Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off his campaign this weekend with interviews to the major TV channels. In the following segment, taken from the interview aired this evening on Channel 1, he tells reporter Ayala Hasson that he did not vote in favor of the disengagement plan from Gaza, when in fact he did. He indeed resigned later on, but only after the disengagement was a done deal, as Channel 10 journalist Raviv Drucker reminds us [Heb].
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sh
You mean Israeli politicians LIE? Our own Prime Minister?? Surely not!
Kolumn9
Yes, Bibi is a liar. He did vote for the disengagement on the presumption that a public referendum would take place. However, he also did resign from the Sharon government in protest over the disengagement plan and the lack of a public referendum on the issue. This too is a matter of public record.
Sharon bulldozed over all objections and the Israeli and international press provided him the cover to take steps that he would have failed to get legitimacy for in a referendum.
Ami Kaufman
No, K9, it’s not as simple as that. I’m sure if you read Drucker or look up Bibi’s support of the disengagement the minute the whole process started, you might be surprised. Bibi’s resignation at the end was all political – not ideological as you and he claim today.
Kolumn9
I don’t think the distinction between political and ideological applies to Bibi.
sh
So he both opposed and supported the disengagement and can prove it. See? *That’s* a politician for you! According to those criteria the 19th Knesset is set to be the most brilliantly professional ever.
XYZ
Just like Abbas both demanding the Palestinians Refugees “right of return” and also saying he is willing to give it up.
Or HAMAS saying they will agree to a peace agreement and, at the same time, saying they will never make peace with Israel.
In all cases, their position is whatever the listener wants it to be.
BTW-It will be interesting to see how Feiglin and the other more hard-line “Right-wingers” in the Likud will now have to defend Netanyahu’s attack on the Bennet of the Bayit Yehudi regarding refusal of IDF soldiers to participate in the expulsion of Jews (or Arabs, for that matter) from their homes, at the price of willingness to go to prison, as a matter of concience as Bennet said explicitly. Netanyahu is implying that he is prepared to implement such policies in the future.
Ami Kaufman
So, XYZ, your logic is “It’s OK to lie if someone else does too”? How mature…
.
I really fail to see what this post has to do with either Abbas or Hamas, or the military junta of Burma. Could you enlighten us?
Yoni
Had you written about the lies of Hamas, Abbas, leaders from Israel and Palestine, left and right, there would not be any need to bring up the comparative aspect here.
Ami Kaufman
Yoni – sorry, there are enough sites where you can read about the liars you wish me to write of. A lie is a lie. I feel pretty good about writing of the lie of my Prime Minister without the need to compare him with every other liar on earth.
Ami Kaufman
So, lemme get this straight – from now on, with your permission of course, i can only write about Bibi if I also write about his counterpart in Hamas or PLO? Maybe you could spell out the rules of blogging, obviously they’re not clear to me. My post should have had two videos? One of Bibi and one of Meshal?
Yoni
Ami, I didn’t say that you need to write about all the liars – my point was that comparisons are relevant and they matter. When you tell me that Bibi lied about something (not such a big lie btw, at least in my opinion), my response would not be “Bibi is the worst liar among politicians”, but that all politicians lie. I find the comparison important, that’s my opinion. I guess that some other would agree.
Ami Kaufman
Yoni – you specifically complained that i didn’t write about lies of Hamas and others (“had you written….”). Therefore, I don’t understand this strange cop-out in your second response. Oh well.
Yoni
Ami, my “complaint” was about your reply to XYZ, not about your article – he pointed out that all others, left and right, Israelis and Palestinians, often lie, and you wrote him that it doesn’t matter. My reply is that it does matter. It would not matter, if your report dealt with all kinds of lies of all kinds of politicians.
Ami Kaufman
Ah, OK. So you hold similar ideas to XYZ. Got it. Thanks.
XYZ
As I see here so often, the “progressives” jump to conclusions about what I supposedly think since I am known as a “right-winger”. Where did I ever say that it was acceptable for Netanyahu to falsify his position? My comparing him to Abbas and HAMAS in this matter was not meant as a compliment. I don’t trust Netanyahu precisely for the reason you indicated and I will not vote for the Likud as a result.
Piotr Berman
It seems that PM denies rumors that he is not an idiot, while he was born oneand remains till today.
Iusiurandum patri datum usque ad hanc diem ita servavi.
However, if engagement is so cool, why didn’t he re-engage?
Piotr Berman
Ximena Yolanda,
I understand that you detest Netanyahu, but like Cato the Elder you feel obliged to express your opinion on another topic too (that Hamas, Abbas etc. something something).
Still, it is puzzling why Netanyahu decided to “kick off the campaign” with a small unnecessary lie that was immediately identified. Is senility kicking in?
Sure, political strategy may require to take contradictory positions, if the population is of the opinion that 2 + 2 = 5, what can a democratic politician do? He can ride the tiger or retire. Big strategic lies have some power of their own, and Bibi is definitely a practitioner. But topping it off with small lies? It is as if someone would rob bank vaults and additionally do shoplifting in front of store cameras.