For example, way back, before he was elected to his first term as
prime minister, Boobi had launched an impressive book showing that he
was against the Oslo process and solidly behind an Israel that faced
the reality of an Arab foe that was determined to destroy Israel root
and branch. But then, after a few saber rattling displays in the first
months, he went beyond what the Oslo agreement required as a limited
Israeli withdrawal from the area around Hebron to one that amounted to
an almost complete withdrawal.
Nor was this Boobi sheepish about what he had done here. I recall that
he actually had exulted, proudly stating that, while everyone expected
he would be controlled by his right wing supporters, he showed how he
could act as he pleased. Also, shocking all his supporters, he met
face to face with Arafat.
I was among those who were shocked by Boobi's policies. At first I
insisted that Boobi must be acting with guile to fool the enemy
and that he would be pulling some rabbits out of his hat to
confound the enemy, only to learn that what I was seeing was the real
Boobi, a leftist ideologue that used the reputation of his
illustrious family, strong on Israeli defense, as cover for his real
beliefs.
Dumped then by his right wing supporters at the first opportunity, it
took Boobi many years to win new backing from the right despite the
fact that, as part of the Sharon administration, he offered no
resistance to Sharon's mad surrender and Jewish ethnic cleansing of
Gaza. Since no one could believe that Boobi had not been reeducated by
events, all he had to do to get back into the lost graces of the right
was to infer that he had indeed been chastened.
It worked. Standing the old adage on its head -- "fool me once, shame
on you; fool me twice, shame on me -- the right thought it had the
silver tongued Boobi in its corner. While leopards may not be known to
change their spots, in the case of Boobi, he was so convincing that he
was restored to right wing leadership. So convincing was he that even
though he spoke of making "painful concessions" during negotiations
with the Arabs, few among his supporters suspected that he would do
what he actually did when elected, become the first Israeli PM to
advocate a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict
What Israelis got from their so-called, reformed leader was a
continuation of the leftist policies of seeking lamb-like, peaceful
solutions to the conflict from the jackal-like enemy, as though the
jackal-like adversary could change its appetite for blood to vegan fruit
juice. Boobi almost single handedly had succeeded in confirming the
world view that there was a real "Palestinian people" that no one
heard of before the 1967 war and that wasn't even mentioned at the
time in UN Resolution 242, which referred only to "refugees." This
invented, "no-people," supposedly had historic rights to lands of the
Mandate of Palestine. These are rights that the Arabs would never
give up, hence would insure their never ending conflict to secure them
to last inch.
He Beebi blithely went on to express his delight in the illusion that his
economic savvy was changing Arab hearts by an 8% a year economic
growth in the territories, as though refrigerators and Nike sneakers
could buy Arab hearts away from their Islam that demanded Islamic
triumph over those who would attempt to exercise non Muslim
rule in what Arabs regard as the Islamic realm. Wise in his own eyes,
Boobi is fool enough to think that he will buy the long sought after peace
with the Arabs by improvement in their economy -- shades of Karl Marx!
Needless to say, Boobi's defense policies, led by the "serial bungler"
defense minister, Edud Barak, did not go beyond tit for tat military
responses, shirking the achievement of the only objective that could
bring peace to Israel, namely, decisive defeat of the enemy. This
omission, thereby, must insure a never ending war with the Arabs
until Israel faltered. After all, the Arabs do indeed believe in a policy of
decisive defeat of Israel. What is more, unlike Israel, the Arabs have
the manpower and the religious ideology to weather the war of attrition
that Boobi acquiesces in.
Finally, if there was any doubt of the mind-set of Boobi, it was the
deal he just concocted with the enemy for the return of Gilad Shalit.
Like "land for Arab promises" that Boobi pursues, it is the unequal
one that trades one Israeli life for freeing a thousand of the enemy,
among which would number many hundreds of fighters who would go
on to achieve more kidnapping of Israelis and claim many more Israeli
lives and casualties.
Having succeeded in inflicting a grave, demoralizing humiliation on
Israel, Boobi, as rightly described by one commentator, has shown
himself as a "morally challenged, irresponsible, opportunistic
politician." He has given the world, and Israel, another illustration
of the "mercy of fools" that is, how, in a short sighted act of
seeming mercy, many, many times greater merciless devastation
on the merciful could be invited.
So what may be concluded from this record of Boobi's acts? It is
nothing less than a recognition that the man is flawed in character.
His flaw dictates his actions. Such a flaw in character is not something
that arises from a lack of knowledge but from a way of thinking.
The character flaw insures that the bearer will distort the reality in which
he lives. This causes him to ignore facts and to give greater weight to
the irrelevant and underestimate what is fundamental and critical.
As the saying goes, while a mistake can be corrected, stupidity [and
character] is permanent.
Given the personal character that Boobi's actions reveal, it must lead
to the conclusion that, if Israel is to survive, she needs a different leader,
one not weighed down by Boobi's incorrigible personality disorder.
Being fooled three times goes beyond mere shame and must bespeak
a people that shares its leader's pathological over righteousness and
over much, too curious form of wisdom that knows not its limitations
-- economics does not change character.
So why would Israel destroy itself by sticking to a kind leader,
incompetent to formulate and undertake what is needed to guide and
save the nation. If this guy cannot pull a rabbit from his hat to change
the reality he is creating for Israel, a new leader is needed, hopefully
one that is pro-Israel -- not pro universal, cosmic peace that the leftists
are stuck with.
