Israel’s Political Right Sends Diplomacy To Hell

[Purveyor]

Netanyahu, Lieberman, Bennett and friends are not serving Israel's interests, but their own electoral agendas.

By Carlo Strenger | Jan. 17, 2015

The horrors of the terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher unified the free world. Dozens of heads of state came to march with millions of French to show fierce determination in the fight for liberty against the forces of darkness. The radical Islamist terrorists had hit a nerve so central to France’s ethos that it created almost total consensus.

There were two reactions that were insensitive, unproductive and uncivilized. The first was Marine Le Pen’s call to reestablish the death penalty in France. This is an absurd proposal when you fight suicide terrorism, because its perpetrators see their own death as part of their mission as shaheeds. It is obvious that Le Pen only wanted to mobilize her potential voters' hatred, not to contribute anything to the fight against radical-Islamist terrorism.

The second completely uncalled-for reaction was Benjamin Netanyahu’s immediate call to French Jews to leave France and move to Israel, which has been criticized on a number of grounds by many commentators. Chemi Shalev has correctly argued that Netanyahu’s call caves in to terrorism rather than standing up to it.

But Netanyahu’s call was not only wrongheaded as a reaction to terrorism; it also showed a singular lack of international finesse and diplomatic sensitivity, and the French wearily expected such a lack of tact. President François Hollande asked Netanyahu not to travel to the Paris memorial march because he was afraid Netanyahu would abuse the occasion to campaign for his reelection, as he did in 2012 when he traveled to France after the Toulouse shootings.

It is easy to connect Netanyahu’s faux pas to his personality problems, which have made him persona non grata in most government circles, from the White House to Angela Merkel’s office. But the problem runs deeper: It shows a deep flaw in the mentality of Israel’s right-wing politicians.

more...

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/.premium-1.637494

[Stephen Retired]

1. DURec

Netanyahu claims to be defending Israel. In fact, he's destroying it.