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December 15, 2000/Kislev 18, 5761, Vol. 53, No.12
Would Netanyahu chart better course next time?
MICHAEL S. ARNOLD
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
It's still unclear whether former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to run in the upcoming election, but analysts already are wondering how a second Netanyahu administration might differ from the first.
Three years after defeating incumbent Shimon Peres by a hair's breadth, Netanyahu was trounced by Ehud Barak in May 1999 by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.
Bibi announced his resignation from the Likud Party and from Israeli politics, but few believed his absence would be permanent.
Soon after Barak stunned the nation with his announcement Dec. 9 that he would be resigning, Netanyahu stepped in to announce that he intended to run for the premiership.
According to Israeli law, Netanyahu is not eligible because he is not a sitting member of the Knesset. The Knesset is now considering legislation that would amend current law, thereby enabling him to run.
In announcing his candidacy Dec. 10, Netanyahu pledged to learn the lessons of his failed term, which was marked by frequent scandals, policy shifts and abominable relations with his party and Cabinet.
But has he learned enough in such a short time to chart a more successful course the second time around?
During the past 18 months, Netanyahu rarely criticized the Barak government publicly, concentrating instead on his business interests as a high-tech consultant and public speaker, and toughing out a police investigation on bribery and fraud charges from which he emerged without indictment this fall.
Since announcing his candidacy, Netanyahu has criticized Barak for "broadcasting weakness" in his handling of the 10-week-old Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel needs to be tougher with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said.
"I think it's using force more wisely, and not necessarily only military force," he said.
The peace process lost much of its momentum under Netanyahu, who insisted on Palestinian "reciprocity" when Israel fulfilled its commitments under the Oslo process. The best Israel can aspire to is a "cold peace," Netanyahu said Dec. 10.
After three years in which Labor Prime Ministers Rabin and Peres did not halt Israeli concessions despite Palestinian violations of the accords, Netanyahu's insistence on reciprocity was seen by much of the world as an excuse to hinder a peace process he had inherited but never accepted.
Netanyahu, however, said Dec. 10 that his policy of caution and reciprocity has been vindicated, and contrasted it to what he called Barak's determination to reach an agreement with the Palestinians "at any price."
Knowing that they would pay a price for their transgressions, the Palestinians sharply reduced the level of terror when he was in office, Netanyahu said.
The Arab world, however, was deeply suspicious of Netanyahu, and his honeymoon was brief. In September 1996, after Netanyahu opened a new exit to a tourist tunnel in Jerusalem's Old City, Palestinians rioted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, leaving 15 Israeli soldiers dead.
Despite his mistrust of Palestinian intentions, Netanyahu became the first Likud leader to make territorial concessions in the West Bank, the cradle of Jewish history.
International pressure after the "tunnel riots" forced Netanyahu to hand most of the biblical West Bank city of Hebron to Palestinian Authority control.
Israel's relations with the United States and the world also suffered during Netanyahu's term. Clinton, in particular, reportedly was angered by Netanyahu's purported arrogance and his willingness to appeal directly to the U.S. Congress when he found the president's positions unpalatable.
On the economic front, Netanyahu accelerated the privatization of state-owned industries and took several major steps to liberalize the Israeli economy.
The giddy economic boom of the early 1990s gave way to recession, and unemployment and social issues had replaced peace as the most prominent campaign issue when Barak challenged Netanyahu in 1999.
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