Yuli Edelstein MK
As the Chair of the Likud Anglos of Netanya I started off our lecture series with an invitation to Yuli Edelstein MK to speak. His English is fluent and his presentation is always coherent and relevant.
Yuli was a former refusenik and prisoner of the Gulag for 3 years for teaching Hebrew and for applying to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. He arrived in Israel in 1987 and became an educator. He was a co-founder with Natan Sharansky of the Israel b'aliya party that contested the previous elections and won several seats. In the Knesset, he became Minister of Immigrant Absorption in the Netanyahu Government and eventually Deputy speaker of the Knesset, a position which he holds again today on behalf of the Likud opposition.
Yuli made several important points, first that no peace agreement is likely to come from the current spate of meetings between Olmert and Abbas leading up to the Annapolis Conference. He compared the present situation with his experience with discussions over returning the Golan to Syria in Netanyahu's Administration. Although they discussed many options over a period of months, nothing came of it because the other side was basically unwilling to make a "final" deal with Israel. He thinks the same is true now of the PA and of Abbas on the West Bank.
Israel is sometimes its own worst enemy, pushing for an agreement when the other side is not really interested in peace. This also happened with the Oslo Accords that were initiated by Israel and that were a complete failure and with the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. The Arabs are sure that Israel is a fragile State that cannot survive, mainly because they don't understand democracy, and they think that time is on their side, partly because we seem so eager to make concessions to them. This is true of the current Government's being prepared to re-divide Jerusalem. Even if they give up some Arab neighborhoods, the other side will demand more and gradually public opinion will come to accept the need to make more concessions for "peace." He concludes that sometimes it is better to hold fast to a position and not be in such a hurry to placate an implacable enemy. Put in other terms it is better to "manage" the conflict rather than continuously try to solve it, or no deal is better than a bad deal.
What has the Likud to offer? During the previous Netanyahu Administration in 1996-9 there were only 4 terrorist incidents, while before there were a string of terrible ones killing hundreds of people and afterwards the second intifada started in 2000. So the Likud seems to know better how to deal with this problem. Also the freeing of the Israeli economy from Government controls was a feature of Netanyahu and of the Likud in office that lead to the current booming economy.
When challenged that Bibi Netanyahu was not a good PM and failed to consult with his Ministers, he compared Rabin's first and second terms in office and said that he too started off badly but improved greatly in his second term due to what he had learnt and experienced, and he was sure this would be true of Netanyahu. From a practical point of view Bibi and the Likud are the only viable alternatives to the weak and corrupt leadership of Olmert and Kadima.
This was a successful meeting, with ca. 70 attendees, and there was animated discussion over refreshments at the end.
Yuli was a former refusenik and prisoner of the Gulag for 3 years for teaching Hebrew and for applying to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. He arrived in Israel in 1987 and became an educator. He was a co-founder with Natan Sharansky of the Israel b'aliya party that contested the previous elections and won several seats. In the Knesset, he became Minister of Immigrant Absorption in the Netanyahu Government and eventually Deputy speaker of the Knesset, a position which he holds again today on behalf of the Likud opposition.
Yuli made several important points, first that no peace agreement is likely to come from the current spate of meetings between Olmert and Abbas leading up to the Annapolis Conference. He compared the present situation with his experience with discussions over returning the Golan to Syria in Netanyahu's Administration. Although they discussed many options over a period of months, nothing came of it because the other side was basically unwilling to make a "final" deal with Israel. He thinks the same is true now of the PA and of Abbas on the West Bank.
Israel is sometimes its own worst enemy, pushing for an agreement when the other side is not really interested in peace. This also happened with the Oslo Accords that were initiated by Israel and that were a complete failure and with the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. The Arabs are sure that Israel is a fragile State that cannot survive, mainly because they don't understand democracy, and they think that time is on their side, partly because we seem so eager to make concessions to them. This is true of the current Government's being prepared to re-divide Jerusalem. Even if they give up some Arab neighborhoods, the other side will demand more and gradually public opinion will come to accept the need to make more concessions for "peace." He concludes that sometimes it is better to hold fast to a position and not be in such a hurry to placate an implacable enemy. Put in other terms it is better to "manage" the conflict rather than continuously try to solve it, or no deal is better than a bad deal.
What has the Likud to offer? During the previous Netanyahu Administration in 1996-9 there were only 4 terrorist incidents, while before there were a string of terrible ones killing hundreds of people and afterwards the second intifada started in 2000. So the Likud seems to know better how to deal with this problem. Also the freeing of the Israeli economy from Government controls was a feature of Netanyahu and of the Likud in office that lead to the current booming economy.
When challenged that Bibi Netanyahu was not a good PM and failed to consult with his Ministers, he compared Rabin's first and second terms in office and said that he too started off badly but improved greatly in his second term due to what he had learnt and experienced, and he was sure this would be true of Netanyahu. From a practical point of view Bibi and the Likud are the only viable alternatives to the weak and corrupt leadership of Olmert and Kadima.
This was a successful meeting, with ca. 70 attendees, and there was animated discussion over refreshments at the end.
posted by Jack Cohen at 11:15 AM
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