Israeli crisis deepens

[IndianaGreen]

Israeli crisis deepens

18 March 2009

In his bid to form a coalition government, Benyamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud Party, has signed an agreement with the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party that will give it five cabinet posts. Party leader Avigdor Lieberman is to become Israel's foreign secretary.

<snip>

Nevertheless, the naming of such a provocateur and warmonger as a potential foreign secretary signifies a further stage in the political and social degeneration of Zionism. His rise to prominence represents the culmination of a lurch to the right along the entire spectrum of official Israeli politics.

The bedrock of Lieberman's support is Israel's 1.25 million Russian Jews and he started his political life as a young man in Rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach party, which was banned in the 1980s for its violence and racism. But his subsequent career has been at the centre of official political life. He served as secretary of the Jerusalem branch of the Histadrut trade union federation, before moving on to Likud, acting as its director-general from 1993 to 1996 and head of the office of then Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu for a year afterwards.

He founded and became head of Yisrael Beiteinu in 1999, a party that initially represented secular Jews from Russia before attracting a wider constituency, and entered the Knesset in 1999. He served in Ariel Sharon's governments until he was sacked in 2004 for opposing Sharon's withdrawal of the Jewish settlements from Gaza. He then joined Ehud Olmert's Kadima government as one of several deputy prime ministers and Minister of Strategic Affairs in October 2006, but resigned in January 2008 after refusing to support peace talks with the Palestinians under the US-backed Annapolis process. His party won 15 seats in the recent elections, pushing Labour, the party which founded the state of Israel, into fourth place.

Lieberman's hard-line stance against the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs is, moreover, not the aberration which Israel's apologists claim. In reality he could only be considered for the post of foreign secretary because of the degree to which his policies have become mainstream within Israel's ruling circles.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pers-m18.shtml

One significant difference between Bibi and Lieberman is that Lieberman believes in a 2-state solution, unlike Bibi. Of course, Lieberman's Palestinian state will include the Israeli Arabs ethnically cleansed from Israel.

This will not end well...

x(

[villager]

1. No, it apparently won't. One can only hope for this current government to collapse

...before they can do too much harm...

[LeftishBrit]

2. I agree; I hope they only last a few months

Actually I hope they only last a few seconds...

[Bragi]

3. It may end well after all

Israel's new government is the government that that Israelis currently deserve. Their new extreme leadership will further diminish Israel's reputation abroad, which may lead to some change in the increasingly harsh attitudes of Israelis towards the Palestinians, and may force Israel to get serious about a workable peace initiative.

For me, that would be a good ending. There aren't any other or better game-changing possibilities I can see within sight, so I hope this development, however perversely it unfolds, ends up being a positive.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Unfortunately, the Israeli Right is mostly xenophobic-isolationist in nature

and therefore criticism and hostility from overseas will just make them dig their heels in even more.

"the government that that Israelis currently deserve"

Including the 20% who are Arabs?

In any case, I don't think the Israelis as a whole deserve Lieberman as Foreign Secretary; they mostly didn't vote for him! Their electoral system stinks even worse than ours, and that's difficult to achieve.

A good ending would be breakup of the coalition, new elections, and a reform of the electoral system to give less power to the small parties. Should have happened yesterday - or a few decades ago.

[Fozzledick]

4. ANALYSIS / Bibi and Barak are a perfect political match

By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent

There's scarcely a more natural political pair than Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, beyond their taste for cigars, tycoons and luxury. They both served in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, where Ehud was Bibi's commander. There was Hanan Crystal's 1986 prediction in Hadashot that UN ambassador Netanyahu and Central Command CO Barak would be the future Likud and Labor leaders. They were both prime ministers who were voted out of power, and have been striving to return ever since.

The prime minister-designate and his defense minister candidate share not only a past, but a future. They have been given the opportunity to return to the state's leadership with Bibi as commander and Ehud as his No. 2.

They have similar approaches to state affairs. Both consider Israel a fortified Western island in the heart of an Arab-Muslim ocean. Both both believe there is nobody to talk to and nothing to discuss on the Palestinian side, and neither believe a final status arrangement is near, if at all possible. Both saw Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni's Annapolis process as a waste of time.They can both accept the Arab initiative, with reservations, as a basis for talks with the neighboring states, and probably would prefer to start with Syria.

Netanyahu, who had strained relations with the IDF in his previous term, would be happy to see Barak in charge of the general staff. Both are not enthusiastic about big military operations, and prefer covert moves. Barak will help Netanyahu moderate calls for harsh military action after terror attacks, and protect him from right-wing pressure to speed up settlement construction in the West Bank.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072506.html

Oh noes!! This may just work out well after all! Might even make things better! Wouldn't you just HATE that? :scared:

[geek tragedy]

5. How would a sell-out like Barak joining with Bibi be a positive?

Unless you think Labor should just go ahead and dissolve itself?

[LeftishBrit]

6. He could go to Dear Tony for advice on such matters.