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Friday July 11, 1997

Disenchantment in Netanyahu leads to disengagement

Douglas A. Bloomfield

After deciding to cancel a U.S. visit he was scheduled to make last month, Benjamin Netanyahu now must deal with three major problems he faces in this country: disenchantment, disenfranchisement and disengagement.

Once the most popular Israeli politician in America -- his generation's answer to Abba Eban -- the U.S.-raised and U.S.-educated Netanyahu has during his first year in office seen a weakening of American Jews' support for him personally and, more importantly, for Israel generally.

Israeli diplomats, fund-raisers for Jewish organizations, pro-Israel activists and other Jewish leaders report an alarming deterioration that could quickly worsen if the Netanyahu government continues its current course.

A year after electing the candidate who promised "peace with security," Israelis have less of both. The peace process is in the deep freeze and a new intifada is heating up the streets and alleys of the West Bank and Gaza.

In Hebron and Gaza, firebombs, stones and rubber bullets have replaced dialogue. Israelis who once drove through the West Bank on their way to the Galilee now take long detours to avoid Palestinian areas.

Netanyahu's decision to stay home is a recognition of the growing crises his government faces on all fronts. These crises affect American Jews as well.

His political mentor, former Defense Minister Moshe Arens, has broken with Netanyahu and has repeatedly criticized his protégé for poor leadership.

A former colleague of both politicians recently observed, "There can always be a difference of opinion over policy, but what is bad is that Bibi has created an aura of incompetence." And a senior Likud Knesset member complained that the prime minister "has shown no growth on the job.

"People who want to follow can't because he doesn't know himself where he is going."

Netanyahu's reputation as a public-relations master is not much in evidence these days. He has failed to convince either the American government or most American Jews that he genuinely wants peace with the Palestinians and is willing to do what that requires.

This comes despite the fact that he has embraced the concept of land for peace, carried out the Hebron redeployment, released Palestinian women prisoners and offered a peace plan that is an opening, not a final, offer, only to have it totally rejected by Yasser Arafat, whose modus operandi is all take and no give.

Part of Netanyahu's problem is his own failed public diplomacy. He came to office a year ago refusing to see or talk to Arafat, a posture that immediately put the Palestinians on the defensive. Today with the peace process on the verge of collapse, it is Arafat who refuses to talk.

After years of growing international acceptance and prominence, Israel finds itself increasingly isolated. The economic boom of the past five years has stalled along with the peace process. The army chief of staff has warned his civilian superiors that the Syrians, seeing negotiations dead in the water, are growing restless and may be moving toward war.

Disappointment and disenchantment over the peace process are only part of the picture.

Netanyahu also must deal with the proposed conversion bill. The pluralism debate has been a PR disaster for his government.

The ultra-religious make no secret of their uncompromisingly exclusionary agenda -- and they have the clout to carry out their threat to bring down the Netanyahu government if they don't get their way.

This creates a perception of a government held hostage by religious extremists.

Another crisis Netanyahu faces this week is what Natan Sharansky, minister of trade and industry, calls a "crisis of trust." The head of the new immigrant party, Yisrael B'Aliyah, boycotted a Cabinet meeting over what he said was Netanyahu's failure to keep his promise to let Sharansky's party pick the ambassador to Russia.

Sharansky, one of Netanyahu's closest associates in a conflicted Cabinet, has become increasingly critical of his friend's integrity and has hinted that he and his party may leave the government. Such threats, however, seemed to ease after a promise to give emigres more funding.

Another confrontation the prime minister would just as soon avoid is with Bill Clinton, who is not happy that the Egyptian initiative to resuscitate the peace process has apparently failed since neither Netanyahu nor Arafat is willing to be the first to break the impasse.

Polls in Israel and here show that a majority wants to see negotiations with the Palestinians proceed.

The American Jewish community is not speaking out forcefully for the peace process largely because of its disdain for Arafat and his penchant for violence. But that does not translate into support for Netanyahu's policies.

Growing disenchantment with Israel's current government could prove dangerous if it leads to disengagement.

Israel-oriented charitable organizations report a 10 percent drop in contributions, according to the Israeli media. Many of those U.S. Jewish groups have cut the percentages of their collections going to Israel.

Nimrod Barkan, Israel's consul general in San Francisco, has warned the Foreign Ministry that top American contributors to pro-Israel causes are likely to send their money elsewhere if the conversion bill passes. Loss of funding would weaken pro-Israel lobbying on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, he noted.

Foreign Ministry officials are receiving similar warnings from diplomats throughout the United States.

At the same time, those diplomats as well as Jewish community professionals report a diminishing interest in Israel and a growing feeling that since Israel is not interested in them, it may be time to refocus on closer-to-home issues.

Added to these problems is a heightened concern about Jewish identity -- we are seeing alarming rates of intermarriage and assimilation and a perception that the brands of Judaism practiced by some 85 percent of American Jews are being delegitimized by Israel's religious establishment.

The message for Israel is one of danger ahead.

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