By Rachel Oppenheimer
The final results of Israel’s tight general elections confirmed that neither main party can form a government on its own. Incumbent Kadima won 28 seats and opposition party Likud won 27, each well short of the needed 61 for parliamentary control. As a result, Centrist Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni, who has declared her total support for the “Two Nation States” solution, calls for a collaboration deal with Benyamin Netanyahu, leader of the right wing Likud party and widely thought to become the next prime minister. “A rotation is the minimum that Kadima can demand so that a stable government sees the light of day,” said Avi Dichter, public security minister of Kadima.
Yet Yisrael Beitenu enters the picture with high influence, too. Thanks to leader Avigdor Lieberman’s racist ideology, Beitenu emerged as the third largest political movement. With 15 seats in parliament, Beitenu holds enough power to dictate its own ethnic cleansing terms for any impending power deal. Lieberman, the new kingmaker and an ultranationalist, will decide on the prime minister position and many worry about the stubborn and right-wing results of his increased role. Obsessed with maintaining the Jewish majority in Israel at all costs, Lieberman proposed forcing Arabs to take the loyalty oath or face the cancellation of their citizenship. His extremist ideas that project expelling or deporting non-Jews can only further Middle East crises and multiply racial, ethnic, and religious conflicts.
The Left has done its very best to hold forth this week, even given Meretz’s disappointing results in the elections. Meretz chief Haim Oron announced today that he will not step down as party leader. “For me, responsibility means working toward the rehabilitation of Meretz,” he said. “In light of that, I have decided not to resign.” If the Kadima party ultimately splits, Israel’s left may have to provide an alternative in the next elections cycle, argued Avshalom Ivan, Meretz representative in Knesset. Alongside Meretz, the Labor party needs to work hard to regain the public’s trust. The general elections cut down Meretz from five to three Knesset seats and Labor from 19 to 13. Instead of joining the new government, both parties prepare to sit in the opposition. The Israeli government sure has its plate full with fragmented and fractioned political voices.
Michael here-
ReplyDeleteThis is a clear, concise breakdown of the major players in the election, and I especially appreciated you insights into the implications of the Haim Oron's decision not to step down.
I was somewhat confused by what you were saying about Lieberman, and I would have like to see a deeper analysis of what a collaboration deal might look like.
I look forward to following this issue in the future, thanks for sparking my curiosity.
Not to keep picking on you Rachel (see my al-Bashir comment), but I think you paint too simplistic a picture of Lieberman. His position, which did once call for the expulsion of at least some of the Arab population, has evolved a bit. He advocates land swaps with a future Palestinian state, which give Arab areas of Israel to Palestine while maintaining the large settlements (re: Maale Adumim, Ariel, etc) that everyone knows will stay part of Israel anyway. In some ways he is more open to a settlement of the issues than Netanyahu.
ReplyDeleteHe is also a complicated figure because he opposes the Orthodox monopoly on civil matters, and thus on domestic matters is more a natural ally of some of the more Left parties than the Right parties.
This is Jonny, btw, not the other Jonathan.