BIBI EXPOSED-NO SHEEP'S SKIN CLOAK

BIBI SHEDS HIS CLOAK OF SHEEP'S SKIN

TIME TO TREAT ISRAEL JUST LIKE OTHER NATIONS

Faced with certain defeat, Mr. Netanyahu of Israel came out of the "peace" closet and exposed himself for what he is: a supporter of one illegitimate, ethnically cleansed state. The view is not pretty.

By his own words, Netanyahu has expressed his unwillingness to make peace, and to give up illegally occupied territories for a settlement with the Palestinians--the legitimate original inhabitants of most of what ISRAEL is today.

In this election, Netanyahu exposed himself and his Likud coalition for what they are: far right-wing radicals, determined to hold onto the West Bank, happy with the status quo, and opposed to peace at any cost. The USA and the rest of the world will have to deal with them accordingly.

Netanyahu was a desperate man on the eve of the election...like any politician he was ready to retain power at all costs. He has chutzpah. He accused his opposition and Mr. Herzog of being manipulated by Americans! He actually made these claims while he spoke to the nation on free air time over airways owned and operated by American, Las Vegas gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson. Also Adelson the American has showered millions on Netanyahu. Netanyahu pulled the Palestinian card too. In an attempt to frighten Israelis he claimed that Palestinian-Israelis (citizens too) who were voting in large numbers in the election were a "threat" to Israel. He stated flatly "there would be no Palestinian state" while he was in office. He promised to expand settlements in East Jerusalem. These are all views that will make it impossible to renew talks of peace. They are dead. Palestinians under sixty years of occupation can have no hope of succor? What is left only conflict?

What about these pronouncements...won't Bibi just backtrack at some time and back off of these radical views? Probably not. The Israeli political system....more democratic than what we have--- does not easily permit a lying politician to get away with phony election promises. In the US system a pol has two to four years (in the Senate six) before the office holder must face the voters again, and hope that over that time the citizen's memory has gotten foggy (too often it's true) and has forgotten the unmet promises. Not so in Israel's more representative parliamentary system. If "lying Bibi" were to try to modulate or even go back on his election eve pronouncements some time during his new term...the splinter parties which had come together to form his government with the Likud party would very likely withdraw and deny him his majority. At thqt point he would have to call another election. So what we heard from Mr. Netanyahu is what we will most probably get in the coming years. If it is as it seems and he does form another government, expect more unreat, conflict, another intifada, more Gaza incursions, more deaths, more chaos and instability in the region.

But there is a bright spot of hope. Now that Mr. Netanyahu is exposed for what he is...and where he really stands, it will be much more difficult for his US and European sympathizers to concoct a false rationale for continuing to support this man's expansive, colonialist, bully government.

Now that Netanyahu has slipped his lamb's wool camouflage, it is time for the USA to TREAT ISRAEL LIKE ANY OTHER ALLY. TO USE IT'S UN VETO LIKE IT WOULD FOR ANY OTHER ALLY, AND it's time to support economic pressures on Israel which would help to bring about political change from within.

Israel is a small country desperately in need of the world's good will. It has lost much during Netanyahu's tenure. Perhaps a realistic view as now demonstrated by Mr. Netanyahu, of what Israel has become, will put more support behind the efforts of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) movement. Perhaps a truly evenhanded US approach to the Israeli-Palestinian problem is now possible. If so there IS hope for peace.