On vacation, even from negotiations
In any country, political negotiations -- if not negotiations with other countries -- enjoy a unique status like that of the Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei prayer, which according to Jewish law can be said along with criminals. In other words, the "casus belli" is not as firm as it is meant to be: Someone who makes a commitment does not necessarily have to live up to it, certainly not in full.
The flexibility Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has shown in the months since he was exonerated by the courts bears this out. He is simultaneously for and against the American position; he opposes extending negotiations with the Palestinians and agrees to it, even pushes for it; he is for a deal when Jonathan Pollard's release is part of it, and against it while the prisoner is still "inside," and it is hard to pin him down. It is almost acceptable that this is permitted.
The same goes for Habayit Hayehudi chairman Naftali Bennett. If Bennett indeed resigns if 14 Arab Israeli terrorists are released, he will keep his word. But on the other hand, he also declares that if negotiations are brought back to the conditions that nearly promised their extension, he will not pull the rug out from under them. But those conditions, which he agreed to, almost included from the start the release of Israeli Arab prisoners.
In Hatnuah, things are vague. Where is it lumbering toward? Amir Peretz looks scared every time he threatens that Hatnuah will leave the government. What will he do from the benches of the opposition? And if he leaves the party, who will accept him? The Labor Party? And how? Will Peretz leave together with Amram Mitzna, the two of them comprising a third of Hatnuah, and go back home to Labor-
If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposes a certain curtailment of construction in Judea and Samaria along the lines of what has already been discussed; if he announces that he has decided to release Arab terrorists who hold Israeli ID cards -- at the appropriate time, not as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority but in line with his long-term considerations; if he once again expresses a willingness to release 400 terrorists convicted of relatively light offenses by the end of next year; if Jonathan Pollard is immediately delivered to Ben-Gurion airport -- there will be a deal (unless Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called "poof") and there will be a government.
Talks are at an impasse, on the edge of a crisis, but public opinion in Israel refuses to make itself heard on the diplomatic reality. Many Israelis leave the country for Passover, and the ones who remain are busy preparing for Seder night and organizing day trips during the vacation.
A few days ago I went to Kiryat Shmona. I left Tel Aviv at 4 p.m. and got there four long hours later. Everyone was heading north, not to watch a soccer game but en route to a Passover getaway. It will be like this for another week. The Land of Israel is freeing itself for a time from the burden of negotiations and other troubles, and is plunging into its holiday.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו