The historic normalization agreements that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed in Washington Sept. 15 bring up again a question that has been asked by many throughout his entire era in power. Is the real Netanyahu a peacemaker or troublemaker? Is Netanyahu a pragmatic, visionary leader striving for peace or the exact opposite — a nationalist, right-wing ideologue determined to block what he views as a dangerous peace process with the Palestinians, constantly circumventing the issue and perpetuating the status quo under which Israel continues to control the territories and sweeps the Palestinian problem under the carpet?
The answer is complex. Since Netanyahu is one of the most perplexing figures in Israeli history, the answer would probably be “both.” If you ask Bill and Hillary Clinton, for example, they would choose the latter option. Netanyahu frustrated President Clinton’s efforts to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace in the 1990s, and did the same to the secretary of state (Hillary Clinton) over a decade later. He holds a world record for going around in circles, covering the same ground, with the clear goal of wasting time, exhausting opponents and getting nowhere.
Put the same question to Netanyahu’s supporters in the political center-right or his opponents on the radical right, and you will hear a completely different answer. Netanyahu is not a true ideologue, he is not bound heart and soul to the land of his biblical forefather, he has never built a settlement and he has no qualms about making concessions and signing agreements if he is convinced they are politically advantageous. In fact, they would tell you that Netanyahu talks out of the right side of his mouth and acts to the left, adopts nationalist rhetoric but implements pragmatic policy, and that Netanyahu’s sole ideology is Netanyahu himself.
The facts in themselves support the contention that Netanyahu is a man of peace. During his first term (1996-99), he recognized the Oslo Accord his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin made with the Palestinians, restored the West Bank city of Hebron to Palestinian control, signed the Wye River Memorandum with PLO leader Yasser Arafat and conducted serious negotiations with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad on peace with Syria and withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
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