Zionist Conspiracy

The Israeli Left has a new poster boy - it is the failed and dirty
politician Amram Mitzna. Suddenly the Left cannot control its
adoration of Mitzna. The Israeli media, the occupied territories of
the Left, are also unable to control their glee.

Mitzna is capitalizing on teh fact that he has been largely out of
the spolight for a few years. He had been the head of the Labor Party
and got creamed in the elections of 2003 by the Likud under Sharon.
It was at the time teh worst showing ever for the Labor bolsheviks.
After sitting on a back bench for a while in the Knesset, Mitzna
resigned as party chair in a huff.

Now that most of the Left is disillusioned with Ehud Barak as
current Labor Commissar, Mitzna decided it is time for him to attempt
a Nixonian comeback. He is posturing to teh Far Left, to try to knock
out Barak from that side, and ran to pay homage this week to Abu Mazen
in Ramallah, leaving little doubt as to whose interests he would serve
if he were ever to be Prime Minister.

The following piece of mine appeared in AUgust 2002. It is still
relevant and accurate:
:
Israel's Most Dangerous Politician [the slick Clinton-in-a-beard
far-leftist mayor of Haifa]
OurJerusalem.com | August 19, 2002 | Steven Plaut

08/19/2002

Israel's Most Dangerous Politician

by Steven Plaut
Arutz Sheva August 18, 2002

The world's media is suddenly all ecstatic at the fact that
Generalissimo Amram Mitzna has decided to toss his kafiya into the
race for Labor Party chief. Because Mitzna is to the left of the
current party chief, 'Fuad' Ben-Eliezer, and indeed is to the left of
Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, the Jewish anti-survivalist Left is
celebrating, and the world's anti-Jewish media has discovered a new
great messiah of hope and peace. If Mitzna takes the Labor chiefdom
and then gets elected prime minister, or so the media think, he will
lead Israel down the Oslo path to its dénouement of complete surrender
and national suicide.

Mitzna is just the latest in an endless series of retired generals
from the Israeli military (generals retire in their 40s usually) who
then enter politics, almost always through the Labor Party. Most of
these emerge as ultra-doves and similar lefties. The worst of these
took over leadership in the Labor Party and led the country into its
current lake of blood. Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak were arguably the
two worst prime ministers the country ever had. They were both
ex-generals who led the country to the brink of self-destruction. Many
other leftist ex-generals occupied numerous other power positions in
Labor.

Which brings us back to Mitzna. Amram Mitzna is the slick
Clinton-in-a-beard far-leftist mayor of Haifa. He is soft-spoken and
eloquent and may be the dirtiest politician in the country, king of
the dirty deals with Israeli oligarchs.

Mitzna had been the general in charge of the central command during
the 'First Intifada' of the late 1980s, when most of the violence was
in his turf. He dealt with it by introducing the New Strategy of
defeating Palestinian savagery by understanding it and showing his
good will and empathy for the rioters. When he left the army, he
parachuted into Haifa, where he had never been a resident, a city that
has yet to have its first non-Labor Party mayor (no longer true --
SP), and ran for mayor. As mayor of Haifa, Mitzna spent a great deal
of time courting the Far Left and letting everyone know he would be
willing to take the country to new depths of leftist Oslo
self-debasement and self-destruction. He is in favor of holding
appeasement talks with the PLO even while the PLO mass-murders Jews.
He supports concessions to the PLO even beyond those Yossi Beilin
would offer. His strategy is to challenge the other Labor leaders from
the Left and garner Arab support for his candidacy. In other words, he
is more Ehud Barak than Ehud Barak himself. As mayor, he repeatedly
courted and spoke before the Arab communist party Hadash.

Despite his cultivated speech and smooth manner, Mitzna is a corrupt
Tammany Hall politician who runs Haifa like a petit Indonesian
gangster or Third World crony gang leader. His strategy has been to
build up a power base at the expense of Haifa residents by striking
corrupt dirty deals with large contractors and builders having Party
connections. In a typical Mitzna deal, a contractor is granted special
zoning variances that allow him to build a 40 story tower on a plot of
land zoned for 3 stories and to pocket $40 million in undeserved
profit, or to construct a shopping mall on land that belongs to the
public or is supposed to be a park. In gratitude, the contractor than
quids Mitzna's quo, including funding his political career. One
contractor made so much money on the mall Mitzna allowed him to build
illegally that he could put in a bid for acquiring the Israeli
national telecom company. Mitzna has sought to turn Haifa into a Hong
Kong of 50 story monsters all to benefit his crony friends. 'Hizzonah'
Mitzna used Haifa as a base to build up a war chest and a power base,
waiting his chance to challenge the Labor Party machine and take over
the party leadership. His chance came when Ehud Barak crashed and
self-imploded.

It is not clear whether Mitzna actually believes in anything other
than getting himself elected. It is not clear whether Israel would
survive a period of Mitzna reign over the country.