Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumThe Bibi-Lieberman Deal: A Wake-Up Call To The World About Israel
Published October 25, 2012
By unifying himself and the countrys ruling party with an internationally despised neo-fascist, Netanyahu has brought Israel a sizable step closer to the limits of Western tolerance. Ultimately, thats good news.
The only way Israel is ever going to give up the occupation and its habit of military aggression is by going too far by becoming such a Goliath that the Western world finally tells it to clean up its act or find some new allies. Tonights union between Bibi Netanyahus Likud and Avigdor Liebermans Yisrael Beiteinu into one big Likud Beiteinu Likud Is Our Home marks a sizable step in that direction.
Netanyahu hurt himself. I dont know whether the new party will win more Knesset seats in the January 22 election than Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu could have won separately, but Netanyahu has dirtied himself in the eyes of the world, including even a lot of his mainstream Jewish supporters in the United States. Avigdor Lieberman has a thoroughly deserved international reputation as an Arab-hating, war-loving neo-fascist (this last label having been pinned on him even by Martin Peretz, the stridently pro-Israel ex-publisher of The New Republic.)
Foreign Minister Lieberman calls for expelling, by means of a land swap, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens simply for being Arab. He ran an election campaign highlighted by the slogan, Only Lieberman understands Arabic. He was a member of Kach in the late 1970s, which he understandably denies but which Kach veterans from that era swear to. Hes fantasized aloud in the Knesset about executing Arab MKs and threatened to bomb Egypts Aswan Dam. Plus, of course, hes been under Israel Police investigation for corruption for nearly 15 years, and could face indictment pretty soon.
MORE...
http://972mag.com/the-lieberman-deal-a-wake-up-call-to-the-world-about-israel/58501/
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)this OP will not go over well here.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)azurnoir
(45,850 posts)so far the Right holds an edge with the new Likud/Yisrael Beiteinu coalition holding the largest percentage of votes the rightist block is holding an approximate 55%, Kadima only holds around 3%
here is the tracker and it updates daily
http://972mag.com/polls/
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And is there any hope of getting Lapid to do the sane thing and formally align Yesh Atid with Labor? It's not as if he disagrees with that party on any major issues...other than his apparent insistence on being the leader.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)and I don't know if combining Labor with Lapid's party would do much good
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Shas will have the balance of power and has usually been pragmatic about who it joins with in a government. If Shas doesn't back the new Likud/Beitenyu mutant party part, that party probably WON'T be able to form a government.