By Stan GoodenoughMarch 24th, 2006
As has been the case with other voices of alarm and apprehension, an Israeli parliamentarian’s dire warning Thursday that a Kadima Party election victory will play right into the hands of Israel’s most determined foes has fallen on deaf ears.Likud Party MK and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuval Steinitz voiced grave concerns about the negative impact a Kadima win would have on Israel’s security.
“If [Kadima leader and acting Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert wins Tuesday night, there will be celebrations in the streets of Ramallah and joy in Tehran,” he said,
Why?
“Because from their point of view the road [will have] been paved for the establishment of a Hamas state in the heart of Israel.”
There is no question about the veracity of this analysis by Steinitz, a former left-winger who converted to realism in the years after the Oslo process blew up.
Olmert himself told Ynetnews in an interview published Friday he would allow a Palestinian state to be established “within the same borders” out of which he plans to pull his countrymen.
On Wednesday a party colleague by the name of Othniel Schneller offered the Palestinian Arabs parts of Jerusalem as the capital of that state.
PA president Mahmoud Abbas has similar hopes.
In a Ha’aretz interview also published Friday he revealed that he has asked the US to chair “covert” meetings as soon as the Israeli elections are over, and said the establishment of a Palestinian state is achievable within a year.
Obviously, Abbas envisages reaching this agreement with Olmert and not with Likud Party leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
In Abbas’ opinion, the Palestinian state would have existed already had not Netanyahu, during his tenure as prime minister, “destroyed everything.”
Nonetheless, all the alarm-sounding Steinitz earned for his pains was a lashing in the Israeli press and a derisive personal attack from unidentified “Kadima officials.”
“Steinitz has turned himself into a dangerous clown,” one said.
“I suggest that they answer in a matter-of-fact way to the claims and stay away from personal insults," Steinitz replied.
Kadima’s practice throughout the election campaign has been to sidestep crucial questions relating to the security of the Jewish state, while simply demanding that any politicians who want to be a part of “our” government will have to sign on to “our” plan.