Arens: Netanyahu Made A "Mistake" With Livni

Former Defense Minister Moshe Arens is not at all perturbed over the forecasts of a third intifada knocking on our door, and rejects commentary that views the recent riots in the territories as the result of the diplomatic stagnation of the last four years.

Arens was viewed in the past as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s patron in the Likud movement. Arens was the one to recommend Netanyahu’s appointment as Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington (1982), and subsequently recruited him into the party’s ranks. Today, Arens believes that Netanyahu could not have advanced a significant diplomatic process with the Palestinians in the last four years, for the simple reason that he had no one with whom to negotiate. According to Arens, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen does not rule over his nation and therefore is not a [negotiating] partner.

The 88-year-old Arens is still a member of the Likud. He keeps close track of local, regional and international political developments and, of course, of Netanyahu’s complications in assembling his third government. Despite that many years have passed since Arens sat among the country’s decision-makers, his stance regarding regional conflicts has not softened. He had opposed the peace agreement with Egypt, had thought that Ariel Sharon’s disengagement was a terrible mistake, and called halting the Cast Lead operation by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a “folly.”

In an interview with Al-Monitor, the Likud’s “tribal elder” assigns a very high score to Netanyahu for his international contribution to efforts halting Iranian nuclearization; but a low score on the internal politics sphere. Arens severely criticizes the prime minister for uniting Likud with former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu; this, according to Arens, harmed the Likud movement. Arens also feels that Netanyahu errs again by co-opting HaTenua leader Tzipi Livni to his government as minister in charge of the diplomatic process, due to what he feels are her excessively lenient positions.