November 1992, Page 7, 89
Special Report
Israel's New-Old Prime Minister: Still an Enigma
By Leon T. Hadar
Yitzhak Rabin is a political enigma even to Israelis. They recalled, as he assumed the duties of prime minister for the second time last July 13, that he was the man who, as defense minister, had called in 1988 for "breaking the bones" of Palestinian demonstrators in Israeli-occupied Gaza and the West Bank, but who more than a decade earlier stated that he would have no misgivings about having to have a passport to cross into that same West Bank.
While serving as a Labor member of the Knesset on the opposition benches, he encouraged Labor to enter into a national unity government with the Likud Party, and served as the unofficial leader of the hawks within his party. Now, he is leading the most dovish government in Israel's history, with half of its coalition supporters in the Knesset advocating negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Rabin presided over the brutal suppression of the intifada and cheered the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, policies that were responsible for Israel's current near-total international isolation. But the same Rabin has told the Knesset this year, in his first address as prime minister, that the Israeli people should stop thinking that "the whole world is against us."
Israel, he stated, in what seemed to be a dovish battle cry, "must overcome the sense of isolation that has held us in its thrall for almost half a century" and "join the international movement toward peace, reconciliation and cooperation that is spreading over the entire globe these days, lest we be the last to remain, all alone, in the station."
As Israeli ambassador to Washington in the 1970s, Rabin used the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its congressional supporters to sabotage the peace efforts of the Nixon and Ford administrations. Twenty years later he shocked many Israelis and most American Jews with his attacks on Israel's Washington lobby, and his implied message to AIPAC to shut up and allow him to negotiate with President Bush on issues ranging from the peace process to American arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
American Jewish leaders, after months of leading a nasty anti-Bush campaign in which they portrayed the president and his aides as "anti-Israelis" and "anti-Semites," could not hide their bewilderment at what seemed to be efforts by Rabin, through public statements and leaks to the press, to help the Republican president win a second term in office.
The Mystery Continues
At this point no Israeli political analyst will stake his professional reputation on trying to explain the enigma called Rabin. Journalist Uri Avnery, Israel's most celebrated peace activist, returning from Tunis after interviewing PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and calling for Israel to open a political dialogue with the Palestinian leader, nominated Rabin in his Ha'aretz column as "My Man of the Year," predicting the new prime minister would lead Israel to the promised land of peace. But Ze'ev Schiff, Ha'aretz defense columnist, expressed doubts about Rabin's willingness to take risks for peace and concern that Rabin's efforts to perpetuate the status quo in the Middle East would lead to a new war.
Rabin is not helping to solve the mystery. His chief of staff, Shimon Shavas, a former Golan Heights settler and a member of Labor's hawkish wing, told a group of settler leaders from the Golan that Rabin would never withdraw from that occupied area. On the other hand, Rabin personally has been engaged in recent weeks in what many Israeli observers describe as a campaign to prepare the public for just such a withdrawal.
Nothing better reflects the conflicting messages emanating from the Israeli prime minister's office than the two delegations he has sent to the peace negotiations in Washington. Heading the Israeli delegation to the talks with the Jordanians and the Palestinians is an old Likud hand, Elyakim Rubinstein. The religious-orthodox Rubinstein, originally nominated by former hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Shamir to head the Israeli delegation, is a Greater Israel ideologue. His proposals for electing a Palestinian "administrative body" in the West Bank produced the stalemate in the negotiations when Likud was still in power.
The Palestinians and the Jordanians were, therefore, surprised to discover Likud lawyer Rubinstein coming again to Washington. This time he was head of Rabin's new delegation to the talks, but still armed with Shamir's old ideas. Many Israelis were equally surprised. Political columnist Lili Galili reported that both top Labor Party leaders and foreign ministry officials are calling for Rubinstein's replacement with a more moderate negotiator.
Rabin's coalition is a mixed bag of ideological and political rivals.
Those same Israelis were ecstatic, however, over Rabin's replacement of ultra-nationalist Yosef Ben-Aharon as head of the Israeli delegation to talks with the Syrians. His replacement was the dovish Itamar Rabinovich, a Tel Aviv University professor, who established immediate personal rapport with the Syrian delegates and then announced that the Rabin government recognizes that U.N. Security Council Resolution 242's land-for-peace formula applies to the Golan Heights, which Israel's Likud government long ago unilaterally "annexed" to Israel.
Some attribute Rabin's ambivalent approach to his personality. Avnery, for example, suggests that Rabin cannot be described accurately as either a "dove" or a "hawk." He is, instead, a non-ideological pragmatist who has concluded that Israel should take advantage of present opportunities to reach agreements with the Palestinians and the Arab states. Avnery argues that Rabin is worried that unless Israel and the Arabs make serious efforts to make peace and stabilize the Middle East, the region could slide into a bloody confrontation which would include the use of weapons of mass destruction. Hence, according to Avnery, Rabin's willingness to make far-reaching concessions on all fronts, including the Golan Heights.
Hawks vs. Doves
Another impetus for Rabin's ambivalent strategy is the pressure he faces on the domestic front. His coalition is a mixed bag of ideological and political rivals. They include ultra-doves, centered around Education Minister Shulamit Aloni's liberal-leftist Meretz Party, and the members of the moderate wing of Labor, whose current unofficial leader is Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. They also include a hawkish faction, allied with the United Kibbutz Movement (UKM), which represents Labor Party settlers. While the UKM has established only a few small settlements on the West Bank, mainly along the line of the "security belt" of the Jordan River, it has led the settlement drive on the Golan Heights. As a matter of fact, most of the settlements in that area were established by hard-core Laborites.
The UKM's commitment to settle the Golan does not stem from religious conviction, but is based more on the Socialist-Zionist ethos of the pioneer-soldier building new egalitarian communities and defending them against the Arab enemy. Moreover, the settlements provide the Labor Party apparatchiks who head the UKM with government resources and public recognition. Rabin has been politically allied with the UKM and its Achdut Haavodah faction. One of the founders of the Achdut Haavodah, the late Yigal Allon, was Rabin's political mentor, and some of Allon's followers led Rabin's struggle against his main rival for the party's leadership, Shimon Peres.
The UKM leaders have pressured Rabin not to give up an inch of the Golan, pointing out that it was "unthinkable to abandon" the Jews who settled there "on behalf of Labor governments and with their blessing." The movement made it clear that it regards continued Jewish settlements on the Golan as a pre-condition for a peace agreement with Syria, and will not hesitate to pick a fight with its favorite son, Rabin, if he decides to move toward a territorial compromise with Syria.
Foreign Minister Peres, on the other hand, has indicated that if Rabin attempts to stall the talks with Syria or the Palestinians, he will mobilize the dovish forces in the cabinet against the prime minister. Moreover, Peres, who was relegated by Rabin to management of the multilateral peace talks while Rabin directs the bilateral talks, tried in September to involve the French in the negotiations with the Syrians, have reached a dead end. An angry Rabin immediately closed down the "French connection" and stated that he alone would continue to lead the bilateral negotiations with the Arabs.
Peres, Aloni and their supporters argue that the government should make an effort to distinguish its policies from the messianic Greater Israel agenda of the Likud. Aloni and the Meretz ministers called for a complete curtailment of building activity in all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, including the "security" settlements. David Zucker, a Meretz member of Knesset (MK), even suggested that the government should "dry up immediately the settlements" in the occupied territories.
The dovish wing of the government has challenged Rabin in other ways. Naomi Hazan, a Meretz MK, and Yael Dayan, a dovish Labor MK, met with a PLO official, Nabil Shaath, in violation of the Israeli law that makes it illegal to meet with PLO members. The meeting ignited calls within the Labor Party to annul what Peres' deputy, Yosef Bailin, called a "stupid law." Rabin expressed support for annulling the law, but added that it was "not the right moment" to do so.
Aloni, meanwhile, has become the enfant terrible of the Israeli cabinet. In addition to suggesting that Rabin should and will eventually return the Golan to the Syrians, she has challenged the influence of the religious-orthodox parties and has called for adopting a more liberal and peace-oriented educational curriculum. She shocked many Israelis by arguing that the annual trips that young Israeli students make to the Nazi concentration camps in Poland perpetuate anti-gentile and anti-Arab attitudes.
Aloni's statements angered the religious-orthodox coalition partners, as well as some of the hawkish Labor leaders. Facing pressure from his political right, Rabin has threatened Aloni and Meretz with expulsion from the coalition unless she and her colleagues tone down their rhetoric.
Counting on Washington
It is not clear how long Rabin will be able to maintain either the unity of his government or his schizophrenic political personality. According to his aides, Rabin is confident that his military and financial backing from Washington allows him a wide diplomatic margin, and that no U.S. administration would be inclined to pressure him to make concessions that could lead to the fall of his government and Likud's return to power. The U.S., he believes, will end up adopting his dovish-hawkish formulas, and shove them down the throats of the Arabs. Preserving the "American connection" is, according to Rabin, a necessary pre-condition for maintaining his political support at home.
A U.S. effort to perpetuate the status quo in the occupied territories, however, might antagonize not only the Palestinians but also the members of Labor's dovish wing who are interested in accelerating the peace talks. Ironically, therefore, it may not be the Americans but Rabin's colleagues in the Labor Party who will force the prime minister to respond to the call: "Will the real Rabin please stand up!"
Israeli journalist Leon T. Hadar's Quagmire: America in the Middle East, was published this year by the Cato Institute of Washington, DC.
