The party lists

There has been a lot of political infighting going on in relation to the
formation of the Party lists, that determine who gets elected in the upcoming
elections.
In the Likud, the Central Committee of over 3,000 members chose the list Thurs
night, with Netanyahu at No. 1 spot as the elected party Leader. In order to
avoid further infighting he agreed to appoint FM Silvan Shalom No. 2 on the
Likud list. The rest of the list as chosen last night had some surprises. In
third place is Moshe Kahlon, a relative unknown who was previously Uzi
Landau's assistant (Uzi Landau, the leader of the former Likud right wing
rebels is down at no. 14). A group of young MKs is now near the top of the
Likud list, indicating that the system works for ensuring some turn-over of
representatives. But, some of the favored leaders of Likud are still there,
Dan Naveh (8), Yuval Steinitz (9), Natan Sharansky (10), Limor Livnat (13),
etc. In the polls Likud is currently expected to garner about 15 seats.
Before these results were known there was a political spat over Netanyahu's
"order" to the 4 Likud Ministers in the current Sharon/Olmert Government to
resign. His thinking was not unexpectedly that it is difficult for a party to
run in opposition to the ruling party (in this case Kadima) if it is in the
same Government with it. As a consequence he demanded a letter from each
of the four, Silvan Shalom (FM), Limor Livnat (Education), Shmuel Katz
(Agriculture) and Dan Naveh (Health), agreeing to resign immediately. During
the day Silvan Shalom made a very critical statement about Netanyahu's
interference and the loss of Ministerial positions that could help the Party,
but by the evening all was resolved, and with his no. 2 position assured,
Shalom resigned without further fight. Now Olmert will appoint 6 new
Ministers to his Cabinet for the next 7 weeks or so before the Government
term comes to an end.
Another political spat involving Netanyahu occurred because it was reported
that he had claimed to be the heir and successor to Sharon. Some members of
Likud attacked him for what they considered a scandalous claim. But, then it
turned out that Netanyahu actually hadn't claimed this himself but it had been
the interpretation of a journalist from New York who had interviewed him.
Meanwhile Olmert is laying claim to Sharon's mantle.
Another party that had internal elections Thurs night was Shinui (meaning
'change'), a centrist secular party. The results were so catastrophic for the
leadership of the Party that all of them have resigned. Shinui came from
nowhere and won 15 seats in the last Knesset, making it the third largest
party. But, as often happens in Israeli politics, it was a one-Knesset
phenomenon. The party has now practically devoured itself and is expected to
win only 5 seats at most in the next elections. Since most of his supporters
and colleagues were defeated, Tommy Lapid (formerly a journalist) the Party
leader, has decided to split from the party and form a new party (like Sharon)
that (wait for it) may retain the original name if there are more of them than
those left behind! So that makes two small parties, another negative feature
of the Israeli system. Meanwhile the Labor Party seems moribund, with no real
platform, and little enthusiasm for its primary due next Tuesday.
Kadima, whose list is being selected by the Party leader (formerly Sharon now
Olmert), has placed Shimon Peres at No. 2, which is Olmert's first mistake as
far as I am concerned, since he is an 82 year old loser. But, he does have
credibility as an "elder statesman" and is due to visit the US next week.
However, he will not be FM. Kadima continues to surge in the polls, with some
predicting it will win up to 50 seats. But, this may decline when people
realize that this is not so much a coherent party as a bunch of individuals
seeking advancement. Sharon would have given coherence to the party through
his decisions and choices. But, now we don't know what Olmert can and will
do, and so it is difficult to predict, except that in principle right now the
idea of a major centrist party seems attractive to the Israeli electorate.