When it comes to scandals, Labour can hardly claim the moral high ground
"THE hypocrisy cries out to heaven." With these words a Zionist lobby group headlined
an advertisement which appeared in Ma'ariv on April 21, following an abortive attempt
by the Israeli left to topple the government over the "Bar-On affair".
Labour party leader Shimon Peres called the scandal Israel's most serious ever. Yet
there have been cases which could have been far more damaging to Labour than this row
has been to the Likud, had the media been more balanced and more thorough. Several
follow:
In 1993 it was reported that Labour leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Peres were aware of a
deal in which the orthodox Shas party a member of their ruling coalition would
support the Oslo accord in exchange for delaying prosecution against Shas leader Aryeh
Deri, suspected of financial wrongdoing.
In 1994, Knesset members Gonen Segev and Alex Goldfarb left the nationalist Tsomet
Party, formed a short-lived faction, then joined a Labour-led government in order to
provide badly-needed support for the Oslo agreements. Their reward for betraying those
who had elected them into office: a cabinet post and car each.
Police did not follow up complaints in 1993 by inspector-general Ya'acov Terner that
Labour Police Minister Moshe Shahal had improperly interfered in police investigations
of Deri.
A former attorney-general, Michael Ben-Yair, was appointed by Rabin in 1993 despite
having no background in criminal law. He controversially closed several criminal files
against Labour representatives.
One Ben-Yair chose not to indict was Labour Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer,
accused in 1996 of election bribery.
Trade unionist and Labourite Amir Peretz called an illegal strike last year which cost
the country an estimated US$6m. Critics called it a blatantly political act against the
Netanyahu government and wondered why he wasn't charged with incitement.
Arguably Israel's most outrageous scandal ever involved Oslo itself. Labour
representatives met exiled PLO leaders in contravention of Israeli law, and later signed accords
with a man who has to this day proven himself unable or unwilling to change his violent and anti-Semitic ways.
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged," said the great rabbi of
Nazareth. "And with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you."
***
BOLSTERING BIBI
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu entered the White House on April 7 with the
prayers and encouragement of thousands of Christians ringing in his ears.
The Israeli leader had been summoned for a meeting with President Bill Clinton,
whose administration was trying to restart the stalled Oslo process.
It was the second time in eight months that Netanyahu had been called to Washington,
and asked to make concessions in response to violent PLO responses to Israeli actions
in Jerusalem.
And it was the second time he went to meet the American president bolstered by
Christian support.
Last September, Clinton "invited" Netanyahu to Washington, where he
wanted personally to ask the Israeli to close the exit to the Hasmonean Tunnel. Yasser
Arafat called the opening of the new exit a "declaration of war against the Palestinian
people", and used it to incite his "policemen" and civilian followers to violence
which saw 15 Israelis and 62 Arabs killed.
Before he departed for the US on that occasion, Netanyahu was prayed over and
exhorted by 5000 Christians celebrating during the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem,
who urged him to "be strong and of good courage" in the face of the enormous pressure
he would come under in the US.
Three days later, he sent word back to the ongoing Christian gathering that its prayers
had strengthened him, and helped him to turn down Clinton's request.
As he flew to America last month, Israeli commentators warned Netanyahu he was
like Daniel about to enter the lion's den: he would again be pressured to stop the
legitimately sovereign Israeli action of building Jewish homes on Jerusalem's Har Homa.
The hilltop construction site in southern Jerusalem had been expropriated by the
government from its mainly Jewish owners, but the international community universally
condemned what the world press unabashedly called Israel's "unilateral action on
occupied land in Arab East Jerusalem".
On April 7, just hours before he was scheduled to meet Clinton, and in what
Netanyahu half-jokingly called "an extraordinary beginning of a day in Washington...just
what God ordered", the premier addressed hundreds of enthusiastic participants in the
Fourth National Unity Conference for Israel.
He was given an overwhelming greeting by the conference, whose stated goal was "A
safe and secure Israel", and convened by Voices United for Israel, an organisation
reportedly representing "the largest network of pro-Israel groups in the US".
Netanyahu, who has often referred to and applauded the part played by Christian
Zionists in the last century of Israel's history, told the gathering that attempts to divide
Jerusalem were done "sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely, sometimes by challeng-
ing our rights to build apartments...in our city." He appealed for help in waging "the
struggle for truth".
"We have no greater friend and no greater ally than the truth. And we have no greater
friends and no greater allies than the people sitting today in this room," he said.
"We will never allow Jerusalem to be redivided again."
Later, when Clinton got Netanyahu behind closed doors once again, and directly
requested that Israel stop work on Har Homa, Netanyahu, again, said "no".
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