Blame Barak, Not Sharon

Blame Barak, not Sharon
Baruch Kimmerling
Haaretz October 4, 2000

It is much too easy to lay the blame for the latest bloody clashes on Ariel Sharon\'s visit to the Temple Mount last week. Sharon\'s provocation fell on very fertile ground, cultivated by Ehud Barak and his failure of a government. Barak was elected by a decisive majority, both against the backdrop of Benjamin Netanyahu\'s scandalous rule, and thanks to Barak\'s proposed peace agenda (the successful completion of the process with both the Palestinians and Syria) and his civil agenda (first and foremost the drafting of some yeshiva students). And Barak must be credited with getting the IDF out of Lebanon - though any government would have done the same, since the idea of withdrawal had long been accepted by public opinion, with the exception of several macho types in the general staff and the most extreme of right-wing extremists.But Barak formed an eccentric government, which defied any diplomatic logic, and managed - under cover of the Tal Commission recommendations - not to keep his civil promises. With the help of this government, in which he declared that he felt closer to the religious-nationalist fundamentalist Yitzhak Levy than to Meretz leader Yossi Sarid, Barak apparently also managed to torpedo the agreement with Syria.
But his colossal failure is the terminal blow he dealt to the process of reconciliation with the Palestinians.
From a public relations point of view, like any good Mapainik, Barak was more successful than Netanyahu,
managing to create the impression that \"he accommodated the Palestinians\' demands all the way\" until he reached the point where he supposedly could no longer give in - Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount
and East Jerusalem\'s Palestinian neighborhoods.

\"There are symbols that a nation simply cannot give up,\" said the secular revolutionary Barak, referring to the remnants of a Jewish temple that might or might not be buried under a central Muslim mosque on the Temple Mount. Remarkable sensitivity for our symbols and complete disregard for theirs. Behind him all the way was the historian and intellectual of the bunch, Shlomo Ben-Ami, who declared that we will never give up on \"our national holy sites\" (the Dome of the Rock?). Would he have said the same had he not remained as no more than minister of public security?

The fact is that since Barak came to power, not one agreement on any basic issue has been reached with
the Palestinians, and Barak has accommodated them even less than Netanyahu (who implemented the
Hebron agreement). No redeployment of forces has been carried out, and instead there has been a significant rise in the number of settlers. No binding progress has been made on any of the major issues - the Palestinian right of return, the evacuation of settlements, the permanent borders of the Palestinian state (and subsequently of the state of Israel) - nor even on the question of safe passages between the West Bank and Gaza. And there has certainly been no progress on an arrangement in Jerusalem, which by any diplomatic logic should have been the easiest issue to solve. Such a solution could have been reached within five minutes, to the satisfaction of most Jews and Arabs, based on the principle of an open city with a division of sovereignty according to the current division of control over its various neighborhoods.

If anyone is responsible for the dishonorable burying of the Oslo accords and a possible chaotic collapse in the territories, it is Prime Minister Barak. For this, the voters must make him and his immediate circle pay in the primaries soon to be held by the Labor Party. The party is now signing up members who will be eligible to vote in the primaries. All peace seekers - from the left, the center and the secular, sane right - must join the Labor Party and cast their vote in the primaries for a real leader who will be able to make real decisions, rather than merely declaring that he is able to do so in the media. Alternatively, Yossi Sarid should join the race for the premiership, hoping to win in a second round of voting. In any case, Meretz and the parties to its left must bring down this virtual government as soon as possible, before the nightmare of a nationalist unity government comes true. Otherwise, the Arabs will once again be the same Arabs, the sea will be the same sea, Mapai will be the same Mapai, and the bloodshed will increase, because \"there is no choice.