In recent months, Bibi Netanyahu has amassed a popular support movement within Israel and within the Likud Party. He is making no secret of his intention to challenge Sharon for party mogul at the first opportunity. Indeed, it was only by accident that Sharon nudged out Netanyahu in the first place. Netanyahu had sworn publicly that he would not run again for Prime Minister against Barak UNLESS the elections for PM were accompanied by general Knesset elections. Barak thought he could pull a fast one and trick the Likud. He announced elections for PM only, knowing Netanyahu would be obliged to keep his public oath and drop out, thinking that Sharon would be easier to beat. Barak believed the Haaretz and media claims that everyone in Israel hated Sharon because of the Lebanon War of 1982. Instead, Sharon won the election by a landslide.

Netanyahu and his people never made their peace with Sharon leading the Likud. Since Sharon took office, they have tried posturing to the hawkish side of Sharon, hoping to take the party Right and the country’s hawks in a future challenge to Sharon. Bibi has his own web site at www.netanyahu.org. In particular, he is trying to paint Sharon as too moderate and soft on the idea of a Palestinian state, hinting that he Netanyahu would stand tougher.

Now before commenting on this, let me assure you that I am not a great fan of Sharon. I too think he is old and tired and too defeatist and cowardly. I am alarmed that he is unwilling to stand up to Bush and Powell. I am aghast that he speaks about a PLO state. Despite his recent "war" against terror, his actions were in fact nothing more than a mere week-long raid. They did nothing to stop the terror, as last night’s events proved.

Having noted this, let me emphasize that Netanyahu’s campaign is a false hope and a delusion. Netanyahu does not represent a tougher, more thoughtful, more doctrinaire alternative to Sharon. He is a Shabbatai Zvi.

Actually Netanyahu does not represent anything. He does not believe in anything. He does not have any agenda. Besides trying to get elected, of course.

The falseness of the Netanyahu promises and agenda should be apparent to anyone contemplating Netanyahu’s term as Prime Minister. That term may be summed up as follows:

1. Netanyahu was elected as a one-issue candidate by the electorate because they believed he would end Oslo. Instead Netanyahu behaved throughout his entire administration as a Me-Too Shimon Peres. He not only continued Oslo but he elevated it to an unchallengeable "consensus" position within Israel, despite nonstop PLO terror.

2. Netanyahu handed Arafat Hebron and went to Wye, agreeing on repeated Israeli "withdrawals" in spite of nonstop PLO terror and Arafat’s violation of every PLO obligation under Oslo.

3. Netanyahu failed to respond when the PLO opened fire on Jews with the weapons Peres and Rabin had given them. In the "Tunnel Affair", Netanyahu behaved as a pusillanimous failure, in effect as a role model for Ehud Barak.

4. Like Peres, Netanyahu continued to parley with Arafat in spite of the lakes of blood on Arafat’s hands, and in spite of the fact that Arafat was wearing military fatigues at the meetings. He gladhanded about and glibly male bonded with Arafat while Arafat murdered Jews.

5. Netanyahu maintained "controlled carnage" agreements with the Hizbollah throughout his administration and never took serious action against Syria and its Hizbollah puppet as Israel was regularly shelled from Lebanon.

6. Netanyahu refused to condition concessions to the PLO on the PLO complying with Oslo. Thus he eternalized the Peres syndrome whereby Israel makes "peace" with the Palestinians while the PLO makes war with Israel.

7. Netanyahu did nothing to challenge the hegemony of the Far Left over Israel’s media, including the state-owned TV and radio stations.

8. Netanyahu ran on a platform of free markets and reform, yet did nothing to free markets and made virtually no economic reforms.

9. Netanyahu voted for and supported the atrocities of nationalized medical insurance and the astronomically expensive bailout of the Histadrut’s mismanaged pension funds. He continued to subsidize Labor Party institutions like the kibbutzim and Histadrut.

10. Netanyahu failed to retaliate whenever Jews were murdered.

11. Netanyahu continued the assault against "incitement" and against free speech of anti-Oslo dissidents, and preserved the dual judicial system, in which one set of rules operate for lefties and another for everyone else. He jailed anti-Oslo people for "incitement", while never prosecuting a single Arab calling for genocide.

In short, Netanyahu’s pledge and word are worthless. All his "hawkish" talk is irrelevant. Were he to take office, he would grant Arafat everything Peres would, and would march to the ceremony declaring Palestinian statehood draped in a PLO flag.

Sorry, but Netanyahu is no solution at all.

In other news: WSJ.com - Semantics of Murder