I live in a town that is deeply anti-Semitic, from its police force to its village logo. I have had to struggle against this anti-Semitism, evinced from neighbors and the Muslim community next door. Netanyahu does not make it easy to be Jewish because, as an extremist, he attracts extremists from all sides, both supporting him and denouncing him. There could be no worse representative for Jewish people on the world stage.
99
If Trump can convince Nutanyahu to move the Israeli capital entirely from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem -- and the U.S. embassy along with it -- in turn the PM should pressure the U.S. to move its capital from the swamp of Washington, DC to the swamps of Mar-a-Lago, FL. The Trump Companies, by accepting foreign though illegal emoluments, could do the build-out by first constructing a high hill (not for Congress or the Supreme Court but to have a chance of surviving the predicted flooding when the warming and rising seas around S. FL inundate the area this century); then building a huge palace on that hill to rival any of Putin's dozen or so tsarist palaces. A smaller cyber warfare building can be built next to the White Palace for the convenience of Russian hackers involved in helping Trump in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 elections. In this way, Nutanyahu will get his one-State solution (and renewed wars), while Trump gets his one-Branch solution (which Putin has already accomplished in the best tsarist tradition). Under Republicans Ryan and McConnell, Congress has already surrendered its #1 Constitutional role -- checking and balancing the executive. So they could visit occasionally and stay at a new Trump White Hotel with amber trim.
28
The sad truth is that neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian leadership have a political reason to come to a settlement that is different from the status quo.
We should be reminded of what happens to states where a minority rules over the majority. Eventually, violence breaks out.
27
We need to save the world from Israel's government.
And we need to save Jews everywhere from Netanyahu. He is the embodiment every gentile's worst stereotype of Jews.
But he is not a stereotype. He is a living and breathing human being who is driving Israel into the ground, the Jewish people into the ground, and all of humanity into the gutter. Much like his good buddy Trump.
65
So God and Israel are playing poker and God calls and lays out his ten cards, then Israel reaches for the pot and says “is that all you got” and throws down all the thousands of new cards its printed itself since. Who wins?
12
You're just realizing NOW that Netanyahu's government is not doing anything in the best, long-term interest of Israel?
31
This description of an ultra-nationalist, authoritarian Israel is a look into a crystal ball at America's future, if Trump gets his way, and the GOP retains Congress after the 2018 elections.
34
This is what happens when religious fanatics are given the reigns of power. I was enamored with the Iranian revolution until an old family friend who survived the Holocaust quietly reminded me they were driven by religious fanatics, and we've seen their repression. The same dynamic is happening in America where evangelicals want to enshrine religious doctrine into law. The religious fanatics driving the Israeli settler movement believe God gave them the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, and it's hard to argue with God, so forget about trying to sway them. I've been shocked by many American evangelicals who believe the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is proof Armageddon, as predicted in the Book of Revelations, is at hand.
44
Sounds a lot like the current situation the United States faces.
Sorry, Mr. Barak. Zionists have helped put the U.S. into this situation. Now, Americans have to focus on saving the United States from it's own government.
Trump will only help Netanyahu and Likud move further in the direction they are already going. And the lickspittle Republicans will do nothing to stop Trump, or Netanyahu and Likud. They are birds of a feather. This is the real "special relationship."
We have no time or resources to help you or Israel, Mr. Barak. We have to save ourselves. Good luck. You're going to need it.
19
i always wondered how American Jews can be so adamant about hard-line policies in Israel when they are not the ones who must live under that regime. It seems impertinent. And yet, Israelis have such bad luck. There is always some outrage or attack that erupts right before an election that moves Israeli voters to the hard right.
Israel and I are the same age; I've been puzzled all my life why they can't find peace.
15
This op-ed is years (if not decades) too late.
Every single country in the world except the US and a couple of Pacific Islands agree that Israel is in the wrong in many areas - most notably its continued occupation and settlement of land seized from the Palestinian parts of the former Mandate.
Netanyahu and the complicity of too many governments providing arms and supporting Israeli attacks/bombs/walls etc. is about as far from sensible as it gets: there are bombs dropping on civilians all over the Middle East, we've got the US picking sides and supporting/inciting war for the sake of arms deals while claiming they are 'humanitarians' trying to end the destruction.
Now that Israel has come of age some wish to generously draw a veil over the duplicity of that conception, the difficulties of her delivery, her brattish behavior in infancy and her ever-escalating obnoxiousness during a 50-year adolescence which began in June 1967, with no end in sight.
For years official Israeli spokespeople openly employed cynical tactics to distract, obfuscate and dismiss the fundamental injustice that has been done to the Palestinian people.
The numerous temper tantrums which Israel’s neighbors continue to suffer (“Operation Grapes of Wrath” etc) demonstrate that what Israel (and the US) really needs, like any petulant child, are boundaries.
The best hope for Israel as a safe and lasting Jewish homeland is for them to use their current position of strength to offer justice to the Palestinians
35
"Remind me why this country gets $4 billion per year in Foreign aid?"
I will.
most of the monies goes back to the US in purchases from the American defense industry plus employment of thousands of Americans in well paying, middle class, private sector jobs.
28
Israel has a right to exist, but extreme Zionism is corrupting Israel and providing grist for the anti-Semites. Netanyahu has made common cause with the New World Order, citing an "old world bias" against Israel as the reason for his ravenous appetite for land...and water. On March 17, 2015, Netanyahu and his New World Order thugs (including Putin) planned to blow up the ice caps to usher in a new era of Israeli supremacy, mimicking the biblical flood. He is messianic, literally and littorally.
11
The Zionist/Israeli 'experiment' is at the forefront of modern day racist, fascist, World-wide, Aristocratic Feudalism.
Either We're ALL in this together, or, there are 'Chosen' and Cosmically Privileged, that get to exploit and sacrifice all of the Lesser Others for the comfort and succor of said Chosen and Privileged.
i.e, it looks like the Nazis are winning.
20
time for America to divorce the Likud; read the Likud Charter.........
16
Bassam Tawil, an Arab writer, wrote that “there is not a single Israeli Arab citizen willing to give up his Israeli ID card -- a choice that embarrassingly contradicts this Palestinian contention.” When Israel's former Foreign Minister, Avigdor Liberman, “suggested to the residents of the Israeli Arab city Umm al-Fahm the option of moving the city border to within the Palestinian Authority. They would retain their houses, lands and property, and relinquish only their Israeli citizenship. They refused outright.
“We cannot lie to ourselves,” he said. “There is not one single Israeli Arab willing to give up Israel's ‘apartheid’ in exchange for the rule of the Palestinian Authority. Its amateurish propaganda only serves to destroy its credibility..”
So much for the claims of the 'brutal' Israeli 'occupation.'
26
Trump = Netanyahu = Modi
The Axis of Evil.
P.S: In that specific order. Note the center. It says it all for the current world affairs.
10
There was never a nation more in need of saving from its government than the one run by Obama and friends. And thankfully, Donald Trump is the savior. And as Alan Dershowitz stated regarding the Flynn indictment, "A big nothing burger'. Next up in the nations needing saving from their governments, Merkel's Germany which in her infinite wisdom allowed 2 miilion muslims into the country which has brought a crime wave of rapes and sexual assaults against German women. Merkel's party has now lost control and the Right wing conservative parties are primed to take over.
3
What are you going to do when your sugar daddy goes the way of the Soviet Union. You won't have one friend left in the world. Clean up your act.
8
We are a Jewish family and believe Israel has a right to exist, but Netanyahu's ravenous land grabs only provide fuel for the anti-Semites, many of whom are our neighbors. He doesn't realize the pains he puts the Jews of the world through in his messianic "new world" quests. (He said there was an "old world" bias against Israel earlier this year.) There is no messiah, not in Israel or in America, and every Jew knows this.
28
It it sounds as if the average Likudnik is on better at processing objective information than the average Republican. This is not a promising sign for Israel.
8
Zionism created Netanyahu and Likud, and empowered them.
Just as Christian Nationalism created Trump and his cronies and empowered them.
Both movements just cannot help lying to themselves, as well of course as to others, about their histories and goals.
Sorry, Mr. Barak. What, and who, is we? Why write this in a nominally U.S. newspaper. Israel is your problem now. We here have to save our own country.
16
Ehud Barrack is a has been. He isn’t popular with the Israeli electorate. He is advocating yesterdays failed solutions. The Palestinians have proven time and again that it’s not a state that want but the annihilation of Israel itself. The Palestinians are Arabs and not a distinct people. In 70 years they haven’t built the institutions of Statehood. They have brainwashed there people to believe the fantasy of conquering Israel but never accepting peaceful solutions. Violence and falsehoods filled with lies and fake news is there calling card. First and foremost as Ehud Barack said Israel needs to protect its citizens even in disputed territory. I urge NYT readers not to be fooled by left wing and Palestinian anti Israel propaganda and untruths. Israel is an amazing country and doing the best it can to protect itself, living with a democratic state, and making contributions for the betterment of mankind. The Arab Palestinian mindset is cruel and evil to their own people. There is no reason to be kind to cruelty.
21
All right-wing religions. in Israel its the Orthodox, are the same. They all are doing god's work and have been picked by god to act. They are all better than anyone that is not in their group and should the "other" perish it is god's will.
Nuttyyahoo is a-religious, a-moral, and a corrupt individual, that the Orthodox use towards their end. They tolerate him because that is god's will.
10
Netanyahu can respond to Barak that Barak cares for what the Diaspora thinks way too much, and that he is not going to sacrifice Israel’s security for the sake of the Diaspora’s being able to putatively have the high moral ground in debates about Israel with opponents of Israel’s right to exist. This would be in line with Netanyahu’s view of part of the Diaspora as morally narcissistic due to a pathological need to ingratiate non-Jews. As he put it in Dec 2016:
“Enough of this Diaspora-think…I tell you that there is no diplomatic wisdom in being ingratiating”.
“… the nations of the world respect strong countries that stand up for themselves and do not respect weak ingratiating countries that bow their heads.”
PS:I am not implying that Netanyahu really harbors this attitude deep down, he might be just donning it because he judges that part of his electorate harbors it.
1
Just realized that 100 years ago, Dr. M. L. Rothstein proposed a Jewish State in current day Saudi Arabia. Such a state would cover Saudi Arabia's main oil fields near and around present day Dhahran,Saudi Arabia. Fortunately, such proposal was turned down. Good. Israel is better off being resource-poor but knowledge-wealthy. So, where is the outrage from rich Israeli entrepreneurs? Somebody has to speak up.
1
I visited Israel on a professional tour 6 years ago and went to, among other places, East Jerusalem and the West back. I was stunned.
When you see apartheid, believe it.
Israel can save can only itself by recognizing that indigenous palestinians have rights too. Israel needs to revisit the 2 nation state solution.
29
I have long fretted about the tendency of the extreme right to paint any Jew contesting current Israeli policy as "self-hating" and any gentile with similar concerns as anti-Semitic.
Than said this op-ed, especially the fourth paragraph, makes it difficult to know whether former Prime Minister Barak is writing about current Israeli governance or about the United States of America.
7
Mr. Barak's thoughts on Israel's leadership under Netanyahu reminds me of a certain American president and his bunch of henchmen. The particulars differ, but the paths seem ominously similar: The eventual destruction of a society based on ideals and dreams to make way for one based on greed and hatred.
" ...everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned..." (Yeats)
3
The values, commitments, and even the character of the Israeli people have changed for the worse over the years. I recall twenty years ago talking with an Israeli professor of law who said that the Palestinians were "animals."
Israel and Russia are the only countries where Trump is more popular than Obama.
There is a small group of Israelis, including its writers, artists, and intellectuals, such as Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, and David Grossman, who continue to support justice for the Palestinians. Their platform is the courageous Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz.
But they are not enough to breakthrough the propaganda spewed by Likhud and its supporters, including Sheldon Adelson, Ronald Lauder and other Jewish-American billionaires.
The Zionist dream of peace, comity, and social democracy has turned into a nightmare.
7
What is tragic here and what is dangerous is a man whose term as Prime Minister was ridiculous, who served almost four years in Netanyahu's cabinet, did not prove his mettle as the IDF's commander and has been on social media platforms in Israel with the silliest of messages, some of them we read here.
He cannot get elected within any party and yet is spouting here in the pages of the NYTimes, not one of the most supportive outlets of Israel, knowing full well he is not damaging Netanyahu but Israel.
As Israel is still democratic, despite complaints, let him try to cha;lleneg from within, not without.
13
We have to question the moral grounding and dedication to democracy among the slim majorities in each country that voted these two lunatics into office. The problem is us.
4
Mr. Barak makes a lot of sense. I just hope more Jewish Americans are able to understand that not supporting the corrupt Netanyahu government doesn't mean one doesn't support the people of Israel and the nation. To the contrary. As an African-American who appreciates the long standing bonds between Blacks and Jews during the Civil Rights Movement, and united efforts to make America a nation that treats all people equal, I was very disappointed at the lack of respect shown President Obama by the Netanyahu government. I hope the N.Y. Times and others in the mainstream media, who have covered the corrupt Trump regime and its ties to Putin exhaustively and heroically, will have the courage to look into the bombshell allegation concerning the Trump Administration's lobbying of the Soviets on behalf of Israel. Trump had never professed love of Israel before his run for the presidency so why did he become so Pro-Israel during the campaign? Do you think his team would be lobbying Putin to do Israel's bidding at the U.N. if not at the behest of Netanyahu? What was the Trump team promised for this intervention? Knowing Netanyahu's hatred for President Obama I would not put it past him to continue to seek ways to undermine his policies toward Israel. Is Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel next week somehow connected to a quid pro quo with Netanyahu? Inquiring minds want to know.... and so should the press.
4
I think Netanyahu will always win the argument contra Barak so long as Barak's side refuses to express itself in utter truthfulness. Consider this statement by Barak:
"This “one-state solution” that the government is leading Israel toward is no solution at all. It will inevitably turn Israel into a state that is ... mired in permanent violence".
Netanyahu can easily respond that, given that almost all of the Israelis agree that the Temple Mount will remain Jewish, there will always be violence against Israel, no matter if Israel takes the Barak way or the Netanyahu way. As the recent violence with the detectors at the Temple Mount showed, no Palestinian leader can relinquish the Temple Mount. Therefore, Netanyahu can retort to Barak, Israel will be mired in violence no matter what.
Now Barak may address this hypothetical retort by Netanyahu through his following statement:
"[Netanyahu] prefers a Greater Israel with an Arab majority, violence and division over a united, self-confident Israel with a solid Jewish majority, together facing whatever challenges may arise".
Barak says in effect that Israel will be able to face the anticipated violence more easily if it sticks to the status quo, because the status quo is acceptable to more Israelis than the slow territorial expansion.
Netanahu can easily beat that argument too, by pointing out that he is demonstrably better at sticking to the status quo, compared to Barak. If the name of the game is "status quo", Netanyahu wins
1
Thank you Mr Barak. However, Israel's problems arise at least in part from US meddling. Israel is a foreign country, yet by treating it as though it were a sacred object Americans are not providing necessary feedback and giving it the rope to hang itself.
Congress is currently considering a heavily sponsored bill which would make it a crime for Americans to boycott Israel. The Israeli government collaborates with its billionaire sponsors in the US to meddle in US elections. Israel absorbs a ridiculously disproportionate amount of US foreign aid. All this is pitched as "pro Israel" when this over-protection is in fact the opposite.
When Netanyahu can get away with anything, why shouldn't he try? Why not annex the West Bank, and worry later about the definition of democracy? Where is the open debate on this subject among Jewish Americans, in the US?
6
The Zionist movement that my father and millions of other American Jews fiercely supported in 1948 had one objective: create a state of Israel where all Jews could live in peace, safe from the centuries-long oppression of antisemitism. Many of those survivors of the Holocaust were no longer religiously observant, for obvious reasons, but thrilled to have an independent Israel. Decades later, with the support of the US, Israel is an outsized economic and military power in the region and the world, but the formerly oppressed are now seen by much of the world as oppressors. The finger-pointing, the 'who did what to whom' and the growing religious fanaticism are redefining how the Zionist movement represents itself. Forget the debating points: Unless Israel removes the settlements and forms a coalition with as many other countries as possible to find a compromise and implement an acceptable two-state solution, Israel will further isolate itself as a rigidly militaristic, zealously religious outlier, exactly like Iran!
9
Israel can't be taken seriously about its supposed principles in the 1948 Declaration of Independence unless it stops building settlements.
5
I have glibly considered that there is something missing in our Jewish DNA going back to Biblical times and the post-Solomon era- we have been unable to govern without messing everything up. And here we are once again.
But the problem may not be resolvable today, thus permitting Israeli nationalists to tout their own form of manifest destiny. What is not resolvable is that there us no partner in peace- nor will there be until the Palestinians- most of whom I believe want peace- can separate themselves from the violence preached by Hamas.
Presently, the greater geo-politic of the Middle East seems to be resulting in a de facto anti-Iranian alliance between Israel and some of its neighbors, most prominently Egypt and Saudi-Arabia- an alliance that seems to be putting the two-State issue on the back page. But I fear we may have already crossed the line and that a two-State option no longer exists. It may be time to begin seriously considering how a future Israel will address the Palestinian question. Will it try to maintain a de facto apartheid relationship under the suspect premise that most Palestinians do not want peace, thereby risking at some point in time, world comdenation, or will the Israeli people find a way to incorporate a greater Israel with full citizenship rights for all. That future state may not be the Jewish State we envisioned 60 years ago, but that doesn’t mean it is doomed.
2
Part of being successful in politics or in anything else is to know when to call it quits and to retire gracefully.
Alas, Mr. Netanyahu seems to have not learned this lesson and will undoubtedly have a rather bumpy ungraceful retirement.
Unfortunately, Mr. Barak also seems to be oblivious to this. Mr. Barak dreams of a comeback, the general in shining armor who will save the Israel Labor Party (or ha-Mahaneh ha-Zioni in its present political form), take the #1 spot and become Prime Minister once again and solve all of Israel's problems. After all he did such a fine job last time. It cannot be harder than taking apart watches and putting them back together as he is known to excel at.
Mr. Barak's three pillars may or not make sense and his plan also the same, I personally agree, but Mr. Barak hardly made this up. In any case, it is irrelevant; it is long unacceptable to the Palestinians. Why should they change their mind, because Mr. Barak suggests it?
Mr. Barak has as much chance of becoming head of Labor as I do. That would be a very bad bet.
4
It seems we live in a time of growing fear and intolerance, two feelings that Israelis know a good deal about having been on both the giving and receiving ends. As we are seeing in the US, playing upon fear and anxiety serves those in power who are willing to manipulate ideals and principles in order to further their own sense of security (which is often much more cynically based upon concrete gains like money and influence). Israel, where existential concerns have been much more immediate, is now suffering from the consequences of these long-term anxieties and the failure of earlier strategies premised upon them, which have repeatedly failed. Like the "trickle down economics" of the Republican party, the land grab by hard-right Israeli settlers will continue to be a failure. Both of these policies are based upon myths that have not worked do not work, and will not work. But, as we in the US are discovering, playing upon fear is a very effective lever for power, and power corrupts. What Ehud Barak seems unable to suggest, and what we in the US seem unable to figure out, is how to take our power back.
3
The parallels between our nations' situations are striking. Thank you, NYTimes, for giving Mr. Barak this microphone. I hope Americans listen.
1
can't disagree with Mr Barak, but would add that just as the Israeli government has rejected meaningful steps to peace, so has the Palestinian leadership, also choosing endless war That is especially sad in their case as the Palestinians suffer more from the stalemate. But by choosing to rewct all previous offers of compromise, to demonize Jews, to celebrate anti-Jewish violence, to keep the dream of eliminating Israel in the forefront, they too have brought on the dismal situation and choices they face.
The only way out is to find ways to get BOTH sides to compromise, compromise.
5
The Power of Least Interest. The Palestinians have long had it - they don't really want a peace deal, but go through the motions to keep EU money flowing in. The Right understands this and has over the last two decades built its own population of intransigent settlers and their supporters, who are just as inimical to peace as a majority the Palestinians, as polls tell us.
Pessimistically we could imagine war between two entrenched sides. Optimistically, the Palestinians could elect leadership not afraid of the extremists and bold enough to realize their eventual territory will never be as expansive as it could be unless they forge a peace deal now.
4
My sympathies, Mr Barak. I wish we could help, but we have our own oligarchy brewing here with our very own petty tyrants who are undermining our very foundation. I fear they are in cahoots with yours, as well and our hands are tied until the 2018 elections, at least.
4
Perhaps we see in Israel and Netanyahu's government a precursor to what could happen in the United States under Trump. The parallels are frightening. At least in the U.S. we have a written Constitution, albeit even that is at risk with Trump's ignorance of the rule of law and the Republicans' assault on the federal judiciary.
In late 2016, the U.S. signed the 10-year, $30 billion defense aid agreement. It was a mistake; we should have held out for more changes in the settlement policy. Obama caved, but Trump would have signed it anyway. With the U.S. as its enabler, the Netanyahu government has free reign for now. At some point there will be an internal reckoning, but will it be too late?
6
Zion will become a reality when the 6 million Israeli Jews join the 6 million American Jews, together comprising 80 percent of world Jewry.
All else is commentary.
Will the American Jews relocate to the Middle East, paying a fair price to the Palestinians to get out of Judea and Samaria,. Or will the Middle East Jews relocate to America ... financed by, and to land donated by, Americans; in lieu of 50 or more years of foreign aid and trillion dollar wars.
How else will Zion ever become more than a dream?
7
Zion is not a dream, it is a fantasy. Humanity's need is to integrate rather than separate from each other if we are to survive on this earth. We have a common purpose here other than fighting with each "other."
1
I would be willing to sacrifice Long Island and give it to dispossessed Israelis for the return of Palestine to Palestinians: Jews, Christians and Muslims who had familial ties to the land before the UN created Israel in 1948.
4
Where do those people - Palestinians, who are leaving centuries old ancestral homes, go? Will those 6 million American Jews give over their cottages in Cleveland or their penthouses on 5th Ave?
4
On Thursday night, I believe for the first time in my life, I saw a man with a great big swastika on his t-shirt in a pub in downtown Patchogue -- this is where Donald Trump, the man Netanyahu cozies- up to, has brought us. If you aren't afraid, you aren't paying attention -- at least if you're Jewish.
73
I wish somebody would have sucker punched that guy. But he was probably packing an concealed assault weapon, so better not to.
I am sick of Trump AmeriKa .
Too much hate .Too many lies.
3
I´m with Roger Waters:Boycott Israel
60
Any other countries we should boycot or just Israel?
8
The problem is that a "Jewish state" like an "Islamic state" or a "Christian state" will inevitably be or end up being a segregated state run by religious fanatics.
125
Best comment so far.
2
Easy to say when there are dozens of havens for Muslims and Christians but only one tiny besieged sliver for Jews.
10
The usual voices shout the loudest when ever anyone DARES to criticize Israel in any way, shape or fashion. As an American Jew, a life-long believer in the need for a safe haven for Jews, the Likud and the other right-wing fanatical religious blocs are frankly embarrassing because it's totally impossible to defend their racism, their jingoism, their White (ie European) Jewish Supremacy, and their obvious, although unstated, drive toward ethnic cleansing. Mr. Barak claims there will be, in Greater Israel, an Arab majority. Sadly, he's wrong, because the fanatics aim is to "cleanse" Greater Judea of Arabs, just as the Alt-Right here, in the US, aims to drive every Black, Brown, Yellow, Muslim and Jew out of "their country".
Mr. Barak is correct: Netanyahu can't have it both ways. Half of American Jews are already repelled by his bloc's actions, but he and they STILL demand total support and NEVER a word of criticism. Sorry Bibi. But you're part of a tradition of dishonesty by the Israeli Right going back 39 years to Menachem Begin's deceitful negotiations at Camp David.
Yes, we suffered the Holocaust, and not one of us wasn't touched by it and damaged by it in some way. It may give us a right, as Jews, to a homeland, but it doesn't give us a right to become the oppressors.
The right and Bibi have DELIBERATELY undermined chances for peace, believing that in the worst case, US Troops will die to save them from their immoral choices. You make peace with your enemies.
102
After the first, encouraging, paragraph Mr. Barak sinks back into the half-truths that have impaired our ability to separate the current government of Israel from the ideal state that once seemed the remedy to the Holocaust. He recognizes that Netanyahu promotes illegal settlements throughout the occupied territories. And that this policy makes a two-state solution impossible. But Barak fails to acknowledge that another solution lies in the existence of one state that is truly democratic. Netanyahu's government of course will never tolerate equal rights for the Palestinians, and will continue his apartheid policies at any price. But to ask, as Barak does, for security for the Israelis without also demanding justice and security for the Palestinians, no change can come. I am proud to be an American Reform Jew, and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace.
37
Should have read: Trump/Russia coziness ceded Syria with a smirk.
4
The Right wing of Israeli politics together with assorted religious fanatics and the perpetual opportunists turned the Six Day War astounding achievements into a Pyrrhic victory.
11
Mr. Barak is a fulsomely honored elder war hero, but a failed politician, a failed Prime Minister, and now an unrealistic, purely party-aligned, hysteric, focussing his resentments against a successor, one repeatedly endorsed by his countrymen and countrywomen.
He, actually, cozening a friendly newspaper, asks Americans to interfere in the Israeli political system to remove the current Prime Minister of Israel! For shame!
He systematically ignores the totally negative "Palestinian" attitude toward any Israeli programs, including his fatuities. He has deleted Gaza and Hamas, and Iran from what remains of his delusional faculties.
He also fantasies that the Reform and Conservative American Jewish factional religion lobbies, increasingly being depleted by indifference and intermarriage, now desperate, now demanding concession from the Israeli population, in which, after more than 100 years, they have minimal if any traction, have any interest except their own in interfering in the Israeli political process, and doing this by threats of depleting their already intrusive support of dubious "NGO" projects.
In the end, he actually endorses what is being done and what is planned by those on the ground, facing rackets, murder, and threats of war.
It is he, and not Netanyahu, who should be put out to pasture. The New York Times need not give him a warped soapbox.
Arthur Taub MD PhD
Clinical Professor (ret.)
Yale University School of Medicine
12
This goes to show you that no matter what the education Isreali right or wrong fanatics continue to support Isreal's violation of international law re the Occupation and UN resolutions. The ultimate outcome will be a theocratic state not unlike Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.
5
Dr. Taub - your rewriting of Israeli history is rich in adjectives and poor in truth. In your zeal to defend the indefensible you disrespect the First Amendment to the US Constitution and Israel's Supreme Court decisions on the freedom of the press. Along with President Trump and PM Netanyahu you malign anyone who does not toe the line.
You claim that Israelis do not care for Conservative and Reform movements demands. If this is so it is because more than 85% of Israelis don't care about religion, largely because of their disgust with religion's heavy involvement in Israeli politics. Professor Leibowitz had it right, decades ago.
5
That's it, Arthur, attack the messenger.
3
Democracy can no longer look to the U.S. or Israel for leadership. Pickin's are getting kinda slim- And time is running out. Best stock up on canned goods, duck, and cover!
12
Let us not forget that our Evangelical Christians are looking forward to the Prophecy of the Bible and Greater Israel, and Netanyahu knows how to play them. Politics, Religion, Money and Human suffering.
43
Regarding settlements on stolen land the Israeli argument is we built on it so we get to keep it. If there were equivalent land to swap, Israel would be building on it. Israel has an army and air force with the most advanced military equipment American taxpayer money can buy--100 billion dollars worth. The Palestinians have no army. It is not just Netanyahu's radically corrupt government that is detrimental to world peace; every Israeli government had a land grab on its agenda. Americans are regarded as Israel's enabler and thus the targets of Muslim wrath. Our politicians are so fearful of displeasing AIPAC and Jewish donors that whatever Israel wants Israel gets. Peace and justice be damned, the safety of Americans be damned--they've got elections to win.
25
In a time when brilliant Israeli intellectuals seems to be have given up this article is refreshing. it is makes me remember reading Einstein's words after passing on the opportunity to take on the Presidency " I would have had to tell the Israelis things they don't want to hear" he wrote to his stepdaughter Margot.
Einstein also concluded that "the strength of the whole Zionist movement for the Israeli state rests on it's moral justification with which it must stand or fall"
That moral justification is today exhausted to it's very limit and can only be regained by a change in government and by pulling out the settlers, in doing so putting the ball firmly on the Palestinian court.
24
I agree with every word but frankly don't think there is any more future for Israel than there is for Putin's Russia. In Russia the quest to take over Eastern Ukraine, and possibly Belarus, and Islamophobia is used by the hierarchy to loot the state and remain in power with no real challenges. In Israel the quest to take every piece of valuable land in the West Bank and drive the Palestinians into non existence is used by "King Bibi" to loot the state and remain in power with no real challenges. Both turn to the most crude sort of nationalist appeal. And one other thing, the only two nations in the world that approve of Trump are; Russia and Israel.
16
I quote the last sentence in your comment: "And one other thing, the only two nations in the world that approve of Trump are; Russia and Israel." You forgot to add the other democratic nation, USA, which approved and appointed President Trump, democratically, and lawfully. Some other fallacies in your comment are what you call: "King Bibi", who is the democratically elected Prime Minister of the democratic state Israel, and is not a king. Abusive name calling to disgrace Israel, and its people and refer to us as "looting" and "driving Palestinians into non existence" shows detachment from truth, honesty and reality.
8
Better idea.
We must save the United States of America from its government.
22
Best comment I've read so far.
1
The last I heard Israel is a democracy and Netanyahu has been elected and least three consecutive times. I grant you the system of proportional representation in Israel grants fringe parties more power than their actual nation wide votes but that is the system Israel chose and also chooses not to change.
The power to 'save' Israel lies in the hands of the Israeli people.
It is not the problem of the United States and I for one am tired of the Israeli tail wagging the dog.
Wait until Trump moves our embassy to Jerusalem at Bibi's request.
You ain't seen nothing yet.
22
Right now, trump is more concerned with saving himself from impeachment or prison, along with his son in law and son, then he is about the location of the embassy. He, Vlad and Bibi should all share the same prison cell, in my opinion.
1
At Trump's worthless boo-rah UN speech, a typical display wherein a vision-less ego resorts to tough guy talk and distortion, Netanyahu was the most titillated person in the room. He has a US President and a Saudi King throwing money at him, asking him no questions, so he gets to use them like power pieces in his chess game. And the most egregious part of the game is the tilted board ie: the poorly informed, self absorbed & spineless American public, that has proved itself incapable of overcoming cheesy Internet-driven propaganda campaigns if they contain sufficient flamboyant graphics and memes, because it does not read books. The most powerful nation on Earth has a citizenry that is just about majority suckers, to be proved otherwise come the next two election cycles.
12
Mr. Barack we have our own problem to deal with here.
Maybe the world has had to much peace and stability, the people have forgotten why they need to work together and get along.
Let's all remember that Germany was a thriving democracy until it wasn't.
6
I have never heard anyone refer to Weimar as "thriving". Not ever.
Josh,
In fact Germany was first a monarchy, then after WWI a weak disorganized Weimar Republic, then Nazi. The democracy part didn't happen until after WW II
I wonder if we will ever learn moderation in our discourse again. Elected leaders reflect their constituencies and free societies have to accommodate widely disparate views. Language helps or hurts and hyperbolic descriptions of people may feel good but shut off others listening carefully. Israel is a complicated place dealing with threats, more real than imagined. The US is a complicated place, dealing with treats more imagined than real.
I may not agree with Netanyahu but all Israel leaders are faced with truly binary issues. They will or will not survive as a nation. I may not agree with Trump but I see the flaws in the undisciplined left as well. We will never resolve anything until we accept the legitimacy of another's opinion. After that , let the better argument win.
9
Theocracy ≠ democracy; contradictory philosophical systems that have not and will not co-exist. To discuss "liberal norms of government" in this context is, at best, naive.
10
Ehud Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier, is correct. In the history of the world has there ever been an occupied population who did not revolt in violence? An increasingly large percentage of supporters of Israel, including me, no longer want to be associated with the apartheid policies of the Netanyahu government. Unless we resist it and him more effectively, the US will continue to be complicit in the racism, death and destruction that will continue.
26
Remind me why this country gets $4 billion per year in Foreign aid?
46
It seems that former P.M. Barak is offering a more reasoned approach to Israel's problems than its present P.M. For Israelis, while peace would be desirable, security is essential. Regarding the expansion of settlements Mr. Barak is rather pragmatic in believing that exacerbating the present settlement situation is short sighted.
Israel exists in a Middle East currently undergoing a seismic shift. The US, through its wars, has destabilized Iraq and Afghanistan. Our retreat from Syria has given Russia/Iranian hegemony at its Northern border and there is a battle-trained and Iranian supplied Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon. While the Obama "red line" was feckless, the Trump/Russia coziness ceded Lebanon with a smirk.
The new voice in Saudi Arabia seems to see Israel a bit differently, more like a quasi-ally against Iran and less as an oppressor of the Palestinian people. The Al-Sisi regime in Egypt respects the Peace Accord and Jordan is not in a position for, nor likely desirous of conflict. That said, in the Middle East alliances shift with the wind and permanence is illusory. However, there is definitely a new dynamic afoot for better or worse.
Who leads Israel is for Israelis to decide. I (not an Israeli) believe that the time has come for Mr. Netanyahu to leave office. He will not be replaced by a dove, but rather by a pragmatist who is able and willing to fight if necessary, and who has the confidence of Israelis to do so.
3
The unity of the land has been a top priority for every Israeli administration since the 1967 war. You have conveniently failed to remember the Allon Plan and its successors. The unity of the land is an official policy of Israel. It has been the policy of every Israeli government from Eshkol to Netanyahu.
That's why you declare "the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and the 'settlement blocs' — suburban communities built just across the Green Line, which include some 80 percent of the total settler population — will remain in Israel no matter what."
Yes, there are about 100 small communities deep in the West Bank, containing around 100,000 settlers. They too will remain in Israel no matter what. Those settlements did not just spring up in the last three years. Settlement has been encouraged for 50 years. The unity of the people demands solidarity with the 100,000 settlers.
Your complaint is that Netanyahu is in charge. With Trump in the White House we have a similar complaint in the United States.
6
Israel has been broken for a long time. Not broken militarily or economically, but morally. This is not the Israel that my grandfather endlessly bought bonds for and was viewed as a haven after the war. This is an Israel that mirrors the right-wing extremism in the USA, undermining the rights of those who are not orthodox or Jewish. This is a government that is leading Israel off a cliff from which their may be no recovery.
13
Don't worry general. With the wise counsel of Jared Kushner and the strong support of Donald Trump, I'm sure Bibi will eventually do what's right for Israel while bringing peace to the Middle East. Alternatively, you could vote him and his settler followers out of office before they finish stealing all the Palestinian land, thus starting another bloodbath -- just as we should get rid of Trump and the GOP.
8
Too little too late.
In the course of a couple of sentences you advocate land theft from the Palestinians, but then call Bibi the extemist. It is exactly that duality that has led Israel to this point.
Just like you can not be a little bit pregnant, you can not be a little bit violator of UN Regulations of stealing Palestinian land.
There is no easy answer because the so-called moderates allowed the occupation to grow by turning a blind eye to the problem for 50 years and most Israelis have now grown very comfortable with the Occupation.
Israel seems to be on it's way to becoming a religious theocracy like Iran. Maybe that's the only type of government that works in the Middle East.
11
Your last sentence: very perceptive and acute. I think you're right.
3
For a moment, I felt I was reading about Trump, the similarities are frightening.
Israel has become a Theocracy ,it has been over run by religious zealots that keep Bibi in power.There are good and bad in every culture, this applies to Palestinians as well. I have been in Israel numerous times & met with numerous Palestinians, who are Israeli Citizens, I couldn’t tell them from the Israeli Jews.
They are for the most part cordial, astute & educated, & i would welcome them as a neighbor.We must first debunk the Stereotype Arab with the intent to murder Jews. Like people the world over they yearn for peace, & serenity.
The two State Solution must not die, & we must give peace a chance.
10
WE must save Israel, Mr. Barak? How about WE save America from the same International Mafia Top 1% Global Financial Elite Robber Baron/Radical religion Good Old Boys' Cabal that Netanyahu belongs to first.
18
A thoughtful, well reasoned comment njglea, if there ever was one. Let us by all means have many more like them when you are feeling better.
2
I am an American Reform Jew and a life member of Hadassah, the women's Zionist organization, and while I am a strong supporter of the State of Israel, I have never supported the right wing regime of Bibi Netanyahu and his Haredi henchmen. The second class treatment of Israeli Arabs is not much different than the bigoted white people in America, toward people of color. The manner in which Netanyahu disrespected my President, Barack Obama, gives me permission to call Netanyahu a racist and bigot too. He sides with our current embattled president, who is heartily endorsed by people who hate Jews. What then, is Bibi, but a hater of Jews himself. Karma is racing toward the trump cartel crime syndicate and hopefully it will visit Bibi's doorstop soon as well.
188
From your mouth... you can say this. If I say it, I'm called anti-semitic.
6
Your comment typifies why Israeli Jews absolutely feel that American Reform Jews are no different from American or European Leftists who have all been working against Israel and in favor of the arabs.And nobody was more detested in Israel than your idol Obama. And I speak from first-hand experience. If you've been paying attention to events in Israel recently where your Leftwing Reform American Jews have been trying to impose their secular versionof Judaism on the state and been rejected on every issue, you will understand the growing alienation between the Israeli nation and Reform Jewry.
8
I beg to differ with you, Ms. Salzberg. The treatment of Israeli Arabs is incomparably worse than American bigotry because it's institutional. It is the state of Israel that discriminates against them, first and mostly by defining itself as a Jewish state. Many rights are denied them, ostensibly because they choose to not serve in the army. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, however, receive all these benefits despite staunchly and publicly refusing to serve in the army. Israeli Arabs number 20% of Israel's population, pay taxes, but are neglected as far as education and basic services.
5
Mr. Barak knows this is a lie. 17 years ago he offered 94 percent of the West Bank and all of east Jerusalem and Gaza to the Palestinians and they responded to his offer with the blood of hundreds of Israeli Citizens. To Palestinians it is an all or nothing game. There is no agreement that will satisfy them that does not include Israel’s destruction. It’s not about Israel’s settlements. It’s about it’s continued existence.
25
This comment contains the old soiled myth proffered by Israel and its supporters. Ehud Barak did indeed offer Palestinians 94% of their own land, however Israel was to retain 80% of the water rights of the West Bank. No sane Palestinian leader could have accepted such a deal.
This article by Mr Barak is eminently sensible and contains the framework for a settlement.
The fact remains that Israel, which should be a beacon of sanity and decency in a troubled area, remains a brutal occupying power, illegally settling Palestinian land, and imprisoning the people of Gaza under atrocious conditions.
5
You are a victim of 'fake news'. Mr. Barak is not a liar.
Israel is no victim.
1
I hear you.
We must save America from its government as well.
We're letting special interests (who stand to make $$$) in the US control the shots. S...ss..
sorrry, everyone and whoever's listening: Nobody ever listens to me. And they extra won't after reading this. Because not listening to anyone stands to make them$$$ TheMove
6
Surely Netanyahu feels empowered with these 3 great minds: Kushner, Trump and Mohammad Bin Salman!
27
The writer somewhat cleverly cloaks his intentions in the cloth of sovereign and public advocacy, but he is a proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. His fantasy of a US-led and financed war on Iran is gaining its necessary US-based political psychology (see the recent NYT, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/opinion/is-trump-going-to-lie-our-way.... Obviously Israel's Likud Party, and Netanyahu, are empowered by the US. Both would be a simple institutional adjustment by US influence, but for a deeply embedded domestic agency here, that systematically drives that party's ideology and especially, its resources including financial, military and communications ones. Evidently for the writer, that isn't sufficient. It isn't really Israel per se, or even its current political leader, that are unbalanced or counterproductive, as much as it is US interests working on its behalf. Israel is in some regards a special interest American satrapy, yet in others, that role is reversed. We must save the US first, then "saving" Israel is rather a simple matter. As for Mr. Barak, he may not be an honest broker of dissent. All signs indicate rather a fundamental Zionist ready to surpass Netanyahu in direct military confrontation. Lastly, he states that "Mr. Netanyahu elevated fake news [and] alternative facts...in Hebrew, long before those terms gained any traction in English." He leaves out however, its raison d'être, and therefore the raison d'état: the GWOT.
6
Very ironic but mostly sad that only 72 years after the Holocaust, the greatest danger to Israel may very well be the intransigent right wing Israelis whose greed for land and religious hegemony is exposing the country to growing scorn.
127
He who believes that all that Israel need o do is sign peace with the Palestinians, needs to re-do his homework, while keeping in mind the scores of opportunities for statehood the Palestinian's leadership had, ever since 1967 and not to mention earlier ones.
10
This has nothing to do with the systematic land grab that is going on. Peace has indeed proved to be elusive. But the theft of Palestinian territory does not make the attainment of peace any easier, to say the least.
3
Thank you.
8
That Netanyahu is bad for Israel has been evident ever since his re-election in 2015 (fourth term!). What took you this long to denounce his arrogant graft?
46
The government policies are discernible now when you ask about jewish ancestry or becoming a part of israel. The criteria is strict with no leeway whatsoever. Needless to say lots of jewish people are turned down from entering the country nowadays.
3
Personally, I think Bibi “broke bad” when his brother Yonatan died at Entebbe. Netanyhoo has always damaged Israel. He’s been nothing but bad for their long term survival. The only choice is to coexist in a two state solution with the the Palestinians. As long as he’s in power he will never allow that to happen.
24
Israel is becoming a less and less compelling destination for North American Jews. Liberal Jews of the Diaspora are regularly vilified by the Israeli establishment as not Jewish. This is not what I would call an enticement to immigrate.
16
Mr. Barak sets out a road map for Israel that includes several problematic "solutions" to the conflict between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. I hope that The Times will give equal space for a Palestinian representative to reply to Mr. Barak's proposals. Palestinian voices are heard too seldom in The Newspaper of Record.
66
Anything propelled primarily by religion, rather than civic law, is going to follow the pattern you describe.
10
Unfortunately, the 'chessboard' is one, but the 'players' are several - Iran, Qatar, Sudan, ISIS, Assad. Each player has been having different idea and will do all to prevent its undesired outcome - usually through violence.
Can't think of any one of the above who desires a 2-State solution, Israel/Palestine.
So, dear reader, what would you suggest Israel must do?
Now the Israelis cannot blame anyone else. The mythologies of Zionism have always contained the seeds of their own destruction - and I don't think anything can stop it now.
50
We are truly in the age of Trumpism, lawlessness or laws unto the ones who think they hold the power to do as they please. Totalitarianism is alive and trying to be well until it is rendered not just weakened but dead. Rabbi Lerner's Tikkun is rendered even more valuable at this time.
8
Can we please remember that settlement building in the occupied territories reached its highest rate till then when Ehud Barak was prime minister of Israel. He led the then largest opposition Labour Party to the right, and failed miserably to achieve a settlement with the Palestinians.
He would like to have another go.
No thanks.
20
Unilateral Israeli objectives that affect the Palestinians negatively.
Sounds like there will never really be peace.
You will not win over this American.
19
Mr. Barack failed to mention that since the establishment of the state of Israel, never, and I emphasize never, have any of its' Arab neighbors or nearby Palestinians been willing to recognize it. Rather, they have consistently called for its' destruction at every "peace talk."
The Israeli citizens very much once supported a two state solution to reach a long desired peace. They relinquished Gaza in that attempt, only to find rockets aimed and shot at their preschools and homes. The Palestinians destroyed the land and instead, invested their time and energy building tunnels to further their agenda of destruction with more rockets.
Mr. Barak was elected at a time of hope. That hope has turned to disillusionment and the two state solution is now dead. Mr. Netanyahu was reelected to strengthen and secure Israel's existence. And the argument over the "trailer park" called settlements, is an attempt to point a finger at Israel as the bad guy. The truth is the Israelis no longer care. They have given up. And if a few thousand ultra Orthodox Jews with large families can find find cheap housing on those less desirable borders, so be it. Mr. Netanyahu and his constituents will not abdicate settlements for rockets. Been there, done that!
15
Israel "relinquished" Gaza because it was a thorn in their side, not out of generosity.
4
Mr. Barak underestimate the fissure that this Israeli government is creating with American Jews. In addition to the fifty percent of reform and conservative Jews another thirty percent are secular non observing Jews but strong supporters of Zionism who are losing their belief and support in the direction that the current government is taking the country.
15
Fear and bigotry - the two go hand in hand towards turning a country once dedicated to building a nation on a foundation of shared ideals, a beacon of freedom governed by the rule of law and an abiding faith in democracy, into a country that becomes the very thing that it once opposed.
Israel? Or the United States? Or both?
I have supported Israel all my life. Jews deserve a safe haven from the world's oppression, oppression that never seems to leave them alone through no fault of their own. It is painful to watch Israel wrap itself in the same kind of right wing extremism that is becoming the US's unraveling.
Both the people of Israel and the US have a choice forced upon them, whether they acknowledge it or not. Either they repudiate the folly of Netanyahu- and Trump-ism or they drown their countries in them.
Which is it to be?
13
Barak is exactly right. He also explains perfectly why he is politically ineffective. “First and foremost, security comes before everything; every Israeli understands this.”
Give Netanyahu that “first” and that “everything,” give him that totally open-ended use of “security,” and he can “justify” pretty much any policy he likes. It’s gotten so bad that he doesn’t even have to specify any particular policies. (“Right-wing rule is in danger!”)
Politics is not just about being right; it’s about getting the public and its institutions to do the right thing. Does the Israeli left or center have even one person who is any good at politics?
9
And not a word about his new friends the Saudis and the (re)emergence of our neocons thanks to Trump.
Will we see another M E war for oil?
7
Time is fast running out for the Palestinians who, unless they move soon to accept Israel as a permanent Jewish state and their legitimate neighbor, will find themselves wandering the desert far longer than the original Jewish occupants of Israel ever did.
11
Or the Philistine occupants before. To landgrab is human. So is creating a good origin story. It's bred in our bones.
1
Thank you, Ehud Barak, for your words of wisdom on saving Eretz Yisroel from its government. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has become a tyrant during his vicious grip on the land of milk and honey and democracy in the midst of the violently undemocratic Middle East. He is strangling the principles of Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence. The fate of the isolated Orthodox Jewish settlements in the West Bank is the key to negotiating a two-state separation of the Siamese twin Semites, Israeli and Palestinian. You may remember, dear Ehud Barak, that your last name "Barak" means "lightning", and "blessed" in Hebrew and in Arabic. Our beloved 44th President, Barack Obama shares your name. Mohammed's winged white steed,Buraq -
"lightning" - carried him from Mecca to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and back in an hegira - "the Night Journey" - of one night. A round-trip of 2500 kilometres in 621 C.E. The harbinger of jet shuttle diplomacy in Israel and Arabia. Our beloved 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama shares his first name with your last name. Barack, Barak, Buraq, spell it as you will, also means "blessed" in our language. Mr. Barak, as Israel must be saved from its government, so must the United States of America.
7
Such marvelous magical thinking! More of same, please.
I see Netanyahu as the Trump of Israel. Thye are tied at the hip with their hatred of President Obama and Hillary Clinton as well as their need to be dictators.
24
Sounds like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are kindred spirits!
6
Dear Mr. Barak,
You seem to omit the fact that you were once Bibi's 2nd in commend.
Instead of 'talkin' the talk' you should 'walk the walk'.
Did you or did you not decide to run for prime-ministership?
I will vote for you! I think I am not the only one ....
4
Netanyahu is nothing more than a thug.
The sooner he goes, the better.
The U.S. should stop supporting Israel while this man is in power.
Period.
24
Mr. Barak, you should have gone all the way and stated the obvious: President Trump has been taking lessons from Bibi Netanyahu. But, here's the irony: Bibi destroys the fabric of Israel's democratic principles by siding with irrational ultra-Orthodox parties; while President Trump sides with White Supremacists and elevates their ideology. Problem is that White Supremacists applaud the death of six million fellow Jews during the Holocaust. Something's very wrong.
6
So the "reasonable" approach is to evict Palestinians from Jerusalem and continue the Bantustan policy? Sorry Ehud, Bibi's your baby. Deal with it. And please stop calling on us Diaspora Jews to help you out, once again. You're on your own.
10
In Israel a large majority of intelligent people have long recognized that Ehud Barak represents himself & his long-time demonstrated political misreadings rather than a fresh path to a better Israel. Pity the NYT provides an "opinion" page to someone who is, with good reason, regarded as "passe" in Israel.
3
Netanyahu's paranoid arrogance, and apartheid policies have created anti Semitism where none existed, in addition his actions has brought down uncalled for hatred on the heads of innocent Israeli citizens. There has been a movement inside Israel for a long period to oust Netanyahu & his Likud Party.
18
So, the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and the "settlement blocs" will remain, offset by land swaps? Have these areas been completely ethnically cleansed of Palestinians already or will indigenous peoples need to be relocated? Are those areas now already ethnically pure?
11
Is it good for the Jews or bad for the Jews? I grew up with this admonishment as a guiding principle for every act or public statement regarding us, fresh from the inconceivable horrors of the holocaust to remind us of what the world is capable of.
The settlements are a blot on our existence. First, their very existence is based on promises from a book of fairy tales championed by zealots whose aims will result in a future of endless conflict, the outcome of which may end with the destruction of the only place on the planet where we could have been safe.
Second, as a Jew I feel compelled to live by the ethical code that was ingrained in me from the moment of my birth. The settlements are not only illegal, they are immoral. The creation of Israel is justified not only by history, but as an imperative for our survival. But the acquisition of West Bank land by force or decree in is greed cloaked in prophecy. The land grab to expand "Greater Israel" is an anachronism that will destroy us.
Like trump, Netanyahu is manipulating the violent fringe to satisfy an insatiable hunger to feed his ego.
Netanyahu is not doing the 'right thing.' This is bad for the Jews.
18
The Ultra-Zionists in the U.S. will be repulsed by this column and they will call him a traitor for writing it.
Conceptually, this reminds me of Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses on the doors of his local All Saints Church, and I hope it gets as much attention and effect. Coincidentally, that event occurred 500 years ago, almost exactly.
If there are brave and intrepid citizens reading this who wonder what they can do, please tape a copy of the article on the All Saints Church in NYC, on AIPAC'S door in Washington, D.C., more on AIPAC doors in cities across the U.S., and on the front door of the Sands Casino in Las Vegas. Take a picture and send it to the local newspaper and tv stations.
Make yourself heard! As Barak says, "This must be stopped."
5
I have never before heard the insightful distinction between the Land of Israel and the People of Israel. The obsession with this Land was never at the center of Herzl's dreams. Too bad for the current government the Ark of the Covenant no longer exists...there must have been a deed inside.
2
There seems to be a weird analogy between "greater" Israel, including Samaria and Judea with their Arab population, and the "pale of settlement", where Jews used to live among local and largely hostile populations in what is today Poland, the Ukraine, Bielorus, Lithuania, all parts of the Russian empire until 1918, plus "Galicia" in Austro-Hungary. The Jews had left or, mostly, were exterminate there. Now Netanyahu seems to be on his way to recreate this hostile and ultimately lethal environment, destroying the Zionist vision of the Jewish land.
1
My last name is Schenker and I'm proud to be a Jew in the mold of people like Ehud Barak. That's why it is so disturbing to see this right-wing hack wrecking havoc upon my homeland, my people, and my faith. I hope the Israeli population comes to its senses and put this man in the place he belongs: in the back of the line where he can no longer hurt people.
1
In the service of this agenda, Mr. Netanyahu elevated fake news, alternative facts and whataboutism into art forms in Hebrew, long before those terms gained any traction in English. His government jeopardizes Israel’s very future, while dividing and inciting us against each other and maligning those abroad who genuinely care about Israel. This must be stopped.
No wonder he and trump love each other, they seem to have the same idea about government!!
5
Netanyahu is the status quo. He must go because the world is tired of them.
I'm sure he's a nice guy, but it's time for fresh faces.
Make Israel great again !!
Not to worry in the least, Mr. Barak.
Jared Kushner is on his way to save Israel and the whole Middle East.
The poorest, least educated people of the United States of America say, "You and the People of Israel are Welcome!"
3
Thank you, Mr. Barak. This needed to be said. I do not feel Israel is Zionist anymore. I feel it has become a manifestation of 5700 years of Jewish paranoia, backed up by history, with no mitigating factors, such as a peace agreement. I truly believe peace died with Rabin.
6
And as in the United States of America, only the people can stop a mad man and his destructive Government. So far, we have not seen the uprising of the people in either country. Not only that, but in the United States, the entire Republican Party has gone out its way and witts to support and legitimize an ignorant, white supremacist and sex predator with clear psychological disorder manifesting itself in pathalogical lying and self aggrandizement. A clear sign that a nation is on a downward spiral towards becoming a nation that relies on its military and economic power as the only tools to deal with the World. Ironically,this is not the will of the Majority but the wishes of an racially motivated and poorly informed and educated Minority plagued by the dogma of Religion and its huge wealthy industry pouring billions of dollars into propaganda. The political landscape in Israel is, of course, much more complicated and fractured. Judaism is more than just a Religion if looked at through the prism of Zionism. What we have in Israel today is a Nation that wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Even though the Likud has the support of only 30% of the elctorate, it is the only Party that can for a Government. This tells me that, therefore, the Majority of the electorate supports the status quo and does not care about having a Jewish State or a Democratic State, they want a State that includes the ancient Land of Israel, and that my friends is the dogma of Religion.
3
America kinda has its hands full trying to save itself from its own government at the moment.
8
Relax everyone, Jared Kushner will fix it.
7
Ehud Barak' final words
"His government jeopardizes Israel’s very future, while dividing and inciting us against each other and maligning those abroad who genuinely care about Israel. This must be stopped." apply all to well to my own divided country, the USA.
Simply replace "Israel's" with "America's and "Israel" with "America" and we have a statement about our own president who maligns those abroad who care about America while paying tribute to a Putin and to Saudi princes who care not at all for beliefs we, the people, were once said to believe in.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
5
Mr. Barak is the rare politician who opens the windows to let the fresh air in.
Sad we have to go all the way to Israel to find one.
2
The so-called "Israeli opposition" is no opposition at all. Barak says --- 1) let us keep the land we stole in violation of the Geneva Conventions and in violation of the UN security counsel resolutions, and also 2) let us continue to illegally occupy it.
A fake dialectic, the usual form of democratic discussion from Israel's major political parties.
____
Barak wrote: "Accordingly, the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and the “settlement blocs” — suburban communities built just across the Green Line, which include some 80 percent of the total settler population — will remain in Israel no matter what. In any future peace agreement, these areas can be offset by land swaps with the Palestinians. Similarly, overall security responsibility in the West Bank will remain in the hands of the Israel Defense Forces as long as necessary."
3
The world, especially the Middle East, does not need another micro state: Israel, Gaza, the Occupied sectors are small enough as is. One state built on two confederacies (one Arab; one Jewish) is the logical outcome because the fantasy of a "Jewish" state is belied by the large number of non-Jews who reside there; the land is owned by those who live there.
1
The death of Rabin was the birth of Netanyahu. There has always been only two choices for Israelis live in some type of peaceful coexistence with Arabs or wall them off and treat them like second class citizens. A demagogue like Netanyahu made the second choice. A choice that will keep Israel in constant conflict increasing fears which will prop up the messianic Mr. Netanyahu. American Jews were at the forefront of the Civil rights movement in this country and now ironically it is the Israeli Jews who have chosen the right wing nationalist Netanyahu to carry their flag.
6
Mr. Barak has been rejected not only by the majority of Israelis, but also by his own party. The possible purpose of this op-ed peace is to raise money from Jewish Americans for one last attempt to return to power. That would be like throwing good money after bad.
3
Help save Israel from its government? We can't even save the US from its government.
4
The fact is that Mr. Barak, who had all the chances in the world to do everything he now demands of Mr. Netanyahu, did not do anything. On the contrary, he and his government failed and was thrown out to be remembered as the shortest lives government in the history of Israel. Farther more he served, afterward, as a defense minister, quite a long time, under Mr. Netanyahu. Yes, Mr. Barak is the most decorated soldier in Israel and yes he his brilliant but he had his chances and should stay home. Unfortunately Mr. Barak seems to be obsessed with Netanyahu as he is obsessed with other politicians in Israel (and the Israeli public as well) that refuse to recognize him as the most suitable candidate for Prime minister. Mr. Netanyahu, in spite of everything said about him, his wife and his hedonism, took (from Mr. Barak) a failing economy and turned the Israeli economy to its best situation ever but turn Israel from a Pariah state to a state admired by many nations including some Arab nations. The 3 pillars you talk about, Mr. Barak, are recognized by the Israeli voter and it seems that he believes that you, not Mr. Netanyahu, may harm them. You want to implement your ideas? try the democratic way, run for elections, but I believe you know the result, trying to enlist support by exposing "dirty laundry" want do it.
1
I can translate this hypnosis/juggling act: "Binnie, you are messing with our occupation and abuse scheme, you're showing our hand to the whole world after we've been beautifully hiding it for years, now even the Americans are catching on! Cut it out!" Or paraphrasing Thomas Pynchon, "If you can get people asking the wrong questions, then you don't have to worry about indicting yourself with honest answers." Essentially Barak is upset that Netanyahu is derailing the methodical Israeli injustice system.
I've never read a ineloquent heavy hitter Israeli apologist, or one unable to move many readers to sympathy by presenting a one sided review of what is going on there. That's a credit to the sustained brilliance of their advocates in tuning the issues for the American ear. In this case as per usual I remain unmoved, other than a sense of nausea upon hearing the irredentist term "historic homeland," a concept straight out of the horse & carriage era. What is going on in Israel is the taking by force of "living space" (feel free to look up the German). A person most interested in social justice might prefer to see Israel not saved from it's current government.
My position is that you get a peaceful two state solution in Occupied Palestine in one year by enforcing it with US military forces positioned to move out most all the settlers and keep both parties safe from one another. In that case Israel could have as hard right and theological a government as it wished to have.
4
Israelis can save themselves, but they would rather vote for hatred, resentment and greed. And how can a nation that elected Donald Trump be helpful?
2
This is why Israel needs term limits for its prime minister. Netanyahu has had the job way too long.
As for your peace proposal, didn’t Arafat reject it already in 2001? And Abbas in 2008?
I believe both plans fell apart primarily over Jerusalem, most importantly, the Old City, and (putting aside historical claims which can be debated for eternity) I don’t foresee any resolution that is acceptable to both sides.
In fact President Clinton who presided over the 2000-2001 talks, wrote in his book “My Life” that Arafat walked away because he wanted 50 feet more near the Western Wall. Is that crazy or what???
So PM Barak, tell us again how you would divide the Old City of Jerusalem?
(And for those who still think it should be an “international city” how would that even work? Someone has to be in charge of police, security, essential services, defense, border control, etc.)
2
“It’s not even laughable” is a Hebrew expression which means though certainly ridicules the argument’s implications are so serious that one can’t afford to jock about them – E. Barak’s call to save Israel is a prime example. To be clear, Netanyahu’s reign was and still is a most dangerous and corrupt one; and up to 2013, Barak, as his defense minister, was his willing assistant in the worst of his international machinations and internal debasement.
J. Kerrey revealed, belatedly, that Netanyahu “agitated” for an American attack on Iran's nuclear facilities; and Barak agitated with Netanyahu for an Israeli attack and he’s still moaning the “missed opportunity”. As the only Israeli international relations scholar and strategist who stood firmly against both the invasion of Iraq and the incitement concerning Iran’s “existential threat”, I found Barak’s authority to be a dreadful obstacle.
As to the “One State” specter, as prime minister between 1999-2001 Barak’s botched all chances for even temporary stabilization of the conflict. And the chances that the Palestinians will accept his proposed solution here, “overall security responsibility in the West Bank will remain in the hands of the Israel Defense Forces as long as necessary”, are just about as the chances that Barak will be included in the next NBA draft. And while Netanyahu’s corruption is nauseating, well, without working hard, Barak ended up as one of the riches post-politicians in Israeli history. The savior.
5
I have spent a good deal of time working with the Palestinian population and have watched the creeping encroachment of the settlements over Palestinian land, clearly meant to destroy the intent of a viable Palestinian state. I have come to believe that the two-state solution is dead, thanks to the greed and messianic dreams of folks like Netanyahu. Let's now consider one state, where - even with several religions and at least two languages - everyone has equal rights. Much of the world, from Canada to South Africa to India, is struggling with such complexity and making it work. Why not Israel? No more Jewish state, just a state called Israel where everyone has equal rights. Would that be such a tragedy?
4
Ehud Barak was prime minister for only 2 years (1999-2001), and was technically toppled by Ariel Sharon after Camp David Accords fell through, which caused the second Palestinian intifadha. Sharon's motive was to prove that Barak was not fit to run a peace deal. Later both Sharon and Netanyahu claimed that Barak gave the Palestinians too much in Camp David. This is of course if you believe that self-governing disparate group of bantustans (later called swiss cheese map by GWB) constinute a contiguous state and an acceptable peace solution.
Barak didn't go away. He was Minister of War, or Defense depending on your perspective, under Ehud Elmert and Benjamin Netanyahu (2007-2013.) In fact, he launched the 2 Gaza air bombing campaigns in which thousands of civilians including children were killed. So, while a man of peace he ain't, he's still naturally smoother than Netanyahu.
Hmm, from a man who offered the Palestinians a deal that wasn't much better than the US offered the Cherokees, this is stunning, however true. I hope Bob Marley wasn't right in singing "total destruction the only solution, nothing can stop them now."
2
Mr. Barak was a well-meaning failure as prime minister. The best thing for lasting peace is that Arafat turned down Barak and Clinton at Camp David. Barak is attempting a comeback and with the Labor Party shrunk to its lowest level ever, he has to resort to fishing for support among leftists wherever he can find them, in this case among the NY Times readership. Though far from perfect, Mr. Netanyahu is on balance one of Israel's two or three most successful prime ministers ever, and one of the elite leaders on the world stage today. Israel's relationships throughout the Americas, Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Far East have never been better. Netanyahu works on those developing them day and night. Even the Sunni Arab states are reportedly working with Israel under the radar. Their economy is booming. Any Israeli PM's job is difficult, and as an American and supporter of Israel, sure, there are times I wonder about something Netanyahu said or did that day. But, on balance, Netanyahu has expressed more leadership vision by the time he finishes breakfast than most world leaders will have in their lifetimes. Politics in Israel are fractious (usually 12 to 15 parties in a 120-seat parliament) and the external threats Israel has are like no other country's. I am glad Israelis have elected Netanyahu four times, and I wish ambitious hangers-on like Barak would just enjoy their retirements quietly.
3
It has been clear for some time that there is a desire on the part of Bibi, Trump, and Putin to create a new strongman axis of power in contradistinction to the democracies still found in much of Europe. If they can pick off a few Eastern European nations to ally with, so much the better. They give lip service to Judao Christian values to fool the "low information" masses to support them but they're even willing to include a few Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia because the main goal is not morality or religion; it is power!
3
Another thing: Why aren’t there any sufficiently credible alternative leaders currently on the political scene in Israel — people with an unshakeable commitment to the three pillars you rightly mention? Could it be because the Knesset has become a cess pit of corruption and self-dealing in which the decreasing number of members with integrity are easily marginalized? If so, who is the “We” in the heading, and how does Mr. Barak suggest they or we (or he?) should save Israel?
1
The assassination of Sadat, Rabin and others was telling: Israel and Arab leaders are more afraid of their own people - especially their own religious zealots and ayatollah-wannabies - than of each other. The desire for achieving and maintaining domestic power - and using the nationalist card by demonizing the other side to fashion a social weapon to coerce unity - seems to trump (purposeful pun) secular and governing rationality and any real desire for peace through compromise. A telling obituary of modern society, perhaps. Mr. Barak, perhaps you could have made a more compelling and courageous argument when you welded actual power.
Thank you for your courage in writing this article. Netanyahu has alienated perhaps the majority of American Jews, those who are secular, but identify as Jews, especially those under 40. But you cannot expect Americans, Jewish or other to topple the government that is stealing Israel's democracy. In fact, at the moment, we're having a similar problem.
1
Too little, too late, too transparent. With Netanyahu facing criminal charges and probably jail, and the battered opposition leaders grovel before the increasingly chauvinist, nationalistic and xenophobic Israeli mainstream, Ehud Barak spots an opportunity. The leader who defected from his own party to serve under Netanyahu is talking now about values. The fact that he pulls out the declaration of independence, a forgotten document which most Israelis can't quote two words from, demonstrates only how disintegrated the Israeli society has become.
Some of the comments here have noticed the resemblance between the states in which Israel and the USA are in today. Indeed, in both countries the right has hijacked the political discourse and disrupted the political mechanism up to a point it has become meaningless.
No Barak and his kind will save us. So please hold on to your purses and save your donations for better causes.
2
This piece attempts to soften the problems.
This has been going on much longer than three years. This piece only obliquely refers to the abuses the Netanyahu government has sanctioned against Palestinians and Arab Israelis, and its attempt to suppress any criticisms abroad. And it's not just the Netanyahu government. The Israeli electorate has been willing to tolerate this -- and a substantial fraction of the electorate likes it.
Since this piece is addressed to Americans, it might be helpful to directly address some of the things that can and should be done in the U.S. to try to help. At present there is an unfortunate attitude -- explicitly fostered by many -- that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. (Anti-Semitism is very real, and anti-Semites certainly love to hear Israel criticized. But that is not an excuse.) No, we need an honest examination of the situation, recognizing the very real threats Israel faces but also its unconscionable actions, and the growing racist sentiments there.
Many of those who care about Israel's future -- including a sizable number of American Jews -- feel that not only must Israel's improper actions be criticized, but Israel has only become more intransigent as time has gone on and there must be consequences -- sanctions -- which will force Israel to change. Sadly, the right in the U.S. is increasingly trying to pass legislation preventing this.
53
Ehud Barak does not acknowledge that the Palestinian side would never agree to his proposed terms. Every Arab peace plan still insists on a capital in Jerusalem and a right of return for Palestinians to pre-1967 Israel. Palestinians will not accept a permanent Israeli security presence in an Arab Palestinian state. If Israel had withdrawn from the West Bank in 2000 then Iran and Isis would be in Palestine now, shooting rockets from the Judean hills onto the coastal plain of Tel Aviv. A Palestinian airport is a threat to Israel, with the daily possibility of a 9/11 style airplane terror attack on Israeli skyscrapers. Israel does not need to be saved - it goes from strength to strength, with robust economic and population growth. It is the most stable country in a very volatile region. Many countries around the world want relations with Israel, even if some need to keep it confidential to avoid provoking the "Arab street". For these and many other reasons, the Israeli public has repeatedly chosen Netanyahu over Barak.
1
The one-state solution is the truth because both Palestinians and Jews want access to and sovereignty over all the land from the river to the sea. If Jews have a right to return, then so do Palestinians. Thus Israel/Palestine can be a Jewish homeland, but not a Jewish state by definition. If it is a Jewish state by definition, then non Jews are, by definition, second class citizens.
The vision is for Israel/Palestine to be a non-sectarian democratic state with equal rights and responsibilities for all its citizens. Jews will not have a homeland that insures their safety until and without the Palestinians having the same thing in the same place.
1
It must have been heartbreaking for General and former Prime Minister Barak to write this. That said, it had to be said publicly and Barak will surely go into Israeli history as one of its finest heroes.
In our current perilous condition the United States needs a Barak.
1
Ehud Barak is right when he says Benjamin Netanyahu's ultra-right government is undermining the "vision for a democratic Israel based on freedom, justice and peace" that are the "foundation of our country’s de facto constitution," espoused by David Ben-Gurion. Netanyahu's reluctance to resolve the Palestinian issue exacerbates tensions and violence in Gaza and the West Bank, posing a threat to the future o f a viable Jewish state and sustainable peace in the region.
On personal front Netanyahu is also delegitimising the country's judiciary and the fourth estate. He slams Israeli media as "fake news" over corruption coverage, destroys the the ethos of civil service and the social fabric, dividing the Jewish community, instead of uniting it. He has alienated the most crucial ally of Israel in America - the liberal Jewish diaspora. It doesn't help that he grovels to Trump, Jared Kusher and Sheldon Adelson, who ensure that Congress remains Israeli-friendly. He shouldn't underestimate the wrath of the American public caused by his preposterous dictate of US foreign policy.
5
Netanyahu has also been buddy-buddy with Trump - through anti-semitic incidents and comments and failing to note Jews among those victimized in the Nazi Holocaust. They both promote a style of nationalism that elevates hatred at the expense of their own people's well-bring - and the growth of their personal power and wealth.
What do you want to bet he is in this Russian thing, too?
3
Ehud Barak is trying to save Israel from itself, except for when you actually read the content of what he just wrote in this article. To Paraphrase: "We need to go back to the two state solution to achieve a state on our terms. 80% of our settlements are around the green line *wink wink wink*."
The political reality in Israel is that the political status-quo will continue with or without Bibi at the reigns. The head of the labor party and the even further left "Yesh Din" party, endorses the occupation as a permanent solution to the conflict.
The subjugation of an entire people is no way to achieve a lasting peace. 4.5 million Palestinians are living in the west bank under Israeli military law. They are deprived of even the most basic human rights because of who they are. Every human being deserves the right to live with freedom and dignity. Therefore, the occupation must end.
And the Israelis must come to the table IN GOOD FAITH to negotiate a solution that is acceptable to both sides for a lasting peaceful, permanent solution to the region. Ehud Barak is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He comes to the table to offer 'peace' without actually doing so at all.
35
Dear. Brian: Before you comment please get your basic facts straight. There is no "Yesh Din" party in Israel. "Yesh Din" is an organization that is opposed to the occupation of the West Bank. Perhaps you mean "Yesh Atid" a centrist party whose position on the territories is similar to that of Ehud Barak. There are2 million Palestinians in the West Bank. The Netanyahu government is not alone in it's bad faith. The weak government of Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank has repeatedly refused to come to the table and Gaza is ruled by the Islamist Hamas whose ultimate goal is an Islamic state in all the territory including what is now Israel
1
Thank you. It’s as if Israel, even under “normal” rule, would come to the table with demands that are about 1% less onerous than the ones he decries. It’s so odd that a people who have suffered so much are so determined so cause suffering to another people--people who differ only culturally from themselves.
4
Without a two state solution there is violence.
Mr. Barak, you are a great patriot. As someone who loves Israel, I agree with you. The problem is, we are in no condition here in these United States to help anyone. While I never thought I would say this, I would take Netanyahu over our President any day. If we could hire you in this country, I would do it.
In all seriousness, Israel needs an honest broker to assist in settling the issues with the Palestinians.
The US is not an honest broker at the moment. We may never be again. We were not under George W. Bush. Further, Netanyahu has no interest in approaching negotiations with the Palestinians in a fair and reasonable manner. His plan is simply to settle the West Bank and call it a day. Of course such a strategy seems attractive in the short term, however, we know in the long-term it will virtually guarantee an escalation of violance along with the steady deterioration of Israel's moral standing in the world.
I applaud you for speaking out. This is an issue that can't wait. Israel may be lost in the interim. But for the foreseeable future, the United States is completely incapable of assisting. As a matter of fact, we are about to shut down the government. Amazing. No?
9
Like Trump, and his associate Putin, I think Netanyahu would prefer not to be constrained by a traditional democracy. Quite how he crosses that bridge in a vibrant and messy democracy like Israel is the question. The creation of a non-voting underclass, in a one-state solution, into which dissidents and journalists could also be put, would be a start.
4
I would like to start by saying I'm almost completely ignorant of Israels government structures and policies. I have always been under the impression that while it has it's own particular serious issues it operated much like other western secular democracies. Many of the things I've seen taking place there lately would seem to indicate that is not really the case and that there are some rather serious religious and ethnic principles of governance that would make it hard for me to support. I am going to take some time to try and learn a bit more, but I will say that from my very casual perspective Israel seems to have more in common with Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia than with the U.S. or E.U. I hope to be shown I am wrong.
9
Please read some more about the Middle East
Israel still has relatively free elections,a free press,a secular majority, rights for women,a civil society. The 20 percent of Israel,'s population who are Arabs enjoy many rights and freedoms. Israel has more in common with W Europe than Saudi Arabia
I do agree with much of what Mr
Barak writes and worry about the future here. I also worry about the future of American democracy with so much corruption, division and economic inequality and a dangerous man like Trump at the helm.
1
With only a few substitutions in this text, the piece could be about the U.S. and Trump and the Republicans. Thank you Mr. Barak for what turns out to be incisive across national borders.
14
<< For anyone who cares about Israel, this is no time for niceties. What we need now is plain speaking, even pained speaking — and action. For all of Israel’s great achievements in its seven decades of statehood, our country now finds its very future, identity and security severely threatened by the whims and illusions of the ultranationalist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
<< In its more than three years in power, this government has been irrational, bordering on messianic. >>
Yes. I'm aware that Israeli former Prime-Minister Ehud Barak is writing for a progressive audience here in America. Still, I just have to change a few words at the beginning of this column for it to ring true for another country: OURS ! -- the United States of America !
2
The voters decide, not the pundits, once the voters have spoken the person they have elected will govern and if that person has the backing of the majority of the other elected officials in government he can govern with impunity. Mr. Trump is probably the most despised president in US history and yet he is doing and saying whatever he wants and thumbing his nose at the American public while doing it. No idea about Mr. Netanyahu's popularity but he too seems to be doing and saying whatever he wants. The two are a matched pair with the advantage going to Mr. Netanyahu for superior intellect enabling him to shape the malleable Mr. Trump and he has an additional advantage in the person of Mr. Kushner. We will see America's judgment of Mr. Trump in the 2018 mid-term elections and perhaps that will foreshadow Mr. Netanyahu's future as well, it could be rosy it could be bleak, the voters will decide, not the pundits.
Beautifully written and right on the mark. What must also be stopped is Netanyahu secretly telling Kushner to do Israel's bidding by colluding with the Russians in secret, against the will of the legitimate government of the United States in power at the time, to thwart United Nations resolutions. In light of this recent revelation, how are Americans to trust the nation of Israel, whom we support with billions of dollars annually?
14
"The entire debate, then, is actually only over the fate of the isolated settlements, fewer than 100 small communities deep in the West Bank, containing around 100,000 settlers." This Op-Ed is by former Prime Minister Barak, is strange to say the least.
At the Camp David Summit in 2000, Mr. Barak proposed a gigantic concession to the Palestinians, which would have given them substantial rights in East Jerusalem as well as land in the vast majority of the West Bank. However, the Palestinians, as they have done every other time without fail, walked away from the deal (indeed, the best deal they are ever likely to get).
Among other things, the Palestinians demanded the so-called "Right of Return," which would have meant giving 725,000+ Palestinians "their" land back inside Israel's 1967 borders, and which would obviously have changed the fundamental nature of Israel as a nation.
Mr. Barak fails to even mention the Right of Return. That demand makes any negotiation with the Palestinians -- who continue to insist on this -- a nonstarter.
I am no great fan of Netanyahu, but I fail to see anything in Mr. Barak's suggestions that gets Israel to a deal with the Palestinians. He is right about one thing, though: given the rapidity with which Israeli Arabs are reproducing, Israel is inexorably moving toward becoming an Arab majority country. That will ultimately create an even greater existential crisis for Israel than any it has yet faced.
Is it not too late already with the way settlements have entangled themselves with any 'proposed' Palestinian State? The present government have laid the groundwork for the 'one state solution'. This state will and is a 2 tier system as far as rights are concerned. It may take some 'enlightened' government in the future to accept the inevitability of what 'creeping annexation' has done and will do. This in turn could lead to equal rights for all in the 'one state' system, an unintentional consequence of Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist policies.
1
Ironic that the Presidency of Donald Trump may fall in part due to support for this counter-productive and morally reprehensible settlement expansion. I fervently hope and believe the U.S will land soundly on its feet, but we are going to be shaken first. And as a Jewish-American, I believe the only hope for Israel is a U.S. govt that is also rational and even-handed, and concerned for the Palestinians. But, the proposed move of the embassy to Jerusalem is an ominous sign.
32
Netanyahu has managed to alienate many people who support Israel. He has made it harder for moderate Americans to defend Israeli policies. His partisan interference in American politics has infuriated many of us.
Many of us continue to support Israel in spite of Netanyahu, not because of him. We do it with heavy hearts, hoping for better but not expecting too much.
Ehud Barak's critique of Netanyahu is blunt and accurate. Barak is a brilliant and courageous patriot, and his thoughts on this subject carry a lot of weight.
14
I can't be the first to suggest that Israel has turned out to be more trouble than it's worth. When president Truman ignored Gen. Marshall who as Secretary of State advised Truman to veto the creation of Israel he was concerned about the resulting further destabilization of the Middle East.
Seventy years of Israel has led us close to nuclear war with Israel's atomic bombs and the one state solution will insure continued instability and threats of wars.
If Palestine had simply become an independent state, it would have a strong Jewish minority or majority in a democratic state governed by a peaceful multi cultural community. And no constant threat of war!
28
Mr. Barak, why not the obvious solution, the only one that will replace a century of strife by a constructive peace, with dignity and security for both people? A Federation of two sovereign states - Israel-Palestine - with each its own parliament, cabinet, secure borders and thriving culture and economy. Israelis would be responsible for all military matters, which means that Palestinians do not have to worry about any predatory moves by their unstable neighbors. Palestinian refugees who wish to return would do so in the new Palestinian State and would be compensated by Israel and the international community. The two populations have lived and worked together since the beginning of the 20th Century and they will continue to do so forever, whether they are at peace or at low intensity war with each other. This simple solution would simply turn the page and evacuate the conflict. It is amazing that practically no politician ever mentions such a possibility. Why not, Mr. Barak?
3
I agree with and applaud this article and am glad that the Times saw fit to publish it. It espouses a point of view that feels completely rational and reasonable and yet also feels increasingly rare. It seems like so many people here in the States are either Likudniks or boycotters and that there's no room in the debate for those of us who believe in Israel's potential to be the best version of itself. What's ironic about this is that I strongly suspect that the people who agree with Mr. Barak are actually in the majority, but we have been rendered voiceless and powerless by the extremists on both sides. I can only hope that this article will inspire and encourage a movement to engage with Israel and save it from itself. But I admit I'm pessimistic. Like the diehard Trump supporters over here, it seems like Netanyahu's supporters would rather burn down their country than cede an inch of their agenda, built on exclusion and racism. Just as the Trump voters claim to be the "real Americans" and consider Democrats to be not just political opponents but traitors, the Bibi voters have decided they're the "real Jews" and that those of us who disagree with him are the enemies of Israel - conveniently forgetting that many of Israel's founders and most loyal supporters and public servants are among our number. It's hard to see the light at the end of this tunnel, but it's nice to be reminded what that light would look like if we can ever get to the other side.
5
Ehud Barak's analysis of the dangers of the Netanyahu government is accurate. However, as one of many politicians - in Israel and the US - dedicated only to reelection and self empowerment, he lacks the moral fibre to lead an opposition of integrity. Which his why his future lies in writing op-ed essays and not in becoming a head of government.
2
I think Netanyahu's as much behind Trump's victory as Putin, and today we got our first indication of that from what Flynn copped to involving that U.N. resolution. However, it's not clear if it's just Netanyahu, or the foreign policy/intelligence establishment there.
Mr. Barak has good reason from his own great efforts to achieve peace with justice to be very bitter toward Palestinian political intransigence. So these words of his now should command respect, attention and action.
2
It was easier to see this coming from Netanyahu, willful, smart and messianic. Trump blindsided most of us, shallow, uninterested in history, incurious. Love of raw power brings particular bedfellows. Both countries suffer the consequences.
3
How nice it would have been, Mr. Barak, if you and others had settled this when you had the chance. Now you are swimming against the right-wing tide which seems to have overpowered everything else in Israel. I wish you well, but think that a majority of the Israeli public will need to turn away from darkness and again appreciate the value of the logical and reasonable argument that you make.
3
A great piece, showing how tenuous democracy is. Our democracy is in great peril as well, now that Trump, a true kindred spirit of Netanyahu, is in power. Trump plans clash with American and international law so he's declared war on the US Judiciary, the intelligence services, the free press, and civil society. Watch as Trump consolidates power, and then see Netanyahu in the final stages of the process. This started over 20 years ago with an outrage Netanyahu was material in orchestrating; the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1995, Netanyahu actively encouraged Israel's extreme right wing, capitalizing on rising insecurity to vilify Rabin. Beyond attacking Rabin on a daily basis, Netanyahu appeared at a rally a month before Rabin’s murder. The crowd spent 2 hours chanting, “Death to Rabin;” Netanyahu stood there smiling. After Rabin's assassination, the Israeli public was shocked and went into mourning. However, Rabin’s successor, Shimon Peres, made a terrible tactical error. Seriously underestimating Netanyahu's ruthlessness, Peres chose to wait 3 months to call an election. As Hamas kept attacking Israel, Netanyahu had time to whip up fear then vow to make Israelis safe again. Netanyahu received enormous support from Rupert Murdoch's Newcorp/Fox which blanketed the Israeli airwaves with fear and pro Netanyahu propaganda. Netanyahu became Prime Minister, began consolidating power, and Israel has never been the same. America faces the same fate if we do not stop Trump.
1
This is unduly optimistic. Things are much worse.
First, American evangelicals spoken for by the V-P Pence are among those pushing very strongly for this, as set out in the article today about Trump and Jerusalem. It is not just the part of the Jewish community that is led by Netanyahu, it is a whole Christian community that has its own motives for the Second Coming of Christ.
Second, this omits mention of another option for Israel if it finds itself in the one-state solution. It need not choose Jewish or democratic. It can choose Nakba. Expulsion. It has done that before, and many imagine they can do it again. They are actually doing a slow version of it now, leveling Arab neighborhoods and villages. That would create a problem for Israel that this author apparently dare not even address.
Third, it is not true that "The entire debate, then, is actually only over the fate of the isolated settlements, fewer than 100 small communities deep in the West Bank." That is all that Israel wants to talk about, (those who want to talk at all). But there is no reason to think that they can high-handedly keep all the blocs they've grabbed, all the territory they want, and give the Palestinians a few more bits of far less valuable in a Swiss cheese to make up for it. Even less, if they mean as so many say to maintain the military occupation of a disarmed state, including its borders along the Jordan River, and keep sole control of things like water and radio spectrum that impact them.
81
Netanyahu, Donald of the East,
On billionaire's friendship he'll feast,
With Hawk DNA
Arrogance on display
And ready to unchain War's beast.
70
Excellent piece summarizing the situation in very few words. It is essential to keep reiterating these points. But, I am afraid that we need to save the US from its government before any improvement takes place.
97
Thank you, Mr. Barak, for writing this compelling, honest piece as someone who gave so much to his nation.
What Netanyahu and the Likud party have 'achieved' could most charitably be described as a Pyrrhic victory. They have blood on their hands from their lopsided military actions against Palestinians. The settlements are a political boon to Netanyahu (like Sharon before him), but they are illegal and most of the world, save America's Republican party, abhors the land theft. The settlers have become a powerful constituency and are turning Israel in a far right, fundamentalist direction. Israeli Arabs are treated as lesser citizens, and most of the world, save America's Republican party, abhors the discrimination. Netanyahu personally has decades of saber rattling against Iran and cynically inserted himself as an opponent of President Obama's accords with Iran, although the entire world is safer for the deal.
Israel under the current leadership is not a beacon of idealism, democracy, or justice. The antagonism towards Palestinians and others relegates the country to endless hostility. Backwards policies make Israel ostracized globally. Israel today stands for principles its founders would have shunned.
273
Its founders declared other ideals, but only for Jews and a very few others who could be fit into that picture.
In practice they treated the bulk of the Palestinians then as they do today. Nothing has taken a sudden turn. It has been a slow creep, always in one direction.
24
Terrorism is the strategy of the weak against the strong. The terrorist makes their victim crazy, and without rationalism there is no strength.
Netanyahu vies with Dubya Bush for the title of the terrorists' most compliant victim in this past generation. Black September and Al Qaeda have no greater allies.
4
This defeatist post by Eud Barak is inflaming anti Israeli haters 9as the one I am commenting on here) producing many anti Israel comments published here in the NYT. Ehud Barak is no longer a leader, he is shunned by all current Israeli parties. I remember all Israel's wars which the Arabs were engaged against Israel and particularly the one in Lebanon, in which my son served as an 18 yr. old soldier inside Lebanon. Barak then ordered the IDF to flee(!) Lebanon immediately, abandoning all equipment, armaments, tanks, army bases, offices, weapons, posts, etc., without achieving asking any international insurance and guarantees to the future of Israel's safety. Look at where Lebanon is now: Governed by Hizballah, an international terrorist group.
3
This essay should be retitled: We Must Save America from its Government
This is where Trump and his ultranationalist crew will take us. We don't have a Palestinian problem, but we have an immigrant problem. They have walls. We want to build a wall. They have their fanatic Messianic Jews. We have are fanatic religious right. We both have a military that gets whatever it wants. We both have war hawks in every corner. We both threaten Iran while coddling the Saudis. We both have stacked courts loaded with right wing ideologues.
The main difference between us is Netanyahu has had a lifetime of experience as a politician and he is brilliant, at least 50 times smarter than Trump. But both are kindred spirits. Both have their hearts in the same place.
What should save us is that Trump is so inept that eventually enough people will wake up before he trashes the place. At least that is my hope. He could succeed if insufficient numbers of people vote in 2018. If the public does not respond to Trumps destruction of our nation and the institutions that make it great, especially the universal institution of truth telling and respect for the facts, we will end up right where Israel is today.
So, thank you Ehud Barak for laying out our destiny.
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Dear Mr. Rozenblit,
It is no coincidence that Netanyahu found an easy way of presenting himself as a kindred spirit to Trump from day one. Bibi was undoubtedly still reeling from the honest dealings of President Obama who, unlike Congress and most other politicians, was not a tool of the Prime Minister.
But it is sickening that Netanyahu, a man who once claimed to speak not only for Israeli Jews but for Jews everywhere, a man who references anti-semitism in every speech, would be so cozy with Trump who, at a minimum, dignifies white supremacists.
If there were a force for Israeli Jews to fear and despise, it would be Trump, an American figurehead who finds it politically expedient to indulge hate.
Thank you for writing. Best regards.
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My thoughts exactly. I didn't even have to read the article.
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What is required is full recognition of Palestinian rights and full equality for Jews and Palestinians, Either in one state or two states.
Labour Zionism, mr Baraks ideology, has never even come close to these requirements. On the contrary: it has laid the ground work for the current situation.
Hence my scepticism: only full equality will solve the conflict, and mr Barak is not after that.
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"Ehud Barak: We Must Save Israel From Its Government"
You and us both.
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