Israeli Media's Vilification of NetanyahuAfter years of vilifying Binyamin Netanyahu for everything from the failure of Oslo to Israel's social problems, some in the Israeli media are now admitting that, well, Bibi was really quite effective.
After a long feature appeared in Haaretz earlier this month that portrayed Netanyahu positively, the current issue of The Jerusalem Report includes a pro-Netanyahu column from none other than Shlomo Maital.
As Maital states, "I have been severely critical of Bibinomics because it aggravated poverty. But in fairness, it is time to praise Bibi."
Not only does Maital praise Netanyahu, he praises him in such an effusive manner as to completely undermine the credibility of his past scathing criticism.
Maital credits Netanyahu for privatizing government-owned entities, for slashing government spending, and cutting the budget deficit in half. He notes that Israel's GDP in 2005 had growth of 5.2 percent, tops in the Western world. Maital credits Netanyahu for the creation of 200,000 new jobs and a sharp drop in unemployment.
But what about Maital's past criticism of Bibinomics because it aggravated poverty? Now, Maital has come to the conclusion that "No pain, no gain" and that "sometimes short-term pain is needed - structural reforms that always hurt some groups - to achieve long-term competitiveness and gain for all."
In light of Netanyahu's political fall, Maital worryingly asks, "what Israeli politician will ever again have the guts to implement tough, painful measures that Israel's economy needs?"
In light of his newfound conviction that Netanyahu's economic policies were right after all, Maital's past attacks on those same policies should be seen for what they are: Nothing more than personally and politically motivated vitriol that had nothing to do with economics.
posted on 4/23/2006
