Is Netanyahu free to form whatever government he wants.
By Ted Belman
Israelis voted 65 mandates for the Right Block and 44 mandates for he Left Bloc excluding the Arab parties. Netanyahu has been asked to form a government. Is he entitled to ignore the voter’s desire for a government on the right as opposed to a centrist government otherwise known as a unity government?
Feiglin thinks not. He calls a Unity Government a “bullet to democracy’s head”
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Likud dark-horse Moshe Feiglin on Sunday slammed party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu’s calls to Kadima and the Labor Party to join him in a unity government, describing the move as fatal to the democratic process. “It is perfectly clear to me that what Netanyahu is most afraid of is actually fulfilling the voters’ choice for a right-wing government,” said Feiglin, whose Jewish Leadership Movement was maneuvered off the party’s Knesset roster.
“This is a grave matter. I find that the entire concept of a unity government to be equivalent to a bullet to democracy’s head.” He said that such a process circumvented the popular will: “We have never seen a unity government in the United States and the only time the United Kingdom had one was during World War II. A unity government is like a business cartel, and in the business world, you go to jail for that.”
“For some reason, cartels are allowed in the world of ideologies and they call them ‘unity.’ The big parties join forces and render the market forces null and void. The fact the people are willing to sterilize democracy is very grave.” He noted that something comparable would have been unthinkable if Kadima had the ability to form a left-of-center bloc: “I keep asking myself, what would have happened if (Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi) Livni would have been able to generate a 65-mandate majority. Would she be courting Netanyahu?”
“The Right has a problem: On one hand – it has an absolute majority, but on the other hand, its ruling party doesn’t want to be synonymous with the Right. These elections have seen the Right win and the Likud lose. This way,” he added, “even if Netanyahu is able to have Livni join his government, it would be a short-lived one and it would mean dispensing with the rightist parties, which currently give him the basis to negotiate with Kadima. This entire thing is very flimsy.”
On the other hand, Netanyahu was tasked with forming the government and not the Right Block. But still Israelis voted for certain policies and Netanyahu would be betraying not only their desire but also the endorsement they gave him to get Peres’ nod.
Loyal Likudniks have been waiting 8 years to be rewarded for their loyalty and efforts, they expect to be rewarded for that loyalty by choice ministries. With Kadima entering as an almost equal partner with Likud, that would mean denying likud power centers from reaching the influential positions that otherwise would be theirs. BB could maybe get away from such a ploy if he already didn’t have a numerical majority but since apparently he has, bringing in Kadima will only serve to set those pushed out, in opposition to BB. Then about half of likud members might be considered ideological opponents to what Kadima advocates, what happened to Sharon can happen again. Adding kadima to the mix means at least 2-3 parties supporting BB will be out. They will join internal Likudniks in trying to bring BB down. This might be impossible if kadima and Likud coalition sticks. Lieberman then would be a loose Cannon, as he might again pay attention to the polls and his core constituency and eventually bolt as he did with Olmert. Besides the rape of democracy by coalition with the Left ( Kadima is the new Israeli Left), BB would then be a prisoner of his major partners as once the right wing parties are excluded BB will never again be their candidate of choice and would refuse to make up for any losses in the coalition of Likud, Kadima and Israel Beitainu.
If BB opts for wide coalition the likud would cease to exist in anything but name and would be a clone of kadima, not the other way around.
Why is anybody surprised over this? BB betrayed his core voters before, Why not again? Begin, Shamir and Sharon betrayed their core voters. Rabin betrayed his voters. Barak betrayed everyone even himself. This is called politics; survival is the game and by that I don’t mean Israels.
In other societies the losers go home and do something else here the losers come back and back and back!!! We are a stiff necked people others might say a stupid people!!!
Yamit, Bibi implemented Oslo and the policies of the Israeli Left more efficiently than Labor did last time around as Prime Minister. He gave away 80% of Hebron – which not even Shimon Peres had dared to do – to Yasser Arafat and he gave away a third of Judea and Samaria at Wye. For all his efforts to please the Left and by extension the Clinton Administration, he got booted from office in the biggest landslide defeat an Israeli Prime Minister ever experienced. Bibi thinks the reason he lost the last election is that he wasn’t servile enough to the Left and the Americans. The truth is the exact opposite – he betrayed his voters and deserved to get booted and as far as Israeli voters saw at the time, if given a choice between two Oslo parties advocating national suicide – they preferred the real classic Cola… Labor. Bibi thinks being even more servile to the Left and the Americans now will help him keep power. In truth, he will be out of office in less than a year as the Americans undermine first at every turn and then dispatch political strategists in the next election to help his opponents. A national unity government than would not be a statement of strength but rather an admission of weakness. Israeli voters voted for a certain political path and they expect the government to stick to it.
I do like the fact that Bill Clinton had a tough time negotiating with him during the 1990s and provided that Netanyahu doesn’t pull off that same bull puckey he did in the 1990s and follows through with all of his Fox News speeches, and doesn’t betray and hurt Israel with bad policies, he will have my support, BUT, so far, by kissing Obama’s hand after Obama pledged $900 million to rebuild Hamas Gaza, I’m having a tough time getting a good starting opinion of him.
My FAITHFUL friend is correct – Israel needs a NEW GOVERNMENT PLAN that rids Israel of INTERNATIONALISTS and goes extreme RIGHT! Orthodox Jews have my support in wanting to build the Third Temple and pray on the Temple Mount and until the world accepts this action, there can be no world peace.