Rothman, whose famous eulogy at her grandfather’s funeral in 1995 became a worldwide tear-jerker, recently joined former prime minister Ehud Barak’s new party, which merged with Meretz to become the Democratic Union. Though polls suggest that she has little-to-no-chance of becoming a member of Knesset after the September 17 election, since her placement at No. 9 puts her well below the five seats predicted for the left-wing faction, her particular claim to fame gives her party a PR advantage. Or does it?
During the 25 years since Rabin and his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, won a joint Nobel Prize with PLO chief Yasser Arafat for “their efforts to create peace in the Middle East,” Israel has been plagued by an ongoing Palestinian war of attrition against the Jewish state.
Opponents of the very Oslo Accords that created the PA knew all along that Arafat had not changed his terrorist stripes. Indeed, anyone who wasn’t living in la-la land realized that the so-called “peace agreements” were simply a sophisticated stage in the PLO leader’s “plan of phases” to annihilate Israel.
Tragically, anti-Oslo fanatic Yigal Amir murdered Rabin in cold blood at a Tel Aviv event celebrating the peace fantasy. This horrifying act of vigilantism by an Israeli citizen against the democratically elected head of his country was not only evil, but it had the exact opposite of its intended effect. Rather than preventing Arafat from proceeding with his pernicious aims, which he cloaked in lies and international diplo-speak, the assassination gave the arch-terrorist a boost, while causing a schism in Israeli society that threatened to unravel it. Arafat couldn’t have been more pleased.
Imagine his shock when his Nobel laureate buddy, Peres, lost the 1996 election to Benjamin Netanyahu. You know, the same Netanyahu whom the Left blamed for the “incitement” that spurred Amir to kill Rabin. Arafat must not have realized that showing his true terrorist colors in the immediate aftermath of Oslo and Rabin’s death might not have been the smartest move. All Israelis are peace-driven, but most are not stupid or blind.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu was defeated three years later by Barak, whose own overtures to the stubble-bearded, keffiyeh-wearing killer in military garb – decorated with fake medals – put the final nail in the coffin of the Israeli peace camp. This is because Barak’s crazy-generous offer to Arafat at the 2000 Camp David Summit was met with the launching of the Palestinian suicide-bombing war against Israeli men, women and children on buses, in restaurants and at malls.
It came as no surprise, then, when Barak was ousted by then-Likud leader Ariel Sharon in 2001. Blood and body parts of innocent people strewn on sidewalks will do that to a demoralized public. Many voters were aided by Arafat’s statements in Arabic that his goal was for the entire state of Israel to be replaced by Palestine. No coexistence. No compromises. And no forfeiting of violence against Jews.
Sharon’s response to the years of suicide bombings – called by Palestinians the Al Aqsa Intifada, and by Israelis the Second Intifada – was to announce a total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. In other words, the complete evacuation of Gush Katif. To accomplish this move, which Likud members overwhelmingly rejected, he formed a new party, Kadima, overnight.
His stunt succeeded. In August 2005, every last Jew was forcibly removed from the communities that he himself had encouraged them to build. The idea, he said, was to keep suicide bombers from entering central Israel.
And then came the rockets and missiles from Hamas in Gaza, and car-rammings, stabbings, Molotov cocktails from Judea and Samaria. By this point, Abbas had replaced Arafat as head of the PLO and chairman of the PA. Treated as a moderate by the world – and leftists still certain that Israel was at fault for a lack of peace – Abbas embraced his predecessor’s tactics. But he did so in a suit and tie, rather than fatigues.
This thumbnail review is key to understanding why Netanyahu recently became the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, and may continue to break his own record.
Which brings us back to Rothman.
FOLLOWING HER visit to Ramallah on Tuesday evening, together with fellow Democratic Union member MK Esawi Frej, Rabin’s granddaughter wrote a post on social media in which she referred to Abbas as a “leader concerned by the radicalization of the Israeli people and Palestinian people and by the absence of hope and dialogue; a leader who understands that both parties have no other home, and that we have much to lose by the persistence of this conflict and its bloody price.”
Huh?
The absurdity gets better.
“As an Israeli citizen,” she tweeted in English, “I am furious and disappointed that for over a decade Netanyahu has not taken any steps to initiate a process with the Palestinians, including basic steps to bring forth a dialogue which would help restore serenity to the people of Israel, and particularly those living in the south.”
Was she joking? Apparently not, given the rest of her ridiculous diatribe:
“I cannot shake the grave feeling that our leadership has breached its duty to protect us and to help us move forward,” she continued. “Especially when there is so much that we can do. As it is now, the IDF is unable to stop kites and balloons from disrupting the everyday life of the people of the south, who face grave hardships, left unsolved by the Israeli government. Our national resilience has been worn out and our morality impaired.”
Seriously? What she ought to know is that Israel’s only “moral impairment” lies in its constant effort to avoid Palestinian casualties, even at the expense of its own citizens’ safety.
Her conclusion was equally disingenuous:
“Above all, the unbearable price of loss of human life in this never ending conflict; the inaction of Netanyahu and his disregard to the Palestinian issue proves time and time again that he himself is not a partner to the creation of hope for future generations. It is our duty and our responsibility to not give up on finding a solution. We must provide an opening and a way forward. I call all the leaders of the Israeli parties to bring the Israeli-Palestinian subject back into the discourse without fear, with courage.”
Little did Rothman anticipate that the harshest criticism of her snuggling up to Abbas – aside from bereaved Israelis pointing out that the PA chairman pays salaries to the terrorist murderers of their children, husbands or wives – would emanate from Palestinian quarters.
While patting herself on the back for assuring Abbas that the camp she represents would bring about a solution to the conflict, Palestinians were furious that he was meeting with such a “Zionist” in the first place, and accused him of reneging on his vow to cease all contact with Israel.
One Twitter user reacted to Rothman’s tweets by asking her rhetorically if the reason that Democratic Union head Nitzan Horowitz, a proud gay politician, had not accompanied her to the meeting was his fear of being stoned to death. It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a grave situation in the Palestinian territories, where several homosexuals have been killed or otherwise tormented over the years. So much so, in fact, that persecuted Palestinian gays regularly flee to Israel so that they can live their lives in peace.
It’s not the kind of peace that Rabin envisioned, of course, or that his granddaughter ever dares to contemplate. After all, the one thing that she and her ostrich-like peers never acknowledge is that there can be no peace until Palestinian society changes from within, which will not happen until evil leaders like Abbas and his henchmen are stripped of their power by a public striving to emulate its Israeli neighbors.