In a speech that reflects a hardening of Israeli opinion, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told key U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that Israel should topple Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from power and send him into permanent exile.
“That regime has to go,” Netanyahu said in a much anticipated speech to some 20 senators on Capitol Hill. “With such a regime, with such a failure of leadership, no political process is possible. In fact, the political process can only begin when the terrorist regime is dismantled.”
This was no lunch-circuit stop by a retired politician. Netanyahu came to Washington as an unofficial emissary of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon amid increasing concern that Israel’s political support in Washington is eroding in the face of a military invasion of the Palestinian territories.
Moreover, Netanyahu is considered the most likely candidate to succeed Sharon should the prime minister’s shaky coalition government collapse.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, virtually all of them staunch supporters of Israel, escorted Netanyahu as he met with key House and Senate members. A security cordon fit for a head of state accompanied the former prime minister.
Netanyahu likened Israel’s predicament with the Palestinians to the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan. Like the Afghan Taliban government, the Palestinians have harbored and sponsored terrorists, he said. New evidence seized by Israeli soldiers in the latest military offensive links Arafat and his inner circle to financing for the recent spate of Palestinian suicide bombings aimed at Israeli civilians, he said.
Just as the U.S. toppled the Taliban, so Israel must remove Arafat and the Palestinian Authority from power, Netanyahu said.
He called the Palestinian Authority, “the quintessential terrorist regime . . . a regime that both harbors and perpetrates terror on an unimaginable scale.”
The former prime minister’s view goes beyond Sharon’s position. Sharon has said that if Arafat leaves Palestinian territory, Israel will block his return. But Sharon’s coalition government has not been able to reach agreement on Israel’s official policy about whether it should allow Arafat to remain in power as a negotiating partner.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday in a stop in Spain before traveling on to the Mideast that he wants to meet with Arafat because Arafat remains the recognized voice of the Palestinian people.
“I think the Palestinian people and the Arab leaders with whom I’ve met over the last several days believe that he is a partner that Israel will have to deal with at some point,” Powell said.
Senators praise Netanyahu
Netanyahu won praise from the senators who attended his speech.
“I find myself very much in support of what you’ve said,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Speaking amid news of a new Palestinian bus bombing, she said: “The only thing I can infer from this is that the heart of the Palestinian agenda is really the destruction of Israel.”
Applause from Republicans came despite Netanyahu’s concern about the current drift of Bush administration policy, particularly the insistence that Israel withdraw its troops “without delay.”
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said the difference between the Bush administration position and Israel’s is less than meets the eye. Bush and his top policy advisers may be losing patience with Arafat, he said.
“In effect they’re giving Arafat one last chance, and I don’t know what will happen if he drops the ball this time,” Kyl said.
Kyl said Sharon contacted Netanyahu and asked him to present Israel’s view of the current crisis to a U.S. audience. Netanyahu, aware of his own posture as a potential political opponent of Sharon’s, made clear he would come to Washington to present his own personal views. Nevertheless, Sharon encouraged him to make the visit.
A senior Israeli official in Washington said Sharon asked for Netanyahu’s help because he “recognizes that Netanyahu is one of the most eloquent Israeli leaders, and he has asked him to come to the United States to enhance awareness of Israel’s unique security predicament.”
U.S. principles questioned
Clearly, Israel hopes Netanyahu’s rhetorical ability will help increase pressure on the Bush administration to back off its demand that the military campaign end without delay. Netanyahu praised Bush for his “moral clarity” in the global war on terrorism since Sept. 11, but he said Washington may be losing that clarity when it comes to Israel’s response.
“Will America apply its principles consistently and win this war, or will it selectively abandon these principles and thereby ultimately risk losing the war?” he asked.
If Palestinian suicide attacks on Israelis go unanswered, Netanyahu warned, “it is only a matter of time before suicide bombers will terrorize your cities here in America.”
Netanyahu supported Sharon’s decision against trying to kill Arafat. He said Arafat should be sent into exile. On the issue of what kind of Palestinian government would emerge following Arafat’s removal, Netanyahu said the U.S. and the international community would need to build a Palestinian democracy so that there could be no dictator to orchestrate a youth indoctrination campaign that glorifies suicide bombers.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) agreed with Netanyahu that Arafat is an “impediment to peace,” but he said, “the question is, what follows him?” The notion of creating a Palestinian democracy, he said, is “easier said than done.”
