In an editorial published 25 years ago, I called for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s resignation. I questioned the Likud Party’s habit of scuttling peace negotiations, its scorn of world censure, and its hostility toward the Palestinian people—all hallmarks of an administration oscillating between tactlessness and aberration—and posing grave danger to peace and stability in the Middle East. In short, Mr. Netanyahu’s regime, I asserted, was a calamity and a recipe for disaster. Describing his governance as “myopic, truculent, and regressive,” I lamented the expansion of settlements in occupied areas of Palestine and petitioned for the immediate cessation to the expropriation of Arab lands, a practice condemned by the international community and seen as an invitation to unrest and violence. I also denounced his scandalous dalliance with religious zealots in Brooklyn and Jerusalem designed to force a theocracy on a largely secular society. Invoked in the name of “national security,” this pernicious alchemy has yielded confusion, anxiety, sorrow and, yes, insecurity, hopelessly tainting Mr. Netanyahu’s alleged vision of peace and security. Twenty-five bloodstained years later, Mr. Netanyahu, who would be reelected to an unprecedented sixth term amid charges of bribery and fraud, was pushing Israel on a new collision course with the Palestinians and its steadfast and forbearing U.S. ally. To ensure Israel’s hard-fought hegemony, we have no choice but to weaken the resolve of Palestinians by attrition, provocation, psychological warfare, the expropriation and colonization of occupied parcels of land and, ultimately, the absorption of Palestinians into a one-nation Jewish state.” This astounding declaration, I later learned, was of more ancient vintage: Writing in his acclaimed, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, distinguished Israeli historian, Prof. Ilan Pappé recalls that: “On 19 March 1948 eleven men—Zionist leaders and young Jewish military officers, put the final touches to a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The orders came with a detailed description of the methods to be employed to forcible evict the people: large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding villages and population centers; setting fire to homes, properties and goods; expulsion, demolition; and finally planting mines among the rubble to prevent any of the expelled inhabitants from returning.” Israel’s subsequent stance and deeds seem to validate the bureaucrat’s avowals. I did not know at the time whether he was stating policy or relishing a moment of wishful thinking: “It is not in Israel’s strategic interests to make peace with the Palestinians. It would be a mistake to return to the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria as a solution to the conflict.” I later learned that he was echoing the same Zionist mantra recited by Zev Jabotinsky, David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, and Golda Meir. Issued from the sword and resting on some of the Bible’s less than endearing exhortations, these strategies have daunted attempts to bring about stability and peace. Mr. Netanyahu never intended to make peace. His actions and words demonstrate that his administration, from the beginning, was bent on breaking the spirit of the Palestinian people. Instead, as successive political crises between his administration and the Palestinian leadership deepened, Jews and Arabs found themselves mired in endless conflict. Bitterness and rancor deepened with every stroke of Mr. Netanyahu’s ministerial pen, every hostile decree, every calculated vacillation, every broken word, every rubber bullet fired at stone-throwing youths. Israel’s governing right fiercely opposes a two-state solution. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, declared, “There is no two-state solution; there is at most a two-state slogan. Nothing has changed.” Unchecked, all power lurches toward tyranny. The proposition that certain people have a right to a certain piece of land by “divine decree” is a sinister aberration, especially when that piece of land is wrested from its occupants by force of arms.
