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December 25, 1998/ 6 Tevet 5759, Vol. 51, No. 14
Auld lang syneEditorialA president is impeached; a rogue nation is under siege; a government is in disarray; a peace agreement is in limbo. Across the nation and in the Middle East, there is unsettling instability as we approach year's end.The stunning events in Washington last week were history unfolding, as the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment sending President Bill Clinton to the Senate for trial on charges of perjury and other crimes. The stunning resignation of U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston as incoming speaker of the House added to the sense of dislocation and undercurrent of sanctimonious morality that has driven the proceedings. While the bombing raids to disable Iraq's cache of lethal weapons opened up the U.S. administration to charges of "wagging the dog," the need to punish Saddam Hussein's defiance and to limit his nation's destructive capabilities cannot be underestimated. Timing, of course, is everything, and the bombs dropping in Baghdad as events exploded in Washington proved to be a bizarre coincidence. Among the disruptive events of the past several days is the unraveling of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hold on power. The stipulations of the Clinton-brokered Wye agreement have proven difficult for him to deliver on, and at the same time keep his government together. In this instance, Netanyahu, who like Clinton often has demonstrated an enormous sense of self-importance, has put hubris aside in his struggle to form unlikely partnerships intended to forward his initiatives for peace. If Clinton is able to maintain the presidency for the balance of his term and ultimately bring home a needed victory in the Middle East, and if Netanyahu's travails become the catalyst for a coalition in Israel that is ultimately successful in moving the peace process forward, then the events of the last days of 1998 will prove memorable in unanticipated and much valued ways. |
