Tzipi Livni is Either a Fool or Completely Inconsistent

Tzipi Livni is either a fool or just completely inconsistent. People say she is emotionally unstable. It might be true.

For four years she insisted that her party - then the largest in the Knesset - sit in the opposition rather than provide a fig leaf for Netanyahu's intransigence re the Palestinians  In the last election, she raised reaching an agreement with the P.A. as the most important item on her party's agenda; its raison d'etre, in fact.

Now she had decided to join Netanyahu's new coalition  on the promise that she will be allowed to lead negotiations with the P.A.: lead negotiations - but, pointedly, not reach a deal without cabinet approval, a cabinet whose agenda Netanyahu will control, and which will be packed with minsters even more intransigent than Netanyahu. She will barely be a fig leaf in the new coalition.

As Zehava Galon - leader of Meretz -  said:

"Livni's entrance into the Netanyahu government is a slap in the face of Center-Left voters, who gave their voices to Livni thinking that she would advance the peace process, and who today discover that their voices were stolen and handed off to the Right. Livni took the voice of the Left in 2009 and did not form the government, and in 2013 ruined the possibility of forming a Center-Left government. 

Talk of peace negotiations are empty election slogans... Livni is joining a Netanyahu government that might start a peace process, but won't make peace.

See full story in the Jerusalem Post.

Noam Shezeif,  at 972, covers the same story. Inter-alia he explains why this deal is good for Netanyahu, and reiterates why Livni is completely inconsistent.

From Netanyahu’s point of view, Livni’s support outweighs her relatively small party. In the last elections, the prime minister lost both Ehud Barak (retired from politics) and Dan Meridor (demoted in the Likud primaries), leaving him without an acceptable liaison to the international community, most notably, the United States. Livni is popular enough with the U.S. administration, not to mention other dovish institutions – she was one of the stars of the Saban forum – so she will perfectly fit the position of unofficial foreign minister. 

Interestingly enough, while at the Saban forum Livni privately warned Americans she met against the so-called centrists who would rush to serve as Natanyahu’s fig leaf after the elections; but politics, like pornography, is a question of geography, and things you understand as the leader of a 28-seat opposition party appear different when you have only five Knesset members behind you.

Read the full article at 972mag.

Yair Lapid: No Grasp of History, No Plan for the Future

Liberal Jews and other moderate types who wish Israel well are positively tripping over each other in trying to cast Yair Lapid as the savior of all that is good and decent in Israel, and as the person who will somehow bring Israel to its senses regarding its "Palestinian Question." My advise to them: "Don't hold your breathe."

Here are a few quotes from Lapid that should clarify some of his positions and his general seriousness re policy (as opposed to electoral politics.)

"I do not think that the Arabs want peace."

Here we have him channeling both Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the leaders of the outgoing coalition. (And, as a matter of fact, ignoring the Saudi - Arab League peace plan, Abbas's own claims, and the opinion of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Lini who conducted the last serious round of negotiations with Abbas.)

"I do not care what the Arabs want. What I want is not a new Middle East, but to be rid of them and put a tall fence between us and them."

Here we have him channeling Ariel Sharon, the father of the  "unilateral separation" that brought us the current mess in Gaza and Israel's security barrier (aka "Apartheid Wall") built well into the occupied West Bank. He is also echoing Avigdor Lieberman here. And while this may have helped him win votes with Lieberman's base - after Lieberman merged his party into the Likud -  this attitude is only going exacerbate Israels problems with its own Palestinian citizens.

"The important thing is to maintain a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel."

Here he echoing the pat consensus of Israeli (and perhaps Diaspora) Jews. But in Lapid's case, this is the only thing motivating him to give up some of the occupied territories. This is not a basis for peace, but rather a basis for Palestinians bantustans - or if you prefer Indian reservations.

"The Palestinians must be brought to an understanding that Jerusalem will always remain under Israeli sovereignty and that there is no point for them in opening negotiations about Jerusalem. We have no existence without Jerusalem. The Tower of David is important for Israel's heritage and existence, because it is more than a tower, it is a symbol. It is more important than the Azrieli Towers [a large luxury condominium] in Tel Aviv." 

Here he is putting the spokes in any negotiated peace plan. The Palestinians will not agree to anything that does not give them at least some parts in Jerusalem  Why or how  he thinks the Palestinians "can be brought to understand this" when they haven't done so yet, is completely beyond him. (And why they need to understand anything - when he has already stated they don't want peace and he favours unilateral action - is just one of many contradictions in his "made for TV" platform.)

And his final remarks, re symbolic importance to Israel's heritage of the Tower of David, is just laughably ignorant (though perhaps sadly typical of too many Israelis). The Tower of David is a citadel complex and tower standing next to the Jaffa Gate in the old city of Jerusalem.  It was built by the Ottoman Turks in 1541.  The tower itself was originally built as a minaret  The Ottoman complex was built on the site of previous fortifications (Crusader, Arab, Byzantine, Roman.) The very first fortification on the site was built by King Herod (hardly a glorious Jewish figure) just as Judea was slipping from a Roman vassal state to a direct province of the Roman Empire. Nothing remains of the Herodian structures. The site was first misidentified as the location of King David's palace by the Byzantines, and the tower itself did not begin to be called The Tower of David until approximately 1600. During the British Mandate period it was turned into a museum of Palestinian Arab folklore.

This kind of cheap - and ignorant - emotionalism should not surprise us. We should not forget that Yair Lapid's only claim to fame before entering politics a year ago was a a handsome television host, who never offended of challenged his guests. And of course, that his father also started a political party that meteorically shot to ascension. That party, Shinui, garnered 15 seats in the 2003 elections, and the elder Lapid served as Minister of Justice in the government of Ariel Sharon. The party managed to get almost none its platform implemented, was wracked by internal dissension and completely disappeared from the electoral scene in the elections of 2006. It is generally believed that the elder Lapid was a lot smarter and more principled then his son. Although a lot less photogenic.

Meddling in Israeli Politics

The purported meddling of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyau in American politics has been much in the news lately. But what is equally, and perhaps more significant, has been the meddling of foreigners - mostly rich American Jews - in Israeli politics. Haaretz reports that "More than half of contributions to Israeli politicians come from foreign donors". The headline actually underplays the issue:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised 96.8 percent of his NIS 1.2 million in campaign contributions from foreign donors, according to the State Comptroller's Office, which published the candidates' campaign contribution reports for the last two years on its website on Thursday. ... 

Among political parties, Likud raised the highest percentage abroad - 67 percent - while Kadima raised 65 percent overseas. By contrast, Meretz raised zero percent overseas ... 

Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On, whose party members raised campaign funds only in Israel, said contributions from abroad could give foreign individuals or bodies improper influence on Israeli politics. 

"Politicians should be accountable to the public. As long as they raise money transparently, the public must be permitted to judge them in the elections," she says. ...

... Party leadership candidates may raise up to NIS 11,000 from a single donor, but the number of family relatives who may contribute is not restricted. Thus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received several donations from members of the Falic family of Miami, Florida. ...

Israeli politicians have two fundraising methods. The first, used by Labor leader Yacimovich and Moshe Feiglin of Likud, is to raise several small contributions, mainly from Israelis. The other way, favored by Netanyahu, is raising large sums from a small number of contributors, mostly from abroad. 

The latter method proves much more beneficial. A foreign donor contributes an average of NIS 12,565 - five-and-a-half times more than an Israeli one, whose average contribution is NIS 2,260. 

This means a relatively small group of about 550 foreign contributors are responsible for the big money behind Israel's politicians. 

The date for Likud's primaries has not been set, but party members have begun raising funds. At this stage, 261 foreign nationals have contributed NIS 2.72 million to Likud members - 67 percent of the contributions they have raised so far. ...

Kadima's candidates have raised 65 percent of their contributions from abroad. Dan Halutz, who has left the party, raised 93 percent of his NIS 72,000 from abroad. Avi Dichter raised 88 percent of his NIS 320,000 overseas. Shaul Mofaz raised 67 percent of his NIS 1.475 million abroad. Tzipi Livni raised 58% of her NIS 1.6 million from foreign sources. 

Yair Lapid has raised NIS 132,000 for his party from 38 donors, 40 percent of the money from overseas. 

Labor's members raised NIS 4.1 million in contributions for the primaries, 38.5 percent from abroad. Dr. Roby Nathanson raised 87 percent of his NIS 87,000 from overseas. Next, in terms of percentage, comes MK Isaac Herzog, who raised about half of his NIS 1.2 million from abroad, followed by Amir Peretz, who raised 42 percent of his NIS 1.3 million from overseas. 

Yacimovich, who won the [Labor] primary elections, raised NIS 603,000 from 1,756 donors, only two of them from abroad, who gave small sums each. 

Money talks, and in Israel too. And we shouldn't be so naive as to believe that big donors don't also have influence. So, it seems that Israeli politics is at least as much under the control of ideologically committed rich American Jews, as of its own citizens. And most of these American Jews, it seems, are ready to fight to the last drop of Israeli (and Palestinian) blood in order to maintain their fantasy Jewish State and their inspirational vacation homes.

Something to think about next time you are told that Israelis need to be allowed to make their own decisions about security matters, and that foreigners - whether foreign governments or diaspora Jews - should not meddle and should not press Israelis to take risks that the foreigners will not have to live with themselves. When it comes to Israel, it seems, everyone is meddling everywhere.