When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says "I find that unacceptable," what does he mean? I came across this expression in a report of yesterday's cabinet meeting, during which Netanyahu rebuked Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog (Labor), saying, "I find it unacceptable that ministers speak out against government decisions." Indeed, in orderly governments, such a thing is totally unacceptable. Not just to prime ministers and presidents, but to the ministers themselves. A British or French minister, say, would never dream of expressing opposition to the government in which they sat, and if they did such a thing, they would cease to sit in it.
Rightly, and with a note of irony, Herzog retorted to Bibi: "That doesn't include Minister of Foreign Affairs Liberman, who delivered a speech in the UN against government policy." One could of course add dozens of examples of ministers not only speaking out against government decisions, but also against the head of the government, as Eli Yishai has done only recently. Presumably that too is unacceptable to Bibi, but he's frightened to say so to Yishai, and of course to Liberman.
One can conclude then that when something is unacceptable to Bibi, it means nothing more than that it is unacceptable to him. That is to say, this is not an operative statement in any shape or form, simply a heap of words unaccompanied by any action. Thus it joins the prime minister's statements in general, that are nothing but words.
There have been prime ministers before Netanyahu to whose statements no importance was attributed, by themselves or by anyone else. Ehud Barak is a fine example. But it seems that in this respect, Netanyahu even exceeds his defense minister, which is perhaps why they get along so well. Netanyahu has managed to reach a situation in which ministers, and people in general, take neither him nor his words seriously.
Politicians whose days in office are numbered are usually called lame ducks. Bibi is more like a lame joke. Why a joke? Because there are signs that he still thinks that he's a leader. He does not even have the degree of awareness required to understand what it means to be a leader. He believes that if you have a coalition, then you're a leader. And since even his own staff are fleeing from him, he has no-one at his elbow to say to him: Bibi, to be a leader, it isn’t enough to have Shas, Liberman, and Barak what's required is the character and personality of a leader, and you haven't got them. Since this is your second time as prime minister, you probably never will.
The only thing is, it's not a joke. Netanyahu has become a danger to the country, to its security and strength. Every day, decisions need to be made bearing on the future, and Bibi and his government cannot be relied upon to make the right decisions in the chaotic conditions prevailing in the government. Now the public whose future is at stake has to decide whether Bibi is acceptable to it.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 10, 2011
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