16 thoughts on “Israeli Election and Fallacy of a Liberal Victory – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Nigeria’s Igbo Jews: ‘Lost tribe’ of Israel?

    Bribing Goodluck Jonathan delivered the crucial 5th abstention at the UNSC for Kerry and Netanyahu. Why didn’t Abbas wat a few days for this vote as the countries that form the Security Council will be changed – friends of Israel Australia and Rwanda will be replaced with Venezuela and Malaysia!

    1. @ Oui: Perhaps he wanted to justify joining the ICC, as he did today. By the time he applies again for statehood in the UNSC, he’ll have the extra cudgel of being able to file war crimes charges if the Council rejects statehood (again).

  2. It is entirely unclear to me why people insist that Kulanu (Kahlon) and Yesh Atid (Lapid) can be counted to join a centre-left block.

    Kahlon comes from the Likud, and the righter bits thereof. Lapid and his lap-dogs have established a track record of voting right to far right and talking righter yet.

    Livni has gone on record that “Jerusalem shall remain united and ours” – that is hardly a left-leaning statement.

    Truth be told – there is precious little left in Israeli politics. Meretz is slightly left. That’s pretty much it in the Jewish circle. Hadash is left. All else is either right, religious or religious-right.

    M

  3. This opinion piece in Haaretz has fallen on deaf ears after the ‘military victories’ of Israel. Also, it was not prophetic at all.

    The year 5765 has been the year of the new Israeli majority.

    Looking back, it is clear now that it was the span of one day that shaped all of 5765. On October 26, 2004, in Jerusalem, a little after 8 P.M., the Knesset approved the disengagement plan by a majority of 67 to 45. Twenty-four hours later, in Ramallah, Yasser Arafat’s bodily systems collapsed. Had Arafat collapsed two days earlier, the results of the vote in the Knesset would have been different. Had he not collapsed at all, the results of disengagement process would have been entirely different. A coincidence that was seemingly produced by a hidden hand led to the fact that, at one and the same time, Israelis gathered their courage to try to remove the curse of the occupation and the Palestinians were freed from the sorcery of a destructive father of the nation.

  4. Final results are out and Feiglin is out. Does it mean Likud as not far out right as it was pictured by some? I’m waiting to hear how this fact is played down.

    1. Ariel – Feiglin may be out, but Danon, Regev, Levin, Elkin, Gamliel, Edelstein, Akunis. So – we are lucky not to have one of the rabid racists in, but what about the above select group. They certainly would be able to find an apt place in Carlin’s skit about balancing the budget.

    2. @ Ariel: You truly must be out of your mind not to realize how not just right wing, but extremist Regev & the rest of the Likud MK clowns are. Do you need us to list the outrageous racist statements of those who won seats in the primary??

  5. Erdan on top after dramatic day for Likud; Miri Regev upsets senior party figures

    One of the surprising results of the Likud primaries was MK Miri Regev exceeding expectations and catapulting to fourth place on the list – making her the leading female in the Likud. Regev, backed by retired minister Sa’ar, managed to place within the top five and make her mark as the most powerful woman in the Likud. Regev, who was placed on an election ‘hit list’, overcame stern opposition by relying on a strong ground game prepared ahead of the elections – despite public pressure from as high up as Prime Minister Netanyahu.

  6. In Israel there are Zionist Jews (some 99%) and some anti-Zionist Jews (some 1%). When it comes to the geography of the state of Israel, I cannot distinguish between one Zionist and another (they all want the Arabs out): Zipi Livni was born and grew up as a Revisionist (the old Herut party which eventually became Likud; to, somehow, label Livni as centre while running on the same ticket as Labour (left) takes quite a brain to grasp. No, Livni did not change, the Labour party is, still, that of Ben Gurion and none of them is capable or willing to concede anything to the Arabs.
    Right and Left are economic and, definitely, not political terms. The outcome of the March elections may affect the poverty level in Israel and will change nothing vis a vis the “peace process” – it will continue to be a piss process.

  7. “There is no conceivable way for a center-left coalition to win in the present system, which essentially disenfranchises Israeli Palestinians.”

    Richard, I’m curious as to your definition of “conceivable”. A swing of a few seats or so could make the difference and Channel 2’s poll’s margin of error is +/-4.5%. You’re so committed to your pessimist narrative that you managed to write off the last two major peace efforts. “They claim to support a deal with the Palestinians, but when they or their antecedents (Barak, Olmert) had power they never realized such deals. So there’s no reason to trust them now…” It wasn’t Barak and Olmert who reject those deals and you know that. Also how does the system “essentially disenfranchises Israeli Palestinians”?

    1. For a center left coalition to win there would hv to be a swing of 10 votes. The only way for this to happen is for Israeli Palestinians to increase their voting participation commensurate w Israeli Jewish participation, which won’t happen till the system offers them full equal rights. As for Olmert & Barak, they never offered a deal Palestinians could sell to their constituents. It was too little, too late.

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