Caroline Glick: an Israeli crisis of corruption

The respected Jerusalem Post deputy managing editor Caroline Glick has an astonishing column from January 5th which deals with, among other things, the reasons for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Many outside Israel watched with amazement as the reputed right-wing hardliner Ariel Sharon handed over territory in Gaza, which contained long-established Jewish settlements, to the Palestinians, gaining nothing in return, and indeed inviting a stepped-up Arab militancy. According to Glick, the error of Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza was compounded by a simultaneous breach of the central principle of the peace treaty with Egypt: the demilitarization of the Sinai peninsula. The Egyptian forces now stationed on the border of Gaza have been permitting large-scale shipments of weapons into that territory from Lebanon, Iran and other sources. Together with a variety of other recent unfavourable developments, this is potentially catastrophic for the State of Israel.

Commenters on right-wing blogs, mystified by such behaviour, thought up ingenious explanations of how the withdrawal might be, for example, part of some devious plan to expose Palestinian government as corrupt, with a view to discrediting the Palestinian side in the eyes of world opinion. Glick, however, writes that Sharon's apparent conversion to the left-wing position on the "peace process" (more properly, "surrender process") was in fact the result of allegations of personal corruption. To save the skins of himself and his family, Sharon caved in to pressure from the leftist elites which dominate the Israeli media and judiciary, and which are evidently willing to use this power without restraint. This surrender on the part of Sharon was treasonous, whatever the validity of the original allegations—a subject which Glick doesn't write about here. The left at least honestly believed in the "peace process".

In 2003, Ariel Sharon and his sons found themselves on the brink of political, economic and personal destruction. Criminal investigations of their alleged corruption were coming to a head and it was widely predicted that Sharon and his sons Omri and Gilad would all be indicted on felony charges. A way had to be found to step away from the abyss. After advising with Sharon's personal attorney and chief of staff Dov Weisglass, Sharon and his sons chose to protect themselves by adopting the Left's irrational strategy of destroying Israeli communities and giving their land to terrorists. That is how the policy of retreating from Gaza and northern Samaria and carrying out the mass expulsion of Israeli citizens from the areas was born.

. . . . Overnight the media transformed Sharon from the corrupt politician to the visionary leader. As Amnon Abramovich, Channel 2's chief commentator explained, the media understood that corrupt or not, their job was to protect Sharon to make sure he threw the Jews out of Gush Katif. And as Supreme Court Justice Mishel Cheshin admitted in an interview upon his retirement, the Supreme Court justices would never have dreamed of acting against Sharon lest they endanger the withdrawal.

Sharon's betrayal prompted the resignation of the IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ya'alon, and the demotion of those who questioned Sharon's irrational policy. The result of this is that the top positions in Israel's cabinet, civil service and military are now occupied by "obedient, opportunistic and inexperienced yes-men". These include Olmert, the new Prime Minister, who was a minor figure in Israeli politics until promoted by Sharon, and the new IDF chief of staff Halutz—a friend of Sharon's son, and in Glick's judgment an arrogant incompetent, "unfit to command the IDF". Possibly, Glick says, Sharon did not anticipate quite how disastrous such promotions might prove, because he did not expect his own leadership skills to be made unavailable by a stroke.

The only bright spot in this story, Glick points out, is that Israel has an alternative principled and competent leadership consisting of those who were forced out or who resigned as a result of Sharon's Gaza decision. Otherwise, "Israel faces unprecedented threats to its security and very existence while it is being led by the most incompetent, corrupt leadership it has ever known".

Incidentally, the most convenient way I am aware of to subscribe to Caroline Glick's columns is via the Real Clear Politics RSS feeds (scroll about 1/6 of the way down the page).