Benjamin Netanyahu
I know I often brandish a tough-talking, self-confident, even brash exterior, but I'm a worried man. But what else would you expect? Jews worry for a living.
Lately I've had string of good fortune: I've outmaneuvered all of my rivals, avoided early elections, and put together the deepest government in Israel's history. And let's face it: The more screwed up the Arab world becomes, the more room I have to avoid tough decisions on key issues like negotiating with the Palestinians. Believe me, I have no illusions on this one. What the Palestinians want from me -- June 1967 borders with minor modifications, a capital in East Jerusalem, security arrangements that give them actual sovereignty, and a resolution to the refugee issue that symbolically or practically recognizes the "right of return" -- I cannot and will not give. Above all, I want them to concede on Israel's identity issue: recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Only then will the world know that Israel -- as the Jewish state -- can never be a Palestinian one.
Things may be manageable for now, but I know they won't remain that way. Israel has some legitimate fears: Iran with the bomb, the fraying of the peace treaty with Egypt. My predecessor, Ehud Olmert, once said that Israeli prime ministers have to sleep with one eye open. I'm sleeping with two open. As Henry Kissinger said, even paranoids have their enemies -- and mine abound. Kadima figures they can do a Trojan Horse redux and undermine me from within. The left in Israel hates me, but they're irrelevant. The right doesn't trust me and worries I'll turn into some kind of transformed hawk like Yitzhak Rabin. No danger of that -- the Arabs can't stand me and the ones who had to deal with me, like Hosni Mubarak, are gone. Jordan's King Abdullah is prepared to give me the benefit of the doubt from time to time. But even that's wearing thin now, too.
As for Israel's only real ally, let's just say it's complicated. The U.S.-Israeli relationship -- institutionally -- is in good shape. And the Jewish community and the Evangelicals (I got aboard that train early) are supportive. Congress, too (did you see how many standing ovations they gave me?). But I continue to worry about President Obama. He's different than Bill Clinton. Yeah, Clinton didn't like me either. But at least he understood politics and he was in love with Israel. Nor is this Obama guy like George W. Bush, either, who was instinctively pro-Israel, however frustrated he was with Ariel Sharon. Obama is too cold, analytical, and detached for me. He's not buying the Exodus thing. I have to figure: If he had the chance, he'd stick it to me in a heartbeat. Gotta hope my good friend Mitt Romney wins. He's got a lot of goodwill toward Israel. It might take me a full two years to piss him off.
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