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David M. Weinberg is director of public affairs at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He can be contacted at
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By David M. Weinberg
October 14, 2002
Originally published in the Jerusalem Post, October 6, 2002
The 2003 Israeli national elections are now in high gear. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faces-off against former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a crucial test of strength within Likud Party ranks.
Netanyahu is making a mistake by challenging Sharon. The national good mandates that Netanyahu support Sharon's re-election and that he run for election to the Knesset as Sharon's deputy.
This is Netanyahu's chance to make a real difference in Israeli politics.
By announcing an end to his 2003 leadership challenge against Sharon, Netanyahu would be doing the right thing for himself; for the Likud; for Israeli politics; and most of all, for the country.
More than 140,000 Likud members will go the polls tomorrow to elect a new party Central Committee. The Committee, in turn, next year will choose Likud's candidate for Prime Minister and the party's slate of candidates for Knesset.
Shielded thus far from much press attention by the intense focus on the impending U.S. war with Iraq, the internal Likud politicking is being fought-out both intensely and fiercely.
Netanyahu probably one day will serve again as Prime Minister. But why does it have to be now, and why should that preclude Netanyahu's service, for as a while, as number two?
There is no shame in being the foreign or defense or finance minister of the State of Israel. On the contrary: serving as cabinet minister in someone else's government would be a very healthy thing for Binyamin Netanyahu.
The experience could usefully serve to impress upon him the need to be more sensitive to the political needs and personal feelings of ministers who serve under a Prime Minister.
In this regard, Netanyahu failed in his first term as PM. Here's the chance to show us that his interpersonal relations skills have improved as he himself claims. This would also be an opportunity for him to get some more hands-on senior-level executive experience in foreign and defense affairs; he might even, humbly, learn a thing or two from Sharon.
It's obvious that such a move would be good for the Likud. A bruising, nasty and costly leadership battle would be avoided. Internal unity would solidify Likud's position as the mainstream, governing party in Israel, and strengthen its draw at the polls.
Sharon and Bibi, working in tandem, would constitute a right-wing "dream team."
But that's not all. Israeli politics is at an all-time nadir. By and large, the public views our politicians as cynical, self-serving, egotistic, opportunistic and shallow.
As a result, people in this country are starving for true, altruistic national leadership; politicians who place the national good at least the good of their own political platform and ideological worldview ahead of their own.
One need to look no farther than the ideologically-neutral Labor Party fracas last week where Twiddly Dum and Twiddly Dee faced-off like tag-team wrestlers for no other reason than political ambition to know that voters undoubtedly would reward Netanyahu's selfless sacrifice.
After all, Netanyahu is only 54. He'll easily be fine prime ministerial material again at 58. That's not old at all by Israeli or Western standards.
There is one other reason why Netanyahu should bite the bullet and postpone his leadership challenge to Sharon. It will be best for Israel.
Sharon is doing a decent job as prime minister. After two years of "Arafat's War" (that's my suggested name for this war), most Israelis understand that peace is not around the corner. To provide for our own security, we have to balance between complete "re-occupation" of the territories, international constraints, and various national considerations.
While I would prefer that Sharon act even more forcefully, there is no evidence to suggest that Netanyahu would manage the situation better.
Certainly, he has not yet articulated realistic policy alternatives. Sharon is juggling the balls with skill, and drawing support from across all sectors of Israeli society something which Netanyahu, at present, is clearly unable to do.
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, I say to Netanyahu: Ask not what your country (or party) can do for you; ask what you can do for your country!
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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