Imagine if a foreign leader claimed the ability to control the American government, responsibility for breaking down a decade of peace negotiations and a future intention to negotiate in bad faith. What would the appropriate American response be?
If that foreign leader was a right wing leader from Israel, the appropriate reaction is apparently a White House visit.
Yesterday Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy provided an interesting description of 2001 footage of Benjamin Netanyahu, or "Bibi":
The real (and deceitful ) face of Binyamin Netanyahu. Broadcast on Friday night on "This Week with Miki Rosenthal," it was filmed secretly in 2001, during a visit by Citizen Netanyahu to the home of a bereaved family in the settlement of Ofra, and astoundingly, it has not created a stir.
Note that it was "in secret." This is not the face that Netanyahu chooses to show the Israeli electorate; much less the one he shows America. Indeed, he famously declared that "we are all Americans now" a mere twenty days after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Perhaps that was how Netanyahu hoped to "move" us in the "right" direction; for unfortunately for Likudniks and their apologists, a translation is available:
Woman: Aren’t you afraid of the world, Bibi?
Netanyahu: Especially today, with America. I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right direction.
Child: They say they’re for us, but, it’s like...
Netanyahu: They won’t get in our way. They won’t get in our way.
Child: On the other hand, if we do some something, then they...
Netanyahu: So let’s say they say something. So they said it! They said it! 80% of the Americans support us. It’s absurd. We have that kind of support and we say "what will we do with the..." Look. That administration [Clinton] was extremely pro-Palestinian. I wasn’t afraid to maneuver there. I was not afraid to clash with Clinton. I was not afraid to clash with the United Nations. I was paying the price anyway, I preferred to receive the value. Value for the price.
Today this man met with George Mitchell, to perpetuate the fraud of "negotiations."
Of course, who is to blame for this, in the end? America has the power to say "no." To the extent that our government is controlled by foreign interests, it is because we allow ourselves to be controlled and manipulated. For here, where Netanyahu claims that he can move us in the "right direction" and that he was responsible for stopping Oslo, we see the real Netanyahu. Or as Levy puts it:
Israel has had many rightist leaders since Menachem Begin promised "many Elon Morehs," but there has never been one like Netanyahu, who wants to do it by deceit, to mock America, trick the Palestinians and lead us all astray. The man in the video betrays himself in his own words as a con artist, and now he is again prime minister of Israel. Don't try to claim that he has changed since then. Such a crooked way of thinking does not change over the years.
Forget the Bar-Ilan University speech, forget the virtual achievements in his last visit to the United States; this is the real Netanyahu. No more claims that the Palestinians are to blame for the failure of the Oslo Accords. Netanyahu exposed the naked truth to his hosts at Ofra: he destroyed the Oslo accords with his own hands and deeds, and he's even proud of it. After years in which we were told that the Palestinians are to blame, the truth has emerged from the horse's mouth.
Today, George Mitchell meets with a trickster. But when this Kabuki, this expensive charade, comes down like a house of cards, let there be no mistake: We allowed ourselves to be deceived. Our broken government is a willing participant in the oppression of the Palestinians; for that we have no excuse.