When Shaul Mofaz was a settler |
The newly elected Kadima leader recently said Israel should agree to 100 percent of the Palestinians’ territorial demands, but he and his wife were part of the core group of Israelis who founded Elkana in Samaria • Meanwhile, Likud officials are increasingly convinced that Mofaz’s victory in the Kadima primaries could work to their advantage.
Mati Tuchfeld
Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz with his wife, after winning the chairmanship. Will he rebrand Kadima – and himself?
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Photo credit: AP |
In 2005, when Shaul Mofaz wrote a letter to fellow Likud members telling them that not only did he have no plans to leave the party, but that he intended to run for its chairmanship to “preserve and strengthen Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria,” he knew a thing or two about bolstering the settlement enterprise. Mofaz was one of the founders of a settlement, and this week he was quoted by The New York Times as calling for Israel to agree to 100 percent of Palestinian territorial demands in Judea and Samaria. Mofaz has come a long way since his youthful days as a highly motivated, industrious person. Now he stands at the head of a tired, exhausted opposition. He has become the de facto leader of the center-left bloc in the Knesset.
It all started in the mid-1970s, when a group of religious Zionists decided to establish a new settlement beyond the Green Line to deepen the state’s hold on territories that were conquered nearly a decade before in the Six-Day War. The head of the group, Nissan Slomiansky – who would one day become the chairman of the Yesha Council (the umbrella body of the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria) as well as an MK (including in the current Knesset) on behalf of the National Religious Party – thought it would be appropriate to include nonreligious families in the core of new settlers. Preference was given to Arabic speakers who could communicate with the people in the surrounding areas and alleviate any hardships.
On May 1, 1977, less than three weeks before the general elections that would end with political upheaval and Menachem Begin’s rise to power, the "Elkana core" won the necessary permits from the government of Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin and were permitted to break ground. This was at the time that Rabin was forced to resign after it was discovered his wife had illegally maintained a U.S. dollar account in a Washington bank.
The settlers decided not to wait one day. Even though they had no place to live – they didn’t even have basic infrastructure in place – nothing would stop them. They took to the highways, found a few prefabricated cubic buildings that were originally slated for use by various kibbutzim and army bases, muttered vague promises about returning them to their original owners, and hauled them to the site, where they planted them so that they would encircle the only built structure on the scene – an abandoned Jordanian police station.
A few days after the settlers planted their foothold, two new families joined the core. One of them was the Mofaz family.
Shaul and Orit Mofaz did not have an empty structure available to them. Neither did another couple. The police station was converted into the office building from where the council chairman, Slomiansky, worked. The other rooms in the building were to be used for a school and a synagogue. Slomiansky opted to vacate his office and allow the two families to enter. A makeshift divider was put in to separate the couples.
Slomiansky recalled how Mofaz, who at the time was a young officer at the beginning of his military career, was quick to accept the job of the settlement’s security liaison with the IDF. Orit was hired as Slomiansky’s personal secretary. “He was like a man possessed,” Slomiansky said of Mofaz. “He was always active and energetic. Orit was my right-hand woman.”
Three years later, the army stationed Mofaz in the north, and the couple was forced to leave.
“To this very day, we have kept in touch,” Slomiansky said. “We talk a lot. I spoke to him before the Kadima primaries, and I spoke to him afterward.”
One of the more emotional encounters occurred when Mofaz officiated at the wedding of Slomiansky’s son. “This was in the middle of fierce fighting,” he said. “Mofaz came to the wedding with an entourage befitting a chief of staff and with Orit as well. Some yeshiva boys tried to get him on the dance floor with them, but he said he couldn't dance at a time when soldiers were being killed. Still, he sat with us throughout the entire wedding. He wasn’t in a rush like somebody who was doing you a favor just by showing up. He showed us respect to the very end.”
Changing tune
A somewhat different Mofaz appeared in The New York Times this week. Yet what caught attention was not his proposal for agreed-upon land swaps, nor was it his call for the need to forcibly evict defiant settlers and to give the Palestinians "100 percent of their territorial demands." These are elements that were included in the diplomatic plan that he crafted almost three years ago. This was the same plan that he wanted to unveil before his Kadima colleagues but was rejected by then-chairwoman Tzipi Livni. Yet this is not the issue. What sticks out is Mofaz's terminology and language – which have undergone a wholesale change.
When Ariel Sharon initially spoke of the need to disengage from Gaza, Likudniks forgave him. It is doubtful whether they truly understood the ramifications of what he was saying. But when he once remarked that "occupation is a bad thing," this was quite unforgivable. From their standpoint, if you want to get out of Gaza, then leave. But don’t start talking like [left-wing politicians] Zahava Gal-On or Shulamit Aloni. In their view, Jews cannot see themselves as occupiers in their own land.
There were other politicians who picked up on the trick, like current Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. His diplomatic plan is not much different from that of Mofaz or the Geneva Initiative. He also speaks of handing territory over to the Palestinians with land swaps and evacuation of settlements. Still, he attacks the Left and the Arabs almost incessantly.
"Israelis want two things more than anything else," the advertising guru Reuven Adler was once quoted as saying. "They want to kill Arabs, and they want to get out of the territories." Even though Adler had worked for Livni, it seems that Mofaz possesses both of these prerequisites. As chief of staff and defense minister, he killed Arabs and liquidated arch-terrorists. Now he also has a diplomatic plan. But in The New York Times, he buried a critical element of this equation.
Likud officials were ostensibly quick to make hay of Mofaz’s quotes. They accused Mofaz and Livni of being two sides of the same coin.
He knows how to reach people
Aside from the reaction by Likud politicos, officials within the party are becoming increasingly convinced that Mofaz’s victory in the Kadima primaries could work to their advantage. “There was concern about Mofaz,” said one senior Likudnik. “It’s true. With Livni, we knew what we were facing. It was our belief that she had gone as far as she could go. Aside from the 10 to 15 Knesset seats that the polls had given her, she couldn’t do better than that. There was the sense that the public bought into her bluff once and it was not prepared to do so again.”
“There was a real concern that Mofaz would bring something different to the table, something new,” he said. “We thought he would try to take votes from the Right, from some of the traditional religious voters, a little bit from the Likud here, a little bit from Shas there, a little bit from [Aryeh] Deri. We thought he could change the balance between the Left and Right blocs in the Knesset.”
“But now, although it may still be too early to say definitively, these fears are slowly dissipating,” he said. “In the meantime, Kadima is not climbing in the polls, and it seems like the new hope is having trouble getting off the ground. Statements like those made in The New York Times just put us in an even more relaxed state. It turns voters off to him.”
Kadima officials are all too aware of this, and not everyone in the party was pleased by Mofaz’s quotes. The situation is somewhat absurd. Livni supporters, most of whom are on Kadima’s leftist flank, are happy, while Mofaz’s backers much less so. In private conversations, they say that Mofaz is not appealing to any new constituencies, and these statements will contribute to Kadima’s continued floundering. Mofaz needed to veer rightward, they say, because no matter what happens, anyone who does not want to see Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister after the next election will have to support him.
Kadima MK Otniel Schneller even came out publicly against Mofaz. “Whoever speaks like this cannot be prime minister,” he said. It takes courage to speak out against a recently elected party chairman who is now at the peak of his power and before the party list for the next Knesset has been established.
This week, Mofaz aides tried to downplay the importance of his statements. “He said nothing new,” one Mofaz associate said. “His plan is known to the public and to Kadima members quite well, even before they decided to elect him chairman of the party. The difference between him and Livni is that he has an agenda and he plans to introduce it on every platform both domestic and international without batting an eyelid.”
Regardless, Mofaz aides say that the next elections will be decided by people’s attitudes on socioeconomic issues, which will be thrust into the spotlight by the anticipated revival of the social protests, rather than diplomatic issues.
Yet even on this issue, Mofaz can hardly claim to have had a sterling week. Last Thursday, the new opposition chief summoned Itzik Shmuli, the chief of the national student union and a key figure in last summer’s social justice protest movement, for a meeting. Shmuli is one of the few protest leaders who maintained a statesmanlike, diplomatic pose throughout the summer. The others, like Daphni Leef, Stav Shaffir, and Ofer Eini, managed to find time to get their hands dirty by engaging in gutter politics.
Mofaz wanted Shmuli to back him. After all, the Kadima chair has already stated that he intends to head next summer’s social protest. Shmuli would certainly boost Mofaz, perhaps even by joining Kadima. This was not the first encounter between the two men. Six months ago, they met. This was at a time when Mofaz was hopeful that Livni would agree to an early date for primaries. A few weeks ago, Shmuli and Mofaz met again in the Knesset cafeteria. This was shortly before the Kadima primaries, and Mofaz already knew that victory was assured. This week, after his win was made official, they met again.
Shmuli listened intently to Mofaz. He nodded in agreement, and he interjected when he saw fit. Ultimately, however, he decided that all parties would go off in their own directions. While both men agreed to cooperate on matters related to the division of resources for this summer’s protests, there was no agreement on any political cooperation, at least not at this stage. As things stand now, it’s unclear who wields more clout, Kadima or Itzik Shmuli, said a confidant of the student union chief. So why rush into a decision now?
The disappointed Mofaz could at least take solace in one thing – Shmuli came away from the meeting highly impressed. Unlike his predecessor, Mofaz knows how to reach people. He radiates credibility and determination. The public may view him as a flip-flopper, but in private meetings he is highly persuasive and convincing. Shmuli and many others can attest to this.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=3927
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