The political right is jumping on several bandwagons lately and is doing itself and the country a disservice.
1. Demonstrations demanding government action on behalf of the hostages -- may they return home speedily and in good health -- only encourage the government to act hysterically on their behalf. Bad idea.
2. Dredging up dirt on Olmert will only render him a hostage of the legal establishment. Been there, done that, haven't been happy with the results. This approach is only worthwhile if you've got something so egregious that you are certain to bring him down quickly. (Note, though, that when the legal eagles at the Justice Ministry need to work quickly, they can. They needed Haim Ramon out of the way quickly to ensure that Beinish would be named President of the Supreme Court and -- poof -- as fast as you can say Yaakov Ne'eman, he's gone.)
3. A state commission of inquiry is a bad idea for several reasons. First, it cedes power from elected officials (corrupt and incompetent they may be) to the usual dubious powerbrokers who get carte blanche to try anyone whose face they don't like without anything resembling due process. I don't like it when supreme court justices run the country from the bench and I like it no more when they do it in the name of some commission. Second, I want to see the voters throw these bums out of office and a state commission actually delays the process of bringing down the government. ("Let's wait and see what the commission decides...") Third, the fundamental problems that led to the need for the war and the failures in executing it are conceptual and no commission will go there. A commission's most likely result will be to discourage future governments from fighting necessary wars.
What we should be doing is persuading the defectors in Kadimah that they have a more promising political future with the Likud than with soon-to-be-defunct Kadimah. Once some big shots defect back to Likud (defecting is the one thing they're good at, after all), the whole house of cards will come tumbling down. (Needless to say, we also need to do everything possible to make sure Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu don't bail this government out.)
And you have my solemn word that if any Kadimah people come up for re-election within the Likud, they'll be out on their behinds.
posted by Ben at 8:27 PM
10 Comments:
Scuttlebut has it that 'sources close to Beinish' leaked the dirt on Ramon to get rid of him...
Geneek shoin with politics for smart people....When will we get the next installment of "The making of an American Godol" ...... It was a pleasure to make your aquaintance at an American style Mitzva Tantz in Monsey
I knew the Godol personally as a kid. The later installments require research...
A pleasure to meet you too.
The current government is the best government for the right-wing. A weak, discredited leftist government with no popular support. And with no big name "big daddy" bitchonistim at all. No one to "assure" the populace and no "war heroes" for the mamlachtiim to prostrate themselves before. And where the corruption is open and exposed for all to see.
Yes, this government should stick around a bit, deal with this commission or another while it plods along and throw a few bones to the settlers every so often. very very good. Probably the best situation the folks at MY (who elected Olmert in the first place) could have envisioned for their "long-term plan" (acc. to recent correspondence they are 6 years into the 15 year plan to elect MF as King - sic).
It can also give religious zionism the breathing space and time needed to do its own bedek habayit - something that is seriously overdue
BB,
That thought has crossed my mind many times. But in the final analysis, the threats to our survival are too great to afford us such "luxuries".
Geneek shoin with your uberchochom politics for smart people in which you think you think you have the algorithms to predict outcomes 4 moves ahead
First of all, I like that Yiddish; it gives a nice flavor.
2 - if you know that the ex-Kadimaites won't get reelected in the Likud, then they know it too. So why should we waste our time waiting for them to run back?
3 - you want these bums to be voted out of office. But they're all like those Nachum-Takums (sand-bottomed punching bags that pop right back up all the time) and they end up joining a coalition in one form or another. Do you really foresee a govt that is not composed of some permutation of Kadima-Netanyahu/Shalom-Peres/BenEliezer/Pines??
The era of true party political activity in Israel in which the local activist can get involved and hope to influence policy is FINISHED. The post-Zionist oligarchy who controls Israel simply will not allow a true "national camp" (right-wing) government including the secular right, the religious Zionists and the Haredim. There was such a gov't under Netanyahu from 1996-1999 and this period was the quietest from a security viewpoint since the cursed Oslo agreements. YET, this gov't was easily knocked out in the 1999 elections simply by accusing the Likud of "selling out to the Haredim". Since then the Haredim, and later the National Religious camp have become pariahs (SHAS's membership in the current coalition is for appearance's sakes only, they have no influence and Olmert has kept United Torah Judaism out on purpose to hold in reserve in case SHAS causes trouble). Look how the judicial/police/media gangster clique are crucifying people like Ramon and Katsav, people who have for years carried out their masters' bidding, and yet when Ramon oppposes Beinish or Katsav expresses mild criticism of the Gush Katif pogrom, they destroy them. Recall how Atty General Ben-Yair opened FIVE (IIRC) criminal investigations of potential Cabinet Minister in 1996 when Netanyahu was elected (all were acquitted in the end, but that doesn't matter-it is the harrassment that counts).
Thus, no such gov't today could ever function.
In any event, the Likud leadership are a bunch of despicable scum who repeatedly betrayed their voters and party membership on Gush Katif, unfair cutbacks in support for the weaker elements in society, etc. Netanyahu, Shalom, Livnat and most of the others supported Sharon's gangster tactics in destroying Gush Katif, SHABAK provocations and the such. They are post-Zionists no less than Kadima, Labor and MERETZ people.
Sarah Honig in the Jerusalem Post wrote a couple of weeks ago what the post-Zionists oligarchs would have done if the Right was in power during this war....endless demonstrations calling the gov't murderers.
So, the bottom line is that Ben Bayit is right, the current gov't is the least bad choice for those of us who still care about Eretz Israel and Am Israel. Until we get our act together and break out of this "Mamlachti" mindset that claims this filthy post-Zionist/Hellenistic oligarchy that has taken power in Israel is "holy",
nothing is going to change.
I would like to add that the investigations against Katsav and Ramon actually proves that they are HONEST men. In the judicial/police/media onslaughts, where they say "get something on him!", it would be easier to prove financial improprieties, since money leaves a paper trail, than to use "sex scandals" which boil down to one person's word against another. Money was used to bring down Rabin in 1977 (the illegal bank account which allowed Peres to oust Rabin as head of the Labor party) and Weizman in 2000 (Peres wanted to be President so they "discovered" the bribes Weizman receieved from France in order to oust him.) Obviously, the intensive investigations that have no doubt been carried out against them (and all other politicians, for that matter in order to collect ammunition for possible use against them for future use-e.g. Shinui's Paritzky hiring a private detective to get dirt on party colleague Poraz) couldn't turn up any financial shenanigans.
BK,
Your point about Ramon and Katsav is interesting.
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