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PARTISAN REVIEW
express their many grievances. I think that era is probably over, because
they are in the process of achieving success in every area of Israeli society.
You find Sephardim among the
nouveau riches;
they are prominent in Is–
raeli politics, in business, perhaps less so in the academy (which tends to
be very conservative) . I think that the old resentments and grievances may
be diminishing. David Levy, for instance, split off from the Likud to form
his own movement and announced that he would be a candidate for the
premiership. That meant forming an ethnic list, though he denied it. I
don't think there is a great future for that kind of politics in Israel today.
Since then, Levy has returned to the Likud. The Sephardi-Ashkenazi di–
vide seems to me to be losing in importance as other polarizations
become more significant.
Question:
I would like to know what the position of Likud is with regard
to the West Bank. It's easy to be opposed; it's much more difficult to be
in favor. What is it that the Likud is in favor of?
Robert Wistrich:
I think that's a good question. It has been a major prob–
lem for the Likud, and one of the reasons why they were running behind
the government in the polls. It's not just the effects of the Rabin assassi–
nation, although these have probably been more substantial. It seems to
me that the Likud has been slow in developing a coherent and realistic
alternative in the eyes of the Israeli public to the policy of the Rabin–
Peres governments. They could perhaps claim that events moved much
faster than anyone could have imagined a few years ago. Who would
have thought in Israel, even among all the political pundits and experts,
that we would be where we are now - with the completion of the Oslo
II deal and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from
all
the major towns on
the West Bank except Hebron. I think the mainstream opposition party
was caught rather flat-footed by the sheer speed of these developments.
It
is only now that the process has become a
fait accompli
which it must rec–
ognize; that the Likud has begun to develop some sort of realistic
alternative to the creation of a mini-Palestinian state.
The Likud can still salvage itself, because there are major issues which
are far less clear-cut and potentially much more controversial than any–
thing that has already been settled. Obviously, as I have suggested, the
three major issues are the Golan, Jerusalem, and the Jewish settlements. I
think that the Likud has begun to focus on them, but very late in the day.
Mr. Netanyahu frequently found himself in a difficult spot when chal–
lenged by Israeli journalists. They would ask questions like, "Aren't you
simply building your case on the politics of fear?" Or "Where is your
constructive alternative plan about what we should do?" The feeling is
