Unity Government
One of the chief rumors swirling around the political establishment and media in Israel is the perennial proposal for a Unity Government. This rumor received more traction today when Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzig, proposed it publicly, obviously with the imprimatur of PM Olmert. But, this is a non-starter.
No political commentator sees Bibi Netanyhau, leader of the opposition, joining a Unity Government, when his poll figures are about 50% to ca. 10% for Olmert, and there must be an election in about a year. This is assuming nothing extreme happens, such as another war.
Olmert is one of the best politicians in terms of managing to keep his seat by bribing anyone who threatens to leave his coalition. His approach to bad situations is to let them simmer and make a decision only if unavoidable. In this way we have had Kassam rockets launched at Israel for years, with no effective response, we have had negotiations going on with PA Pres. Abbas, with no real outcome expected (except by the Bush Administration) and we have had the Winograd Report that would have triggered the resignation of any self-respecting PM. Now Olmert is launching this Unity Govt. lure to try to extend his term.
His approach has many consequences, for example, yesterday the Govt. announced that 750 apartments will be built at Givat Zeev, a northern suburb of Jerusalem. This received criticism from around the world, including the Arab League's Amir Moussa, Pres. Abbas of the PA, the EU Mid-East representative Xavier Solana and US Secty. of State Rice and VP Dick Cheney. PM Olmert justifies this move by pointing out that although there is a long-standing Israeli comnmitment not to build any new settlements, these sites are not new, but are part of the city of Jerusalem, that is not included in any agreement so far and are expansion of existing sites.
However, the true reason for this initiative is that it was demanded by the Shas party for its continuation in the coalition after the massacre of 8 yeshiva students in Jerusalem last week. There was tremendous pressure on Shas to leave the coalition from religious groups after the massacre, but by engineering this concession they justify their staying in the coalition.
So the media has been full of pictures of Eli Yishai, Head of Shas, posturing before the rising apartment blocks. They plan to build a new division named Agan Ha'ayalot with eight sections, each named for one of the eight young men murdered. This is known as Zionist revenge for the attack. However, in addition, the Minister of Security Avi Dichter gave the order for the home of the terrorist Dhaim in Jebel Mukaber to be destroyed in accordance with Israeli policy.
No doubt Olmert will pay further political bribes to other coalition partners to extend his reign, until he is finally forced out of office. The sooner the better for most Israelis.
No political commentator sees Bibi Netanyhau, leader of the opposition, joining a Unity Government, when his poll figures are about 50% to ca. 10% for Olmert, and there must be an election in about a year. This is assuming nothing extreme happens, such as another war.
Olmert is one of the best politicians in terms of managing to keep his seat by bribing anyone who threatens to leave his coalition. His approach to bad situations is to let them simmer and make a decision only if unavoidable. In this way we have had Kassam rockets launched at Israel for years, with no effective response, we have had negotiations going on with PA Pres. Abbas, with no real outcome expected (except by the Bush Administration) and we have had the Winograd Report that would have triggered the resignation of any self-respecting PM. Now Olmert is launching this Unity Govt. lure to try to extend his term.
His approach has many consequences, for example, yesterday the Govt. announced that 750 apartments will be built at Givat Zeev, a northern suburb of Jerusalem. This received criticism from around the world, including the Arab League's Amir Moussa, Pres. Abbas of the PA, the EU Mid-East representative Xavier Solana and US Secty. of State Rice and VP Dick Cheney. PM Olmert justifies this move by pointing out that although there is a long-standing Israeli comnmitment not to build any new settlements, these sites are not new, but are part of the city of Jerusalem, that is not included in any agreement so far and are expansion of existing sites.
However, the true reason for this initiative is that it was demanded by the Shas party for its continuation in the coalition after the massacre of 8 yeshiva students in Jerusalem last week. There was tremendous pressure on Shas to leave the coalition from religious groups after the massacre, but by engineering this concession they justify their staying in the coalition.
So the media has been full of pictures of Eli Yishai, Head of Shas, posturing before the rising apartment blocks. They plan to build a new division named Agan Ha'ayalot with eight sections, each named for one of the eight young men murdered. This is known as Zionist revenge for the attack. However, in addition, the Minister of Security Avi Dichter gave the order for the home of the terrorist Dhaim in Jebel Mukaber to be destroyed in accordance with Israeli policy.
No doubt Olmert will pay further political bribes to other coalition partners to extend his reign, until he is finally forced out of office. The sooner the better for most Israelis.
posted by Jack Cohen at 2:06 PM
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