Comments on: Labor Leadership Votes to Join Likud-Led Coalition

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:00:06 +0000

I had no idea that Shas would prove so extortionate in its demands that she would refuse to accede to them & go to elections. If not for that she WOULD have become PM. I’m proud of what she did in standing on principle which she’s done twice in also refusing to becoming a handmaiden to a Likudist right wing government.

And I’ll match my predictive abilities against yours any day. I predicted that Iraq would be a disaster & opposed it. I predicted Lebanon 2006 would be a disaster & opposed it. I predicted Obama would win well before he was ahead in the polls. I predicted Gaza would be a disaster & solve nothing & guess who was right?

I’m holding you to yr bogus 3 1/2 yr prediction. The government falls in a year or less.

By: amir

amir — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:40:08 +0000

And this was the tilte of your post on Sept 17, 2008: “Livni Squeaks to Leadership Victory, Becomes Next Prime Minister”
Whoops, I guess you jumped the gun there Richard. And this is the last sentence of the same post: “She will become only the second female prime minister in the nation’s history after Golda Meir.” Well, that might be true, but we will have to wait at least three and a half years to see. Would you like your hat with mustard or ketchup.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:37:08 +0000

I never said anything about McCain

Didn’t say you did. That little piece of right wing prognostication came via Bar Kochba. I’m still waiting for him to eat his hat considering how wrong he was.

The coalition, as I said, may reshuffle, but it will survive more or less for at least three and a half years.

If I was a betting man I’d challenge you to a bet. You’re such an easy mark & will lose this one.

By: Assaf Oron

Assaf Oron — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:04:20 +0000

Barak is the chief person responsible – more than Bibi, more than Sharon, more than any Arab – for letting Israel-Palestine go to the dogs this decade.

Taking his word – that he’s selling out for the country’s sake at face value – is beyond laughable.

By: Assaf Oron

Assaf Oron — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:02:13 +0000

Sorry Richard, I’ll have to strike a middle path between you and Amir this time ;)

Make the 66 into 69. Mafdal (now called “the Jewish Home”) just signed a coalition deal. Add to that quite likely, the 5 seats of ultra-Orthodox Aguda. As to Labor rift, the hard-core rebels are 3-5: Yechimovich, Pines, Tamir and to a lesser extent Peretz and Kabel. The number actually leaving will probably be towards the lower end of this range. So Bibi will have 70+ seats (without counting future Kadima defectors), and roughly “one party to spare”.

The self-interest of spineless politicians will be the glue that holds this crap together. As has been true for most Israeli coalitions.

Still, this coalition is not likely to last two years. Israel’s general situation is too unstable for that. Israelis voted as if Bush is still in power, while the Middle East reality will be shaking loose from the terrible Bush model.

By: amir

amir — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:46:01 +0000

First of all, I never said anything about McCain, so that’s irrelevant. The coalition has 69 members (not 66 “Jewish Home” signed up) and if United Torah Judaism joins that’s 74 anf if National Union joins, that will be 78. In any case there are already 69 coalition members. The number of rebels have been reduced from 7 to 5 as Braverman and Ben-Simon have already announced they will abide by the Labor decision and vote for the government.Labor party members cannot vote no confidence in the government without disqualifying themselves from the next election unless they form a new party. The best they can do is abstain.
Second of all, a full term is 4 years and 10 months. I am not predicting a full term. The government always fall prematurely as parties try to distinguish themselves from each other before the next election. The coalition, as I said, may reshuffle, but it will survive more or less for at least three and a half years.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:03:22 +0000

people who don’t have the luxury to let the country go to the dogs.

Your entirely questionable assumption is that the new government won’t “let the country go to the dogs.” I believe just the opposite. Not only will it do so, but Labor’s participation in it rather than in opposition will send it further to the dogs than it otherwise would go.

to rebel would be anti-democratic.

Your claim that 680 central committee members constitute the Labor Party’s “voice of democracy” that the rebels should heed is also questionable & quaint.

By: Alex Stein

Alex Stein — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:58:04 +0000

Richard, you’re right about Barak. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s possibly achieved a good deal for people who live here, i.e. people who don’t have the luxury to let the country go to the dogs.

As for the Labour rebels, they won’t vote against the government (I think) because the Labour party voted in favour of joining the coalition, so to rebel would be anti-democratic.