Netanyahu may be brave in Dubai, but he's a coward at home
Netanyahu's recklessness overseas stands in stark contrast to his timid domestic leadership.
By Yoel Marcus Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu Israel newsOne of Benjamin Netanyahu's critics said the prime minister doesn't know what to fear when he gets up in the morning. Why? Because he's afraid. Every issue on which he feels he is likely to lose or fail - he abandons. Fact: Since coming to power he has not lost a single vote in the Knesset. He doesn't submit any proposal on which he is liable to fail.
For example, he abandoned the value added tax on fruits and vegetables, the plan to give Israeli emigrants the right to vote, the drought tax and the proposal to expel the children of foreign workers. He is considering a reduction in the reform of the highways and the grandiose railroad system, he abandoned the "jobs law" bill that would have added dozens of deputy mayors, as well as the construction of the security fence in the south along the Israel-Egypt border.
He keeps on reducing and reducing wherever the wind is blowing. One of his rivals said he is suffering from predictable capitulation syndrome in order to maintain his majority in the Knesset. This means that if the Palestinians were to agree to his plan of two states for two peoples, which involves the uprooting of some of the settlements, he would abandon it with one excuse or another for fear that his party and its partners, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, would rise up against him.
As someone who doesn't stay the course on any issue, Netanyahu in his two terms as prime minister stayed the course in approving complex targeted-assassination operations by the Mossad in Arab countries. Before we get to the Dubai operation, which foreign sources are attributing to Israel, in 1997 Bibi approved the assassination of Khaled Meshal, chairman of Hamas' political bureau, in Amman. Danny Yatom, the Mossad head at the time, convinced Bibi that the operation's success was guaranteed. Mossad agents caught Meshal as he left his home and injected him with a chemical substance that simulates a heart attack, just like in the movies. But his bodyguard chased the conspirators, which led to some of them being arrested; others found refuge in the Israeli embassy.
When he learned about the failure, Netanyahu contacted King Hussein, who was furious at the Israeli chutzpah and threatened to sever relations on the spot if we didn't immediately send an antidote to neutralize the substance injected into Meshal. With the mediation of Ephraim Halevy, who was friendly with the king, the rescue operation was carried out in an instant. The live-dead man came back to life, an event that turned him into the most important person today in the Hamas leadership.
But the major damage of the operation was Hussein's demand to return Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and dozens of security detainees to Gaza. Yassin's return gave terror a tremendous push and strengthened Hamas. Anyone who wants to discover how Hamas took control of Gaza can begin the countdown from the failure of 1997.
Due to the secrecy of the affair at the time, it was not revealed that Bibi not only approved it but even urged that it be implemented, ignoring one basic rule: You do not carry out an operation that undermines the status and authority of the leader most friendly to Israel.
When Golda Meir was prime minister there was a small group called the "X committee" that would approve or reject mysterious operations outside Israel. We know of no such group today - the prime minister has the last word. And if the news from foreign sources is correct and Israel is involved in the Dubai operation, it's hard to understand how Bibi, who is so careful not to fail and not to get into trouble, could have approved such a hit.
First of all: his decision to assassinate Mahmoud al-Mabhouh when countries such as the United States and Britain have discontinued their targeted assassinations, in a world where monitoring is strict, electronic intelligence covers even the smallest detail and it is hard not to be exposed. Second, as far as cost-effectiveness is concerned, wouldn't it have been preferable to put Mabhouh, who was involved in acquisitions, under surveillance to discover the sources and routes of the acquisitions, instead of assassinating him? Third, on the assumption that every victim of assassination has a replacement, is the assassination worth the revenge, which is sometimes very cruel? This was the case in the lethal attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Abbas Musawi.
If the Dubai operation is Israel's work, as foreign sources are claiming, it is a strange story, not to say a sloppy one: the use of passports of friendly countries, which were "donated" by people in Israel and abroad, and the choice of Dubai, which is monitored by a dense network of cameras, as the scene of the operation. I don't know who approved the operation at a time when our main security problem is Iran. We can assume that without the prime minister's approval it would not have been carried out. And considering the great caution he exercises so as not to fail, it is surprising that this time he played the role of Agent 007, with seven mistakes.
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Yoel Marcus writes:".. if the Palestinians were to agree to Bibi's peace plan he would reject them as his party and its partners, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu,would rise up against him" Not really. The real reason Bibi would scuttle a peace deal-any peace deal it that he thinks exactly like his coalition partners- Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu, and of course the Likud.
my compliments, mr. marcus.
my compliments, mr. marcus.
if indeed it was IL, which is not yet known. Goldstone said you must target the bad guys and not cause any collateral damage. Are you saying Goldstone was wrong?
What would Israel have gained from this assassination if it had not so easily been detected? Instead of any questionable benefits there is now serious discussion about Interpol arrest warrants for Netanyahoo and the Mossad head.
"Wot! and Sarah has nothing to do with it...?!" - Esther Yes, she tells him what to say and then he says it. He has the last word.
Thank G-d that you,Esther,only has a seat in your kitchen and not in the Knesset. With rabid thinkers like you,with haters of your own people like you....I weep for the state of the Jewish Nation. What makes a mind like yours so spoiled..so sour...so ugly....? It boggles the mind.
Atif, this is NOT a debate?. there is nothing to debate. All countries, EU, UN, USA, Canada, Saudi, jordan...all say to iran, this is not a debate, you are not allowed nukes. Not to mention that you cannot debate with a theocratic fundamentalist nut. This attempt at diplomacy has been ongoing now for what, at least 7 yrs? Has this debate gotten us anywhere? It?s all about taqqiyeh?stalling, buying time?enough until they finally test a nuke. Notice how el baradei played along with them to the point that they are now inches from the finish line? Baradei leaves, and all of a sudden, the IAEA says they think they are close to having nukes and says that they NEVER stopped despite the (rigged) NIE report from 2007. What a joke this is..and you want to debate? HA! the UN won't do anything, the US under obama is more indebted to oil than was bush so they won't do anything, the EU is all talk and won't do anything..all these countries do is talk talk talk while iran ploughs ahead enriching and improving their ballistic missile delivery abilities .. not to mention the fact atif that he is a severe holocaust denier, incites genocide, supports terrorism worldwide, harms and tortures his own people, and on and on and on...someone has to stop him..same as hitler should have been stopped before he was powerful enough to wreak havoc on the world. I say to you sir that you are wrong ..in a normal world, I might agree with you, but this is anything but normal...if the free nations of the world won't stop him, then we are all resigning ourselves to the next horrifying conflagration.
Actually Bibi did nothing at home in his first term as PM. He seems always to be nulified by interest groups and does not have the talent to steer his own course. But then what is his course? to say he is Prime Minister and be seen as a hero? It is a pity Israel's reputation and integrity are falling to new lows through a lack of vision and talent from its present leaders.
my compliments, mr. marcus.
Daily bashing of Israel right into the hands as evidence of Israel's worst enemies and then same bashing multiplied by zillions. Yeah right! I mean left
You have to tread a much more careful line when it comes to domestic policies than you do international because they are the kind of policies that can cause you to win or loose an election. How many Israelis care if the government imposes a drought tax? How many Israelis care if the government puts VAT on fruits & vegtables? How many Israelis care if we give expats the right to vote outside Israel? How many Israelis care about jobs bills & plans to build a railroad? These issues affect Israelis directly and many of them are unpopular especially if it involves asking them to pay out money through taxes or projects that involve major government spending. How many Israelis care if terrorists are assassinated or if Mossad carries out an operation abroad using forged passports? Very few if anything policies like this are vote winners because it shows the government is taking security seriously.
Is it targetted assassination or attacking concentrations of the Taliban in Pakistan? The fact more senior members of the Taliban die from time to time show that they are trying to stay safe in Pakistan whilst sending their minions to almost certain death in Afghanistan. Thanks for your concern and support for the Taliban and lead elements of Al Qaeda. It has been noted. Using false passports and murdering an individual in a third country is what is meant by targetted assassination and you know it. When the reality is and Bin Laden has said it himself Israel is the reason we are in the situation we are in. But then the fact we now know the difference between Shia and Sunni repeatedly rains on your parade to. The fact is Netanyahu's actions since the election is not about what is good for Israel. It is all about his name being on the door of the PMO's office. Dubai was probably to take attention away from the fact he hasn't attacked Iran yet, as his election pledge
No, actually, one would *not* be wise and justified to "take it." That's the essential fallacy in your thinking, and that of most right-wing reactionaries like yourself. There is no long-term win for Israel if idiots like Bibi keep exactly this kind of thing going. It's time for Israel to move on from targeted killings.
He was totally surrounded in an isolated house in Iraq,where the only inhabitants were himself ,his wife and his 9 week old son. All of them were killed. The troops ,acting on superb intelligence knew exactly who was in the house. Would you call your troops and their commanders childkillers ,oh so profusely humane KYOTo ?
my compliments to mr. marcus.
brought Israel to...
It's a good thing Bibi gave up the idea of expelling the innocent children of migrant workers. Israel is a democracy that must offer shelter to children, not treat them like cattle.
Yoel Marcus, Sorry, but you sound like a self hating Jew.This must be one of the reasons that you are some journalist and Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of Israel
Well, this is just another headsup for israel. Supercrook's effusive praise for what is clearly a violation of international law is amusing. The reality is that israel's much vaunted intelligence apparatus is but a mere shadow of what it once was. It is not that israel's MIF mossad is all that great, or effective. It is just that they have the chutzpa to do what other nations would consider to he beyond the pale. Israel has enjoyed, for years, a lack of accountability for doiong what would bring any other civilized nation's government to ruin. Witness the blowback from Iran Contra, Baby bush and his brain cheny, and countless others. The days of the wild wild west are over. It is well known which three signatures are needed for an international murder to be approved in israel. With nations waking up to how to judicially punish contract writers and hitmen, whether state sponsored or not, israel will have to find another way to get around the rules... The party is over, thanks to bibi
@superjew in an environment where debate is still possible, if you get seduced by a clear shot, not only will there be a replacement soon, you kill the debate. In politics, getting yourself killed is a sure shot way to ensure your ideology prevails.
Wot! and Sarah has nothing to do with it...?!
Your hatred of Bibi, Likud, Zionism, Israel, Judaism, IDF, etc. - all together drive you mad. You and your newspaper look very pathetic with your one-way critics. Go home and play with your grandchildren instead to trying to help all the Neo-Antisemits. There are plenty of them, they don't need you.
Aren't you proud of yourself, Yoel! You've provided more fodder for those who love to hate us! Good for you!!! Shabbat Shalom!!!
By the same criteria you suggest would it be acceptable to you that if someone had a clear shot of Lieberman or Netanyahu they should take it too?
Me thinks a man with too much power - as Bibi - is always afraid using it. BTW: I don't believe Mossad did it - it was to silly done. Jupp
marcus, you say the US does not use targeted assasinations anymore? really? what are those drones doing in pakistan? Obama is all about targeted assasinations these days...and dont kid yourself, nations still do it and sometimes SHOULD do it.. I mean, if someone had a clear shot at ahmedinejad, it would be wise and justified to take it no?
that President Shimon Peres wasn't particularly fond of all the intelligence elements in Israeli on-goings since it perhaps infringes on the diplomatic interrelations and causes a regression to the efforts of reconciliation between adversaries. However to dismiss the efforts of Mossad for Israeli security against terror and other international terror concerns altogether would be wrong as well. So it's quite complex to comment on this whole ordeal when we don't and won't have the entire facts. One must remember to put the parties within context to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and what the accusations or preventative measures meant for the region. Understandably this did not contribute to break the impasse in the peace process.
He was already followed it is being reported on a previous trip to china and was going back there again. They wanted to stop the deal ever think of that. He was bringing in long range rockets that could hit ben gurion airport and tel aviv and hit dimona. Lebanese mp was praising how iran was helping to put all of israel in range and nasrallah threatened ben gurion airport. What is really amazing is israel's enemies are getting worse and worse yet the left in west is getting weaker and weaker.
a small correction, Sheikh Abbas Musawi was the leader of hizbu-allah not hamas.