By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM–You don’t trust Bibi?
Few do.
No reason to.
He’s a politician.
He isn’t any different from a long line of others, including Barack Obama, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, JFK, the Clintons, FDR, and Abe Lincoln.
They all promised a lot more than they delivered.
It’s inherent in the occupation.
The reputations of several may have been preserved by deaths that occurred before being tested.
Lincoln’s supporters are sure that he would have done better with Reconstruction than Andrew Johnson. JFK’s people are still saying that he would have made an early exit from Vietnam. Yitzhak Rabin’s are sure that he would know how to deal with the Palestinians better than Bibi.
Who the hell knows?
The post-Civil War period in the US was bound to test any person at the top. It was a massive challenge to re-integrate the destroyed South within the US. Humane attitudes would go only so far to solve the problems of the former slaves. The US is still at it, 155 years later.
Kennedy may have left Vietnam, but his Catholic anti-Communism should not encourage those who’d like to think the best of him.
Rabin was arguably reluctant to go along with Yassir Arafat. An iconic video of a reluctant handshake on the White House lawn suggests uncertainty as much as celebration.
FDR left the news of the A-Bomb to a few insiders who let Harry Truman know. Then Harry was pretty much on his own to end the war, deal with European and Japanese reconstruction, use and then dispose of Douglas MacArthur, whose ego was at least presidential.in size, but was fortunately too old for the running.
Unless, perhaps, he could have been brought back in 2016, and compete with the three old dogs (about the same age as Douglas when he faded away) wanting the big job.
Bibi comes in for a lot of criticism, but he is also in line to be the longest serving Israeli Prime Minister. That’s as good a test of political skill as can be found.
He is accused of spoiling Israel’s relations with the United States, and especially with Barack Obama. However, those problems were pretty much inevitable with Obama’s aspirations to bring democracy to places in the Middle East like Egypt and Syria, to do what was necessary to produce a Palestinian state, and to overlook what Iranian leaders say about Israel (and the United States) in order to produce an agreement on nuclear activities.
It’ll be a while until we can judge Barack against the standard set by Neville Chamberlain. He’ll have supporters who’ll weasel out of anything that develops.
Bibi’s wife does not help him, but Abe Lincoln’s was no less of a strain, and she didn’t keep Abe out of the history books.
Bibi’s problem, like that of any national leader, is having to please a variety of constituents with clashing interests. Close to 50 percent of Israeli Jews are secular. The rest are Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, or traditional. The latter is a mixed group, mostly of Middle Eastern origin, who respect religion but don’t abide by as many of the commandments as the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox. There are also a few Conservative and Reform Jews. Some of them make a lot of noise, but there aren’t enough to have an impact among politicians who either don’t understand them, or think they are the world’s greatest threats to Judaism.
Some 20 percent of Israel’s citizens are Arabs. One of Bibi’s last minute campaign efforts was to say his people must get out and vote, since the Arab parties were busing their people to the polls. Anti-Bibi Israelis and overseas watchers accused him of racism.
Bibi later said that he meant no harm, which is probably worth as much as whatever politicians have to say.
Don’t get me wrong. I admire successful politicians. Politics is what keeps us civilized. We should expect conflict and uncertainty, and grant our leaders enough wiggle room to operate in the spotlight while they deal with intractable problems.
Along with tensions derived from religion and ethnicity, Israel’s politicians must cope with the range of economic, environmental, and ideological issues resembling disputes in other democracies.
Most of what gets to a government’s agenda has no solution, and requires some kind of coping. That means a little of this and a little of that, and trying not to make things worse. It ain’t easy.
Israel has as many of those insoluble problems as any country, and perhaps a larger per capita amount than any other place worthy of attention.
Currently things are in flux, and the prospects for us seem better than in the past, but they will require careful maneuver, by politicians who won’t be able to tell us everything that they see or intend.
Our Muslim neighbors, enemies, and antagonists are more active in fighting one another than in bothering about us.
Europe is struggling with millions of refugees from Middle Eastern chaos, with the border country Turkey up to its fezzes in conflicts.
Britain’s rejection of Europe has something to do with its own reversion to nationalism, which is also showing itself in various right-wing European parties.
After a weekend of panic, European and British politicians are beginning to sound realistic about the possibilities, and financial markets are calming.
America’s flirting with Donald Trump also suggests some of the same worrying about losing cherished values, and going to the simplest solution on offer.
I’ve suggested to Jewish Americans that there is a Zionist solution for the problem they will face in November, but I hope that few of the older people in my address book will take the suggestion. Our roads are already crowded, housing prices are being pushed higher, and while the medical system is more successful than its American counterpart in keeping citizens alive, it’s not something to get used to in old age.
Government works best when officials operate by simple rules. However, defining policy in the context of inevitable complexity is not for simpletons.
That combination of sentences may be too much for some of the people reading this. Also, some of them may not get the message with respect to Donald Trump. What’s disappointing, and amazing for someone who has studied politics for more than a half century, is that a country with the human resources of the US cannot offer an alternative that is clearly better.
And for those who feel such a paragraph is presumptuous, pompous, and otherwise wrongheaded, it comes against the background of surveys showing 60 percent of both parties’ affiliates who do not like their candidate.
Trump’s weakness is his absolute lack of governmental experience. He claims success in commerce, the his record is mixed, at best. Moreover, he has pursued a strategy of me first, beggar my neighbor. That might work occasionally in business, but it is not appropriate to government where numerous institutions have the capacity to limit even the highest ranking official.
Should he ride to office on an international wave of nationalism, parallel to British and European extremists, the day may come when Americans will envy us Israelis.
Americans may also envy us if Hillary gets to the Oval.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)