Everyone seems to know why Israel’s security forces have refrained from using adequate force to quell the Arab uprising: fear of a bad media image and UN condemnation. Correct. But there is another and more insidious reason.
Recall that Shimon Peres lost the 1996 election because of the “Grapes of Wrath” mission in Lebanon, which prompted more than 50,000 Arabs to boycott the election. This made Benjamin Netanyahu Israel’s Prime Minister.
This, believe it or not, is one reason why the [Ehud] Barak Government has not used overwhelming force against Arabs! This may also be one reason why the Likud and the other parties have refrained from toppling Barak [on this issue]!
I am not being cynical. Prior to the 1999 elections, the religious Aguda party courted Arab voters [because the entire country constitutes a single electoral district in which every vote counts]. And now we learn that the Likud and National Union voted to retain large family allowances, which has multiplied the number of Israel’s enemies. Of course, such allowances help Haredi families. But [as I have elsewhere shown] there are ways of helping large Jewish families without magnifying the number of Arabs identified with the PLO.
What’s the lesson to be drawn from this deplorable state of affairs? As I pointed out years ago, the Arab vote not only augments the power of the Left; it also corrupts the religious and nationalist parties. And now we see that the Arab vote even renders the Government reluctant to provide adequate protection of Jews and Jewish communities from Arab attack!
Evident here is not only the moral failings of this or that prime minister or opposition leader. Evident here is a corrupt political system, rendered impossible by the democratic principle of one adult/one vote.
