Netanyahu's blind vision

Here's Gideon Levy in Ha'aretz and he's none to happy with Bibi, who is apparently the most popular leader in Israel today. It follows Netanyahu's victory against Moshe Feiglin in the Likud's leadership contest and is a kind of compare and contrast between the "moderate" Netanyahu and the extreme, indeed "loony" Feiglin.

The bitter truth is that Netanyahu is essentially no different than Feiglin.....

Netanyahu, like Feiglin, supports a continuation of the occupation and both are adherents of the one-state solution - a "Jewish," occupying and racist state in which two types of people live: Jews, superior, and Arabs, inferior. Neither have any real intention of changing the current state of affairs. Feiglin speaks about a Jewish state, racial purity, and Netanyahu indeed does not dare to utter such things, but the non-solution he proposes - like anyone who opposes a complete end of the occupation - will continue to bolster the status quo, which means a Jewish state, ostensibly, with a huge Arab population living a dog's life......

Feiglin responds to Netanyahu's haughty statement, "if they give, they will receive," by saying, "they won't give and they won't receive; the enemy must be vanquished." But what's the difference? After all, even when the Palestinians gave, surrendering most of the Land of Israel, they did not get a thing. Even when terrorism subsided, their miserable lives and the conditions of the large prison in which they live did not improve a bit. And what exactly will Netanyahu "give" them? What bone will he toss them if they behave "nicely"? A quarter of Hebron? Half of Nablus? And how much longer will it be possible to talk about terror, of course only Palestinian terror, another one of Netanyahu's favorite topics, as Israel is killing four times as many of their men, women and children - while Palestinian terror nearly has disappeared from our streets?

Indeed, there is one difference: Unlike Feiglin, Netanyahu speaks at length about sand slipping through the hourglass on the Iranian threat. Oh, how he loves to talk about the Iranian threat. It is a winning card. And what could be bad about searching for the coin under the lantern instead of where it is really located, to become Mr. Iran in Israel and the world and completely disregard the truly dangerous hourglass - the Palestinian problem? The fact that nothing sustains terrorism and Iran like the occupation is something that our very own expert on global terror and Iran is blind to.

The opinion polls show that Netanyahu is the most popular leader in Israel today. This says something about Israel and its mood: It does not want peace. It's unlikely Netanyahu's star-struck supporters have ever even asked themselves where this man, whom they seek to crown and anoint, wants to lead Israel. They only know that they are supporting a moderate statesman - as opposed to the extremist Feiglin. Thus, Netanyahu has made fools of them yet again. And whom does he have to thank? Feiglin.

So that may be the next Israeli PM. Did you see where he is on peace with the Palestinians? Did you see where he is on Iran? So many "left" zionists here in the UK jumped on the Kadima bandwagon as it passed itself off as a compromise between left and right zionism. It was a shift of the mainstream to the right. Zionist "lefts" told themselves and others that Sharon had reformed and Israel was moving left. Israel was moving right. And it still is.