Livni. At a crossroads
Photo: Gil Yohanan
The emperor has no clothes
Op-ed: At some point, Tzipi Livni will realize she can no longer be part of government's fraud
There is no doubt: Minister Tzipi Livni,
who joined the Netanyahu
government after being convinced that the prime minister plans to jump-start talks for an agreement with the Palestinians, is finding herself these days at a crossroads. If she stays in the government, she may turn into a bitter joke about a politician whose public trademark was integrity, and who eventually lent a hand to a fraud.
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon
basically exposed the truth known to anyone who followed the assembly of the Likud-Beiteinu's
Knesset list. The ruling party has no intention of implementing the proposal for a solution based on two states, Israel
and Palestine. Danon is like the child in the wonderful tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen about the emperor's new clothes. The child who won't take part in the game of deception and declares that the emperor has no clothes on.
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Behind Danon's back, some say his blatant remarks are aimed at promoting his candidacy for head of the Likud Central Committee. This just goes to show that the Likud today will not agree to any concession of what is called there "parts of the homeland." Alongside Danon, Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin has spoken openly against this solution, and is basically saying that the current government's goal is to transfer the responsibility for the failure of the initiative led by the American secretary of state to the Palestinians.
And that's not all: For the time being, Netanyahu has been turning down John Kerry's insistent pleading to take a step towards the Palestinians with a series of gestures.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon opposed until recently the proposal to release more than 100 prisoners marked as "veteran prisoners" – those who murdered Israelis and are sitting in our jails since before the Oslo Accords. "We are done being suckers," Ya'alon said.
And so we are left with Tzipi Livni, who is persisting in her attempts to share with the Americans ideas which may mature into something. It wouldn't be a wild guess on my part to assume that Livni will reach a moment when she says to herself that she must stop holding on to the frock of the emperor with no clothes and leave the government.
