Political Spinner

Two revealing subplots are beginning to emerge in the run-up to the much anticipated meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu: The Americans are trying (gently thus far) to impress on the Israelis that the diskette was changed in Washington, and that new tunes are going to be heard; the Israelis, in response, have erected the stage for another run of the “good cop – bad cop” charade, and first performances are currently running in Europe and North America.

The “good cop – bad cop” routine that the Israelis are playing is designed to convince the world (and itself) that Israel “wants”, “strives”, “seeks”, “dreams”, “aspires to” and “yearns for” peace, while at the same time making sure that no practical, constructive, or realistic steps ever take place towards achieving that goal. This posture reflects the deeply arrogant position that sees the world as a bunch of irrelevant and unrealistic cowards, with zero understanding of real-politics. It also reflects the almost nation-wide acceptance of the “there is no partner for peace” paradigm that the Israelis have adopted en mass over the last 15 years.

In reality, the Israeli approach reflects a deep delusional perception about themselves, Europe, America and the world. Israelis despise Europeans for their “cowardice”, while at the same time yearn to become part of Europe . Israelis mock Americans for their “naiveté” believe that Europe and America (and the rest of the world) are, and will forever be, in Israel ’s corner, because “they are like us”. Israel, despite its history, geographic and demographic realities, insists on associating itself with “The West”, since such a state of mind allows it to avoid having to deal with the “real” realities of its location in the world, and the attitude of most of the world (particularly the West) towards it.

So the show is on; the “good” cop is Israeli President Shimon Peres. This “elder statesman” (a euphemism for someone who refuses to just go away), is telling Americans and the world (Israelis have stopped listening to him a long time ago), that everything is going to be just fine: Netanyahu “understands history, and wants to get into history” and consequently will “do what is necessary” to promote a peace agreement with the Palestinians/Syrians/The Arab World (choose the most desirable). This worthy goal will, of course, be achieved without allowing for a Palestinian State , without withdrawing from the Golan Heights , and without even acknowledging the Arab peace proposal.

The “bad” cop is Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman. He (a former club bouncer), plays the hoodlum from memory, with passion and quite a lot of natural talent. Recently, Lieberman graced several European capitals with his neck-less self, explaining to mostly gaping counterparts that “Nothing has come from this whole ‘peace industry’ except for conferences in five-star hotels and a waste of money.” It appears that the mere concept of reconciliation causes some deep offense to Lieberman’s worldview. After all, why waste time and money on despicable peace efforts, when you can have a good war every two years; it’s good for business; it’s good for fascism; it’s good for hatered. A real win-win. But Lieberman does not want to spoil the fun for Netanyahu; he (Lieberman) told Israeli papers recently that: “we are going to lie low before the Netanyahu-Obama meeting.” That basically means that they (the Israeli government) will pretend, even force itself on occasion to mouth clichés, platitudes and pure lies about its geo-political intentions (e.g., Netanyahu: “I am willing to resume peace negotiations with the Palestinians immediately, without pre-conditions”.)

Nobody in Israel even bothers to responds to these utterances. Everybody knows that they mean less than nothing, and that this Israeli government has only one goal: to get the world to force Iran to disown its nuclear ambitions. Nothing else is on the radar screen, and nothing will happen on any front as long as this issue is on the table.

Furthermore, Israelis do not see any linkage between the Iranian issue and other Middle East conflicts; they refuse to acknowledge that the Iranians are using the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to leverage themselves into the Middle East through Hamas and Hizbollah; they (Israelis) refuse to acknowledge that solving the Syrian-Israeli and/or Palestinian-Israeli conflict will make the job that much harder for the Iranians. So Israel will continue its good cop - bad cope charade, and the world is going to either tell her to stop or pay dearly.