More on Netanyahu

In this piece in National Review, Joel C. Rosenberg feels that Netanyahu was right to resign and that the Gaza withdrawal is an act of surrender by Israel:

In the end, it is far from clear that Netanyahu has helped himself
politically. Indeed, many in Israel believe he may have just scuttled his
political career by alienating so many powerful political and financial
interests who support Sharon and his plan. Which made his move all the more surprising to those who know how much he would like to be prime minister once again.

But regardless of his timing, his decision to oppose Ariel Sharon on this vital national-security issue was correct. Indeed, the one who should be stepping down from government service is not Netanyahu or Sharansky but Ariel Sharon himself.

Sharon has served Israeli national security well in the past, but that is no longer the case. Today, he is signaling surrender to those he has spent his life fighting. Perhaps worse, he is badly dividing his country just at the moment a far larger strategic threat is emerging: a nuclearized Iran.

However, David Frum disagrees:

[Netanyahu] timed his resignation not to make a difference, and torpedo the plan, but to make the maximum splash – and to best position himself to try again for Israel’s prime ministership. This is the second time he has attempted this trick. In the 1990s for example he won office by opposing Oslo – and then in office continued to follow the Oslo policy. Only he did it in the worst possible way: never daring to withdraw from Oslo but instead carrying the policy out so haltingly and grudgingly as to earn Israel all the blame for Oslo’s failure – without any of the putative benefits of actual escape from Oslo.

posted by Chris Hughes @ 3:15 PM