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Jewish World Review Feb. 20, 2001 / 27 Shevat, 5761
Michael Ledeen
Wrong. Entirely wrong.
First of all, it's an arrogant insult to the electorate. When you
win a landslide, you should respect the voice of the people
and do what they clearly want you to: Govern in accordance
with your announced principles. Nobody believes that Barak
and Peres share Sharon's view of the world, so Sharon is
defying the will of the people. If they had wanted Barak and
Peres, they'd have voted Labor, not Likud.
Second, it's bad politics. As I argued after our own elections,
the whole theory of "unity governments" is an intellectual
conceit, a misguided concoction dreamed up by people who
have never governed. Israelis should know this better than
most, because they've experimented with such things —
Peres and Shamir made a deal some years ago that led to a
rotating government, with first one, then the other serving as
prime minister — and it was a fiasco.
Third, it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of
leadership. Sharon seems to think that he'll be stronger, and
the country will be more united, if he has his defeated
opponents alongside him. I can't imagine what line of
reasoning led him to this
conclusion. He just won the
highest percentage of the
popular vote — 62 percent —
of any candidate for top office
in any democratic country in
the last hundred years. Can you
spell "mandate"? He could
hardly be any stronger today,
and his future political power
will depend entirely on the
success or failure of his policies, not on the members of his
Cabinet.
Bringing in Peres and Barak actually weakens him, because it
encourages his enemies to think that he's just another Israeli
pol, a wheeler-dealer, rather than the decisive and
courageous leader Israelis so desperately need and want. Do
you think that the presence of the two great appeasers will
make Arafat more likely to come to reasonable terms? Not
bloody likely. Arafat, and his deep-pockets sponsor,
Saddam Hussein, believe that Israel has lost its will, is not
prepared to fight, and is ready at long last to be driven from
the Middle East. Sharon's decision to play footsy with the
Labor Party is martial music in their ears.
Above all, it suggests that Sharon is not going to tell the truth
to the Israeli people: that they have been at war for several
years, and that they do not have a choice between war and
peace. Their only choice is between winning and losing the
war. Neither Barak nor Peres believes that, and neither is
likely to support a government that says that, and acts
accordingly. So Sharon has boxed himself in: if he vigorously
wages war, he'll be attacked by his own foreign and defense
ministers, while if he continues their ridiculous policies he'll be
excoriated by the Israeli public.
Great leaders lead, knowing that if they win they will be
honored, and that they will be despised if they lose. There
really isn't much more to it than that. Military leaders should
understand this better than most, because all their training and
all their experience in battle underline it. But General Ariel
Sharon seems not to understand it, and his first few days as
prime minister-designate of Israel bode ill indeed for the
outcome of the ongoing Middle East
01/30/00: The Rest of the Rich Story
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