From: wwww.ft-ci.org
Middle East: ISRAEL elects a government from among war criminals
By Claudia Cinatti
Middle East: ISRAEL elects a government from among war criminals
By Claudia Cinatti
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Parliamentary elections took place in Israel on February 10. At press time, with 99% of the votes counted, Kadima, the governing party, of the current Minister of Foreign Relations, Tzipi Livni, got 28 seats of the 120 in the Knesset (parliament); Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, 27; Avigdor Lieberman's extreme rightist party Yisrael Beitenu ("Israel, our house"), 15, this is four more seats than it had; and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labor Party, only 13 deputies, which involves a loss of 6 representatives. The remainder is shared among 9 other new parties that have exceeded the floor of 2% of the votes, among which is the center-leftist Meretz and the more left-wing Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, in which Arab parties and the Israeli CP participate), religous parties like Shas, and other parties of the extreme right. Whoever attains a simple majority of 61 seats, will be Prime Minister.
Both Livni and Netanyahu claimed the victory. Owing to the narrow margin and the extreme fragmentation of the Israeli political system, for the moment, these results left the sign of the new government undefined. Most analysts indicate that, although Livni got more votes, it is Netanyahu who is in better condition to form a government, since what is considered the right-wing bloc -- defined as a whole as those who are opposed to resuming "peace" negotiations with the Palestinians -- headed by the Likud, and within which Lieberman is included, would have 64 deputies, while the so-called "center" or, more accurately, the moderate right, headed by Kadima and the Labor Party, that has declared itself in favor of undertaking negotiations with the Palestinian Authority again, would only get 56 seats.
Lieberman's ultra-rightist and anti-Arab party has become an indispensable component for the future government, since without the support of its at least 15 deputies, it seems practically impossible to form a stable government.
All options are open. The very day of the elections, a feverish race of negotiators from Likud and Kadima to get the necessary partners to form a government, began. Nor can the possibility of a "national unity government" be ruled out, although, for the moment, Netanyahu rejected Livni's proposal. According to the weekly Economist, "if Netanyahu is able to consolidate his right-wing bloc, he will presumably try to convince Livni to set aside her dreams of becoming Prime Minister and enter a broad center-right government." Even weeks could pass before it is determined who the new Prime Minister will be and with that, what the orientation of the next Israeli government will be.
In the final instance, these maneuvers will only decide which war criminal is going to be in charge of governing the Zionist state.
A turn to the right
The elections reflect Israeli politics' profound turn to the right. From Livni to Lieberman, the election campaign took place on the rubble of Gaza and the corpses of more than 1,400 Palestinians left by Operation "Cast Lead," that was supported by more than 80% of the population.
According to a survey published by the daily Jerusalem Post, carried out the same day as the elections, "when those surveyed were questioned about their politics, 30% said they were from the right wing, 13%, from the center-right, 23%, from the center, 13%, from the center-left, and only 6%, from the left, 15% did not respond."
Likud, which was coming from a setback, a result of Kadima's split at the end of 2005, made a notable advance, and their parliamentary block went from 12 to 27 deputies. Their candidate, Netanyahu, has become the standard bearer of the Israeli right wing, that rejects undertaking again any negotiations with the Palestinians that would involve returning the occupied territories. Even Netanyahu was critical of the Annapolis agreements, promoted by former President Bush. In the campaign, he promised to oppose absolutely the division of Jerusalem, the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, and the evacuation of the settlers' settlements on the West Bank.
The other big winner of the elections was Lieberman, who ran a deeply racist campaign directed against the Arabs who live in Israel, proposing to take away their citizenship, if they do not swear loyalty to the Jewish state (their slogan was "No loyalty -- no citizenship") and perform obligatory military service, from which they have been exempted, for obvious reasons. To justify this position, it was based on the mobilizations carried out by Israeli Arabs to repudiate the massacre in Gaza. This group, that comprises around 20% of the population, already suffers "legal" discrimination from the government and the Zionist political establishment, that was about to deprive it of all its political rights and outlaw its parties.
The Labor Party is in deep crisis, in such a state that a columnist of the daily Haaretz suggests that "its existence as an independent party no longer makes sense," and that it should merge with Kadima, that has gone on to dominate the center of the political spectrum, since "there are no ideological differences between them," and "both parties combine political moderation with toughness in security matters" (Aluf Benn, "For the sake of peace, Labor and Kadima must merge," Haaretz, 11-02-09).
The elections also showed the disaster of the Meretz party, traditionally identified with pacifism, but which openly supported the state of Israel's massacre in Gaza and got only 3 deputies.
Thus, all the Zionist leaders favored this political turn to the right in an enclave-state, based on racism against the Arabs and colonial repression.
The weight achieved by the right wing in the Israeli elections will be an argument that the coming government will use, regardless of who heads it, to reduce as much as possible any any eventual concession and increase demands on the Palestinians. Several analysts have suggested that the political map which has arisen from these elections would complicate US President Barak Obama's alleged policy of "dialogue," not only towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but also towards Syria and, especially towards Iran. However, this is big-time hypocrisy: Obama justified the Israeli offensive against Gaza and continues to permit the brutal Israeli economic blockade. His "peace plan" is based on the supposed "two-state" solution, that is, on negotiating with the Palestinian National Authority (and eventually with Hamas, that is currently excluded from the dialogue sessions) the Palestinian people's renunciation of their fundamental national rights, by naturalizing the existence of ghetto-like cities lacking any territorial unity, in exchange for some minor concessions, like delaying the building of settlers' settlements.
With the Gaza massacre ever present, it remains clear that the only allies of the Palestininan people are the workers and exploited peoples of the Middle East and the whole world.
Parliamentary elections took place in Israel on February 10. At press time, with 99% of the votes counted, Kadima, the governing party, of the current Minister of Foreign Relations, Tzipi Livni, got 28 seats of the 120 in the Knesset (parliament); Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, 27; Avigdor Lieberman's extreme rightist party Yisrael Beitenu ("Israel, our house"), 15, this is four more seats than it had; and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labor Party, only 13 deputies, which involves a loss of 6 representatives. The remainder is shared among 9 other new parties that have exceeded the floor of 2% of the votes, among which is the center-leftist Meretz and the more left-wing Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, in which Arab parties and the Israeli CP participate), religous parties like Shas, and other parties of the extreme right. Whoever attains a simple majority of 61 seats, will be Prime Minister.
Both Livni and Netanyahu claimed the victory. Owing to the narrow margin and the extreme fragmentation of the Israeli political system, for the moment, these results left the sign of the new government undefined. Most analysts indicate that, although Livni got more votes, it is Netanyahu who is in better condition to form a government, since what is considered the right-wing bloc -- defined as a whole as those who are opposed to resuming "peace" negotiations with the Palestinians -- headed by the Likud, and within which Lieberman is included, would have 64 deputies, while the so-called "center" or, more accurately, the moderate right, headed by Kadima and the Labor Party, that has declared itself in favor of undertaking negotiations with the Palestinian Authority again, would only get 56 seats.
Lieberman's ultra-rightist and anti-Arab party has become an indispensable component for the future government, since without the support of its at least 15 deputies, it seems practically impossible to form a stable government.
All options are open. The very day of the elections, a feverish race of negotiators from Likud and Kadima to get the necessary partners to form a government, began. Nor can the possibility of a "national unity government" be ruled out, although, for the moment, Netanyahu rejected Livni's proposal. According to the weekly Economist, "if Netanyahu is able to consolidate his right-wing bloc, he will presumably try to convince Livni to set aside her dreams of becoming Prime Minister and enter a broad center-right government." Even weeks could pass before it is determined who the new Prime Minister will be and with that, what the orientation of the next Israeli government will be.
In the final instance, these maneuvers will only decide which war criminal is going to be in charge of governing the Zionist state.
A turn to the right
The elections reflect Israeli politics' profound turn to the right. From Livni to Lieberman, the election campaign took place on the rubble of Gaza and the corpses of more than 1,400 Palestinians left by Operation "Cast Lead," that was supported by more than 80% of the population.
According to a survey published by the daily Jerusalem Post, carried out the same day as the elections, "when those surveyed were questioned about their politics, 30% said they were from the right wing, 13%, from the center-right, 23%, from the center, 13%, from the center-left, and only 6%, from the left, 15% did not respond."
Likud, which was coming from a setback, a result of Kadima's split at the end of 2005, made a notable advance, and their parliamentary block went from 12 to 27 deputies. Their candidate, Netanyahu, has become the standard bearer of the Israeli right wing, that rejects undertaking again any negotiations with the Palestinians that would involve returning the occupied territories. Even Netanyahu was critical of the Annapolis agreements, promoted by former President Bush. In the campaign, he promised to oppose absolutely the division of Jerusalem, the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, and the evacuation of the settlers' settlements on the West Bank.
The other big winner of the elections was Lieberman, who ran a deeply racist campaign directed against the Arabs who live in Israel, proposing to take away their citizenship, if they do not swear loyalty to the Jewish state (their slogan was "No loyalty -- no citizenship") and perform obligatory military service, from which they have been exempted, for obvious reasons. To justify this position, it was based on the mobilizations carried out by Israeli Arabs to repudiate the massacre in Gaza. This group, that comprises around 20% of the population, already suffers "legal" discrimination from the government and the Zionist political establishment, that was about to deprive it of all its political rights and outlaw its parties.
The Labor Party is in deep crisis, in such a state that a columnist of the daily Haaretz suggests that "its existence as an independent party no longer makes sense," and that it should merge with Kadima, that has gone on to dominate the center of the political spectrum, since "there are no ideological differences between them," and "both parties combine political moderation with toughness in security matters" (Aluf Benn, "For the sake of peace, Labor and Kadima must merge," Haaretz, 11-02-09).
The elections also showed the disaster of the Meretz party, traditionally identified with pacifism, but which openly supported the state of Israel's massacre in Gaza and got only 3 deputies.
Thus, all the Zionist leaders favored this political turn to the right in an enclave-state, based on racism against the Arabs and colonial repression.
The weight achieved by the right wing in the Israeli elections will be an argument that the coming government will use, regardless of who heads it, to reduce as much as possible any any eventual concession and increase demands on the Palestinians. Several analysts have suggested that the political map which has arisen from these elections would complicate US President Barak Obama's alleged policy of "dialogue," not only towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but also towards Syria and, especially towards Iran. However, this is big-time hypocrisy: Obama justified the Israeli offensive against Gaza and continues to permit the brutal Israeli economic blockade. His "peace plan" is based on the supposed "two-state" solution, that is, on negotiating with the Palestinian National Authority (and eventually with Hamas, that is currently excluded from the dialogue sessions) the Palestinian people's renunciation of their fundamental national rights, by naturalizing the existence of ghetto-like cities lacking any territorial unity, in exchange for some minor concessions, like delaying the building of settlers' settlements.
With the Gaza massacre ever present, it remains clear that the only allies of the Palestininan people are the workers and exploited peoples of the Middle East and the whole world.
No comments:
Post a Comment