The Art Of Political Bluntness; Bibi’s style..By Jamil Shawwa

Many were shocked at the way, style and words of Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister during his meeting with the US president in the Oval Office couple of days ago. The range of the reaction has varied from describing him as obnoxious, to just describing him as being frank, honest and straightforward. Bibi Netanyahu was blunt but this is the style of the political school that he was raised in, the school of Menahem Begin, Yitzchak Shamir, and Ariel Sharon. Some also said that Bibi is influenced to a large degree by his father that is considered an ultra conservative in Israeli politics, and that Bibi was raised on hard line politics when it comes to peace with the Palestinians. Bibi also carries the burden of his brother, Col. Netanyahu, who was killed while leading the rescue operation of the Air France plane hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda in 1976. Also he has a deep rooted sense of responsibility to ensure that the people of Israel are protected and secure in an area that is technically still hostile to them. In addition, if we go a little more back in history, it is the school of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the revered political leader in the beginning of the last century that inspired many leaders from the right in Israel. Having said the above does not mean that Bibi rejects a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, he does not, and he knows that it is coming and that the final solution will be a two state solution. Menahem Begin, before Bibi, swore many times by his mother’s grave that he will never withdraw from Sinai and that he will never dismantle Yamit, the main settlement in Sinai, Begin did both. Ariel Sharon did the same before withdrawing from Gaza in 2005.  What people expect Bibi to do is what Bibi is doing right now, which is to be a hard liner and to sound tough and to be adamant in regard to certain concessions in the West Bank or the withdrawal to the 1967 lines. It is an art, it is politics, and it is mainly rhetoric that analysts and observers know that it does not mean much. If Bibi did not talk the way he talked to Obama, people would have thought that there is something wrong with Bibi, so he must rise to the occasion, and he must rise to the expectations of the right and the conservatives and the religious leaders in the State of Israel.  Bibi could be very well the Israeli leader that will sign the declaration of independence of the state of Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank. The conservatives have done it before and they are the ones most capable- or have the power and the confidence of the Israeli people, according to many- to handle a revolution that the ultra religious might stage once the painful process, to many Israelis, of the withdrawal from the West Bank starts, and once the more painful process for many Israeli starts, which is having to share the city of Jerusalem. There is no country in the Middle East that deserves to exist more than the State of Israel, and there is no country in the Middle East that deserves to exist more than the State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza.