Beilin the oxymoron

Four years ago Thomas Friedman described outgoing Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin as a fanatical moderate:

What I have always admired about Mr. Beilin is that he is a fanatical moderate — as committed to his moderation as the extremists are to their extremism. In a Middle East where extremists tend to go all the way and moderates tend just to go away, the example that he and his Palestinian partners are setting is critical. It shows that civil society in Israel and the West Bank is still alive and refuses to give in to pessimism. But they need, and deserve, courage and help from America now too.

The subject at hand was the Geneva Accord. It was about Beilin, then out of government, freelancing in diplomacy in order to undermine the political standing of the elected government of Israel.

Now Dr. Beilin is moving on a again. He’s leaving the Meretz party and Ha’aretz has pulled out a new oxymoron.

There is probably no one else in Israeli politics like Yossi Beilin – a brave weakling, a leader who never swayed the enthusiastic masses, and yet who still managed to carry away the center of the political map and get it to adopt his political path.

Although Ha’aretz meant that last part in a complimentary fashion, I see it as his condemnation. Who remembers 14 years ago? In 1993 Beilin was way ahead of the curve. He was pushing for a two state solution when even PM Rabin wasn’t. Who would have believed then that what was extreme leftism would become mainstream centrism of 2007?

Beilin has accomplished a lot. But instead of going to the people he’s worked behind the scenes to bring his ideas to fruition. He was almost certainly in contact with the then outlawed PLO in 1992 in a successful attempt to bring down the Shamir government and bring Labor to power. That assured that the Oslo Accords would come to be.

He was in Baltimore in 1996 speaking at Baltimore Hebrew University. Despite his controversial nature, the hosts made sure that he would only take pre-screened questions. (Given that the man is known as an intellectual, it was astonishing that he was too intellectually timid to take unscreened questions from the crowd.) When someone spoke out of turn and asked about Palestinian violations of Oslo he minimized them and emphasized Israeli “violations.” The Palestinian violations, though, went to the heart of the agreement. The Israeli ones were, at worst, procedural. (But even then he wasn’t as extreme as his hosts who were members of APN.)

The Geneva Accord was a somewhat less successful attempt to subvert the government of Israel. But it still put the Sharon government on the diplomatic defensive. Never mind that Beilin couldn’t scrounge up enough votes to stay in power.

Instead of making his case to Israelis. He made it to Europe, to the media, to the diplomatic corps and most damaging of all to the Palestinians.

Yossi Beilin is a very smart man. And he’s accomplished a lot. But he’s done it by evading the rules that govern individuals. He considers himself and his causes to be above the law. He has caused incalculable harm to Israel’s security and image in doing so. But that has never stopped him. Nor has he been stopped by his lack of popularity.

So if you need an oxymoron to describe Yossi Beilin how about an “anti-democratic democrat.” Democracy to Beilin is nicety that need not be observed by those who, like him, know better.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.