Israeli politicians are no different
Reader comment on item: Israel's Wayward Prime Ministers

Submitted by Kenneth Besig (Israel), Jun 30, 2004 at 16:56

Many effective and trustworthy political leaders promise one thing and often deliver another. As is well known, usually this is confined to spending and taxation promises, that is they all promise lower taxes and spending and then go on to raise taxes and increase spending. These reversals of campaign promises are usually excused by the politicians as being what they think is good or necessary for the majority of the public, although generally, whatever a politician does is usually in his own perceived self interest. In Israel campaign promises are made to be broken, which is of course perfectly consistent with Middle Eastern ethics wherein treachery is also considered to be the greatest wisdom. The latest reversal by Ariel Sharon, which he describes as disengagement, and which could well be even more dangerous and lethal for the Israeli public than the Oslo Accords, is difficult to understand. Even from Ariel Sharon who has a long history of doing the unexpected, often changing political positions overnight. This could just be a way of positioning himself for the history books as the unifying Israeli leader who made peace with the Arab world, or Mr. Sharon could be trying to reach out to the so called center of the Israeli public to strengthen his position, or he could be trying to bring elements of the Israeli opposition into his government in order claim some sort of legitimacy, but whatever the reason, I am forced to believe that he has his own personal reasons for taking these drastic and dangerous steps and that the long suffering Israeli Jewish public is about to get even more reasons to suffer.

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