Chemi Shalev Political Quotations

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Arafat are at cross-purposes here. Mr. Netanyahu wants to tell his people that he has achieved a better agreement, with much better safeguards for Israelis. But the more he brags about his own achievement, the less desirable this agreement becomes for Mr. Arafat. Unless the two sides can indeed make the political decision to reach an agreement despite their own internal political achievements, we won't have an agreement.

Psychologically, in the long term, this could have a very profound impact in the sense that Israelis are grieving for an Arab monarch or identifying with an Arab nation, something that's never happened before. I think, however, in the short term, if we judge it in political terms, it's not going to have much of an effect.

He has shocked the entire Israeli political community. But we have learned from his time as prime minister that many of his moves fall flat and he emerges as the loser.