RUTHFULLY YOURS

“I have never heard a [U.S.] president talk about fear of Israel’s survival because of its own policies,” bemoaned former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday. “Is it in our interest to get into a blatant confrontation with the strongest man in the world?”

Olmert has been campaigning for the Kadima party, headed by former defense minister Shaul Mofaz. He is among those members of the Left who call themselves the “Center,” and warn against re-electing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They assert that he is at fault for Israel’s growing “isolation” in the international arena in general, and for President Barack Obama’s negative attitude toward Israel in particular.

Another claim made by Netanyahu’s opponents — shockingly from former Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs — is that he is “obsessed” with the Iranian nuclear program, and has thus invested above and beyond the necessary resources to combat the “not-so-imminent” threat. These purveyors of gloom and doom about the likelihood of a Netanyahu victory on Jan. 22 have gone so far as to accuse the incumbent of instilling fear in the public about imaginary existential dangers emanating from Tehran.

Netanyahu is also blamed for the “stalemate” with the Palestinians. Indeed, Olmert said, “This government has, for the past four years, refused peace.”

And then there is the mud slung at Netanyahu’s running mate, recently resigned foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has just been indicted for breach of trust. Olmert has been careful about calling him names these days. After all, though Lieberman has been indicted on what appears to be a suspiciously timed, trumped-up charge, Olmert was actually convicted of the very same crime.

Watching their mouths is not the only way in which Olmert and his ilk should be keeping a low profile, if not bowing their heads in shame. It was, as it happens, Olmert’s massive “land-for-peace” offering that was not merely rejected by the Palestinian Authority, but ignored altogether by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. And Abbas is the so-called “moderate” with whom an Israeli government headed by someone other than Netanyahu could ostensibly make a deal.

Still, one has to take into account that the election for the next Knesset is taking place in four days. So it is only natural that all claws — across the Israeli political spectrum — are sharpened and drawn. In this respect alone, the candidates can be forgiven for tweaking the truth a bit to garner votes. As much as we’d like to think that those whom we support would never stoop to such shenanigans, it’s what politicians do.

The trouble with this standard pre-election procedure is that Israel can ill afford to indulge in it.

This is because it is not Netanyahu’s fault that Obama has driven a wedge between Washington and Jerusalem. It is not Netanyahu’s policies at the root of the American administration’s irritation with the Jewish state that is surrounded by and inclusive of hostile and heavily armed Islamist radicals bent on its destruction.

Nor is it to Olmert’s credit that he had the support of the White House when he was prime minister. That was due to his good fortune at having a pro-Israel George W. Bush occupying the Oval Office at the time.

Let’s face it: Israel’s enemies abroad — both in the West and in the Arab-Muslim world — are not against Netanyahu; he is merely the current excuse for their malice. Olmert gets his fare share of booing, hissing and anti-Semitic heckling every time he speaks at a campus. And Hatnuah Party head Tzipi Livni, who served as foreign minister in Olmert’s cabinet, was unable to step foot in England for a long while, after being accused of war crimes by British activists.

Nor is she the only “peace camp” Israeli who has been boycotted beyond Israel’s borders. Many left-wing Israeli academics are not welcome at European universities. Even the Israeli lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community — most of which sides with the opponents of any and all Israeli governments to date — has been shunned by certain foreign Gay Pride parades.

It is the Israeli electorate’s realization of this sorry situation that is leading to an almost-certain Netanyahu victory on Tuesday. It is also behind the meteoric rise of young Modern Orthodox candidate Naftali Bennett, to Netanyahu’s right.

His reputation to the contrary, Netanyahu is actually a centrist, and more of one than some of us conservatives would like. What he most certainly is not, however, is the culprit behind any anti-Israel sentiment out there. He is simply the scapegoat for it.

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”