Mani, what is strengthening the anti-Arab elements in the Israeli government is the complete and utter failure to find a peace partner in Yassir Arafat.
After eight years of Israel (and the US and Europe and the Arabs) giving Arafat legitimacy, money, and land so that he could establish a Palestinian state, what do we find? The money is in the Swiss bank accounts of Arafat and his cronies, no economic development has occurred, there is no rule of law anywhere in the PA, just mobster rule of various factions (Arafat runs thriving extortion and cartheft rackets). Then Arafat refuses Barak's offers without a counteroffer, declares that Oslo was a ruse and starts a guerilla war using land and guns that Israel gave him.
So the Israeli peace camp has collapsed, the middle has moved right, and the right (including the anti-Arab hard right) has strengthened. Should anybody in the world be surprised at this? |
