Creeping madness prevails | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Isi Leibler | 6 Adar 5780 March 2, 2020

Photo credit: GPO / State Dept

{Originally published on the author's website website}

When you wake up in the morning, you have to pinch yourself to be certain that our current position is not a dream:

• The U.S. administration led by Donald Trump has emerged as Israel's greatest ally, a stark contrast to its predecessor. For the first time, our story is promoted and the Palestinian lies and terror are exposed. Trump's peace plan is telling the Palestinians the truth and rejecting the previously demanded impossible concessions that would have led to the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
• Iran faces massive global sanctions initiated by the United States.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former KGB officer, clearly has a soft spot for the Jews and, despite his ties to Syria and Iran, cooperates with Israel and recognizes its security needs.
• Israel now has and is developing unprecedented ties with India, China and several other states in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
• Moderate Sunni Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, have or develop open or secret relations with Israel.
• Due to its innovations and technology, Israel has gone from a country running out of water and having to import energy to a large exporter of natural gas and desalination systems. 39; water.
• Israel has developed the most powerful defense forces in the region and has the capacity to deter all of our adversaries combined.
• Israel has one of the most resilient economies in the world, enjoying historically low unemployment and sustained relative economic growth.

Of course, we still face challenges:

• True peace with the Palestinians is far from the horizon.
• Iran with or without atomic capabilities continues to pose an existential threat to Israel.
• Hezbollah in Lebanon continues to threaten the security of Israel.
• The need to integrate haredim into the workforce is becoming increasingly crucial for the economy and social stability of Israel.
• The Chief Rabbinate is still led by extremists and means must be found to replace them with moderate rabbis.
• The Palestinian Authority continues to reject Jewish sovereignty and, by continuing to provide financial incentives to terrorists, demonstrates its inability to be a true partner in any peace initiative. Hamas, backed by Iran, is not even trying to hide its attachment to the destruction of Israel.

And yet, despite the incredible global position of the country, we are unable to elect a government. Likud and Blue and White claim to have largely endorsed the Trump plan. If this is the case, party leaders desperately need to put aside their personal political aspirations and short-term interests and unite to finalize and implement Trump's peace plan, knowing that the American elections will soon become the main issue engaging American leaders.

The possibility that an openly anti-Zionist Jew like Bernie Sanders could become the next American president is a frightening prospect. The potential implications of the spread of the coronavirus and its impact on the economy, combined with the danger of a Trump populist reaction in the United States, cannot be discounted.

Over the past year, large swathes of the Democratic Party have openly endorsed anti-Israel sentiments that have given a chuckle to Sanders' histrionic anti-Israel rhetoric. The fact that Democratic candidates have fled invitations to the AIPAC conference should already send shock waves through the pro-Israel community. If Sanders were elected president, the danger to Israel would make the possibility that anti-Semitic Jeremy Corbyn be elected British Prime Minister insignificant.

For this reason, the Trump peace plan must be implemented immediately after the elections. Once an Israeli national unity government, in coordination with the United States, has extended its sovereignty to the main settlement blocs and the Jordan Valley, it will be very complex even for a hostile American government. to reverse the situation.

In the event of a fourth deadlock, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and blue and white leader Benny Gantz will be forced to prioritize the nation's long-term security interests over their narrow personal and political interests .

No one can deny the chemistry between Trump and Netanyahu and credit must be given to Netanyahu for the formulation of the Trump plan. It is hard to imagine that Gantz would maintain such a close relationship, in particular, when Trump focuses on his own re-election.

The first six months after the election will be absolutely crucial in determining whether we are able to maximize the opportunity presented to us.

After the previous elections, Netanyahu offered to withdraw after six months if the Blue and White people accepted a government of national unity. In retrospect, if Gantz had agreed, he would now be / State Department on the verge of becoming our Prime Minister without the need for new elections. He would also have had the opportunity to work closely with Netanyahu, gain desperately needed experience and benefit from unprecedented close ties with Netanyahu with all the major world leaders by assuming his duties in a transparent manner.

The truth is that the lackluster Gantz should be relieved not to become Prime Minister yet. In the context of a rejectionist PA refusing to appear at the table, Gantz does not inspire confidence that he has the finesse or the leadership to advance the Trump plan. Can we confidently count on Gantz to navigate a delicately balanced political minefield in which we will have to engage not only with Trump, but also with Putin, the United Kingdom, Asia, Asia EU and moderate Sunni states, to ensure de facto, if not express, recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and main settlement blocs? On the other hand, if Gantz and Netanyahu were to join forces and put the combined weight of the two dominant centrist parties behind the Trump plan, it would consolidate the Israeli consensus and make it clear to players opposed to Trump that his plan is the only one viable option on the table at the moment.

Even many critics of Netanyahu recognize its brilliant diplomatic role to bring us into this current situation. All polls show that a substantial majority of Israelis, including those who will not vote for him, agree that on the international stage he is best equipped to finalize negotiations with the Americans, strengthen relations with the Russians and mature the new emerging alliance with moderate Sunni states. These three questions are vital to our long-term international and existential well-being and the coming months will be crucial to their progress.

All the polls indicate that neither Likud nor the Blue and White will be able to realistically form a government alone. Thus, if Netanyahu again offered to withdraw after six months, in the national interest, Gantz would be able to demonstrate real leadership by acting in the best interest of the country (even if it means separate from Yair Lapid) and working with Netanyahu to make sure the parameters of the Trump plan are put in place before succeeding him.

Netanyahu should also realize that such a scenario would be in his best interest, allowing him to retire as the longest serving Prime Minister with a heritage unmatched by any of his predecessors while being available to solve his problems. not encumbered by the office of the Prime Minister. Minister.

If our leaders do not reach such a compromise, they will go down in history as having betrayed and endangered the nation.