. While commending his courage and right to differ, I see his resignation as a belated attempt to sweep away 'reason' with an archaic and jaded broomstick of blindness.
The 'terror-for-terror' philosophy of Bibi and his rag-tag army of hardliners is obsolete. The psychology of terror demand that we dig to unearth the root cause of hate and other sentiments which terrorism feeds on. The way out is to address this sentiments and not to retaliate them. The has proved very successful with the Irish IRA, Basque ETA and even the Sudanese SPLA.
I am a fervent believer in the audatious forrays into knotty areas of terrorism with reason as presided over, not by President Bush but by Ms Condoleeza Rice. This pull-out would serve as a test case for future solutions to diplomatic disputes internationally.