Rightwing on the defensive in final week of Israeli election campaign

[witness23]

Boohoo, everyone is against me, its a conspiracy, boo hoo. And this guy is a God to the right wing rubes here in the US, not to mention a large number of Republican government officials.

March 10, 2015 4:57 pm
John Reed in Jerusalem

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1c26c782-c72a-11e4-9e34-00144feab7de.html#axzz3U0Knr8y8

Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming that a multinational conspiracy is seeking to bring down his government as he embarks on his final week of campaigning ahead of next week’s general election.
“There is a huge worldwide effort to bring down the Likud government,” Mr Netanyahu was recorded telling party activists in a report aired by Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday.

The remarks by the Israeli prime minister are the latest of several controversial comments made in recent days by politicians in Mr Netanyahu’s rightwing camp, and come as his Likud party struggles to control the campaign agenda and pull ahead of Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union, its centre-left challenger, in next Tuesday’s ballot.

The prime minister was echoing remarks by his fellow Likudnik defence minister Moshe Ya’alon, who on Sunday accused “English-speakers” of masterminding a massive effort to rally opposition votes. “There is an unprecedented campaign here to encourage leftwing and Arab voters, and English-speakers are the ones doing it,” Mr Ya’alon said.

Mr Ya’alon and other members of the Israeli right have repeatedly accused foreign-funded non-governmental organisations of funnelling money into efforts to unseat
Mr Netanyahu.

The defence minister’s remarks were mild compared those of his ultranationalist colleague, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who told supporters at an election rally that Israeli Arabs “who are with us deserve everything, but those who are against us deserve to have their heads chopped off with an axe”. Mr Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu’s party’s poll numbers are sinking because of a corruption scandal.

Polls suggest that Mr Netanyahu still has a good chance of forming Israel’s next government, and his Likud has more natural political partners in the Knesset than Mr Herzog’s party, meaning the centre-left would need a big lead in order to be assured of forming a coalition.

In a poll released on Tuesday by the news website Bizportal and conducted by TRI, Likud and the Zionist Union were evenly matched, each projected to receive 24 seats in the 120-seat Knesset after the March 17 vote.

However, a second poll released by the Knesset Channel showed the centre-left projected to get 24 seats, three ahead of Likud’s projected 21.

“If you ask me who will be the next prime minister, I will tell you I don’t know,” said Rafi Smith, an Israeli pollster. He pointed out that in Israel’s last election in January 2013, which returned a surprising gain for the centrist party Yesh Atid, one in four voters decided how to cast their ballot on election day.

While the polls show the two parties running neck and neck, there have been signs in recent days that Mr Netanyahu’s campaign — which received only a slight boost from his controversial speech in Washington last week — is struggling. On Sunday Likud — under attack from parties farther to its right for concessions made to Palestinians in past peace negotiations — said that the notion of creating a Palestinian state was “not relevant”.

Mr Netanyahu’s office then distanced him from the remarks, prompting critics of the prime minister to accuse him of flip-flopping on key issues.

The prime minister was also forced to apologise to a union boss at the Israel Airports Authority after Likud aired a video showing a dock worker commiserating with a Hamas militant about how the prime minister’s policies had hurt them, according to a report by the Ynet news service. The video angered trade unionists, some of whose members served in last summer’s military operation in the Gaza Strip.

The missteps are noteworthy for Mr Netanyahu, a consummate political strategist who himself brought forward the upcoming election last December, after he fired two centrist ministers and his government failed to pass a budget.

“The Likud campaign is obviously exuding panic and hysteria,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and chief of staff under four foreign ministers, told the Financial Times. “If you look at previous campaigns, in 1999 when he was on the verge of losing he also resorted to saying, ‘The world is against me; there is a worldwide conspiracy; the left is out to get me.’”

 

[Ragman]

Too bad moose isn't around to comment.

 

[RLENT]

Yes, it is ... it would certainly be interesting to hear his take ...

 

[LDB]

Moose would likely be more knowledgeable than most EO members who will opine.

 

[RLENT]

Moose would likely be more knowledgeable than most who will opine.

Likely ... but not necessarily a foregone conclusion ... particularly if one includes Israeli and other media whose bread and butter is following and covering Israeli politics in those opining ...

 

[RLENT]

Moose would likely be more knowledgeable than most EO members who will opine.

LOL ...

Definition: loose cannon

English

Noun

loose cannon (plural loose cannons)

1. (nautical) A cannon that breaks loose from its moorings on a ship during battle or storm, which has the potential to cause serious damage to the ship and its crew.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) An uncontrolled or unpredictable person who causes damage to their own faction, political party, etc.

Jack is considered a loose cannon due to his volatile personality and his track record of being unable to maintain his composure.

As to what is obvious, since the OP of this thread largely consisted of a long quote of one of the aforementioned journalists I referred to earlier, your (now) apparent actual intent wasn't necessarily all that obvious ... but I certainly think that you thinking it was has a great entertainment value ...

 

[RLENT]

Best news I've heard all day (if not all week):

JERUSALEM: Israeli polls show Netanyahu's Likud party trailing Zionist Union | World | The News Tribune

Senior Likud sources: Netanyahu may not win election - Israel election 2015 - Israel News | Haaretz

 

[Ragman]

Best news I've heard all day (if not all week):

JERUSALEM: Israeli polls show Netanyahu's Likud party trailing Zionist Union | World | The News Tribune

Senior Likud sources: Netanyahu may not win election - Israel election 2015 - Israel News | Haaretz

I really really really would love to hear from moose on this.

 

[RLENT]

I really really really would love to hear from moose on this.

You can always use the EO "Send Email" feature to send an email directly to his email address and invite him to share his thoughts with you ... or even comment publicly on here about the matter ...

 

[Ragman]

You can always use the EO "Send Email" feature to send an email directly to his email address and invite him to share his thoughts with you ... or even comment publicly on here about the matter ...

I'm ashamed to say, but I'm not familiar with that feature.

 

[RLENT]

I'm ashamed to say, but I'm not familiar with that feature.

If you go his EO profile page there will be a link to send him an email (in addition to sending him a PM) ... whatever you send will go directly to his actual email address (assuming he has provided one)

The only (potential) downside (depending on how you look at it) to the feature IIRC is that your email address will be revealed to him.

 

[Ragman]

If you go his EO profile page there will be a link to send him an email (in addition to sending him a PM) ... whatever you send will go directly to his actual email address (assuming he has provided one)

The only (potential) downside (depending on how you look at it) to the feature IIRC is that your email address will be revealed to him.

Done ----- we'll see what happens.

 

[RLENT]

Overview of the current electoral landscape:

Israeli Election Turning Into Referendum On Netanyahu


| By DAN PERRY Posted: 03/14/2015 9:18 am EDT Updated: 03/14/2015 10:59 am EDT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Deeply divided and foul of mood, Israelis are headed toward what seems like a referendum on their long-serving, silver-tongued prime minister, the hard-line Benjamin Netanyahu.


But with so many of them having despaired of peace talks with the Palestinians, the focus is mostly on Netanyahu's personality, his expense scandals and the soaring cost of living.


And as no candidate is likely to win big in the wild jumble of Israel's political landscape, the outcome of the March 17 election could well be a joint government between Netanyahu and his moderate challenger Isaac Herzog. It's an irony, because the animosities are overwhelming.

Much has changed in the world since Netanyahu first became prime minister in 1996, but Israel remains stuck with the question of what to do with the highly strategic, biblically resonant, Palestinian-populated lands it captured almost a half-century ago.


Israelis know it is their existential issue, but it seems almost too complex for a democracy. After decades of failed peace talks under every sort of government, the whole festering thing has become such a vexation that politicians seem to fear it, and voters look away.


When he called the early election in November, Netanyahu seemed a shoo-in, but somewhere things went wrong. Notorious around the world for American-accented eloquence in the service of a tough stance, he is extraordinarily divisive at home, where he has been prime minister for the past six years, and for nine in total.


His speech last week before the U.S. Congress, urging a tighter deal than he believes is brewing on Iran's nuclear program, was typical: He impressed some Israelis, while infuriating others who sensed a political ploy.


Polls show his nationalist Likud Party running slightly behind Herzog's Labor Party, rebranded the Zionist Union in a bid for nationalist votes. There are scenarios in which Herzog — improbably mild-mannered in a high-decibel land — becomes prime minister. And that would change the music: Herzog is a conciliator genuinely interested in ending the occupation of lands captured in the 1967 war.


Some things to watch for:


___


ISRAEL IS NEARLY UNGOVERNABLE


Despite its reputation for plucky unity, the country is badly fragmented — and that's reflected in parliament under the proportional representation system.

Combined, the two big parties get far less than half the vote. Then one finds a nationalist party appealing to Russian speakers, another for secular liberals and two for the squeezed middle class. A united list represents the one-fifth of citizens who are Arabs and is itself divided between communist, nationalist and Islamist factions. There are four religious parties, for Jews of European versus Middle Eastern descent and for varying degrees of nationalism.


The schisms are real, reflecting a society so diverse that at times it seems to be flying apart. The discourse is of one's rival destroying the country, through stupidity or evil. A TV debate between the main candidates other than Netanyahu and Herzog quickly degenerated into shouted accusations of fascism, criminality and treason.


___


A KINGMAKER COMES


By dint of necessity, this constellation has nonetheless coalesced over the years into rival leftist and rightist blocs: the Arab parties aligned with the dovish left, and the religious with the nationalistic right. If either wins 61 seats combined, its main party governs.


But for the first time in decades, there is a new party that seems genuinely non-aligned: Kulanu, led by Moshe Kahlon, a working-class Likud breakaway of Libyan Jewish descent who became popular for reducing mobile phone costs in previous governments. He says he will go with whichever side makes him finance minister — as both almost certainly would — and seeks to reduce the cost of living. He appears to care little about the Palestinian issue.


Every recent poll shows him holding the balance of power, with about 10 seats while the blocs split the rest.


___


THE RELUCTANT RIGHT


The winning bloc often rules in alliance with parts of the other bloc. Such coalitions widen the base and win points for moderation and inclusiveness. They are also paralyzed by disagreement and tend to collapse of their internal contradictions, as Netanyahu's did four months ago.

Likud seems especially reluctant to rule on its own, almost always preferring a grand coalition with Labor or centrist parties rather than one with just its nationalist and religious allies. At least in part, that looks like an admission that truly nationalist policies — such as annexations in the West Bank — would so offend the world and provoke the Palestinians as to bring ruin.


The right sees the West Bank as the heartland of biblical Israel and also a place of immense strategic value, since Israel without it is reduced at its narrowest point to about 10 miles (15 kilometers) wide. The left's key argument is that permanent control of millions more Arabs would destroy Israel as a Jewish-majority state.


The right has developed a majority among Israel's Jews. But it is also hugely unpopular among the nation's still-powerful elites, including academic figures, business leaders and — to a striking degree — the security establishment. The 2012 documentary "The Gatekeepers," presenting a highly critical view of the West Bank occupation, featured every one of the six then-living heads of the Shin Bet secret service, entrusted with securing that very occupation. The keynote speech against Netanyahu at the main opposition rally last week was by Meir Dagan, who led the Mossad intelligence agency for much of Netanyahu's term. A predecessor, Shabtai Shavit, has been similarly critical, as have recent heads of the military.


So great is the pressure on the right that successive Likud leaders have abruptly changed course or even crossed the line, including then-prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. Some predicted the same for Netanyahu, who in 2009 accepted the principle of Palestinian statehood, appearing to renounce all he had once stood for; but actions did not follow, and the theory that he was just pretending so as to confuse his critics gains currency by the day.


___


IMPOSSIBLE PEACE?


Even among proponents of a West Bank pullout, the talk is of saving Israel demographically as a Jewish-majority state rather than of making peace. Many yearn for unilateral moves, having given up on the possibility of a negotiated deal after all these years.


Israel might conceivably agree to the near-total West Bank pullout the Palestinians seek; previous governments have. The Palestinians may agree to drop the demand that refugees' descendants be allowed to move to Israel, potentially by the millions. But the real conundrum is Jerusalem, where a division of the intertwined holy city along ethnic lines would lead to perhaps the world's most complicated map, a tinderbox extraordinaire.

Providing the worst of precedents is Gaza, the other part of the would-be Palestinian state, on Israel's southern flank. Israel pulled out its soldiers and settlers in 2005 and handed control to the Palestinian autonomy government of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas — a relic of interim agreements from the pre-Netanyahu 1990s. But Hamas militants swiftly seized the strip and have been blockaded by Israel; they regularly fire rockets at Israeli towns, and three wars have been fought.


Then there are security threats to Israel from elsewhere in the region: Iran, believed to be seeking an atomic bomb; its proxy Hezbollah, with a forest of missiles pointed at Israel from Lebanon; Islamic State jihadis rampaging in nearby countries; al-Qaida radicals on the border with a disintegrating, still-hostile Syria.


Given the widespread pessimism, Herzog subtly dodges the peace issue, perhaps for fear of appearing naive.


___


UNITY GOVERNMENT POSSIBLE


With the electorate confused and fractured and no clear path forward on the key issues, and with neither Netanyahu nor Herzog likely to win a convincing majority, a plausible outcome has their parties banding together. They may also agree to rotate as prime minister in such an arrangement, with the first turn going to whoever has the stronger parliamentary hand.


Such has already happened in 1984. Labor's Shimon Peres and Likud's Yitzhak Shamir lived in uneasy coexistence and switched jobs halfway through. A few things got done. But the main issue, then as now, was the West Bank; Peres negotiated over it with Jordan, only to see his peace plans scuttled by the skeptical Shamir. Shortly thereafter the first Palestinian uprising began.


Many fear another one is coming, even as Israelis focus on the price of cottage cheese.


___


Dan Perry is AP's Middle East editor leading text coverage in the region. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/perry_dan

Israeli Election Turning Into Referendum On Netanyahu

 

[muttly]

Check out number 3 on the list. (Emphasis mine)
1. The outcome is completely unknown. At the start of the election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, the Likud, was widely expected to win. Likud has since fallen to second place after the Zionist Union, a coalition formed by two smaller parties. However, there are more right-wing parties overall, and the Zionist Union would need the Arab parties to govern. So Netanyahu could lose (narrowly) and still return to power. (Both sides rule out a national unity government.)

2. Despite his party’s bad polls, Netanyahu remains most popular. Netanyahu has consistently led all rivals, including Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, when Israelis are asked who should lead the country. That lead has narrowed in recent days, but most Israelis realize that Netanyahu towers above his rivals on the international stage. Herzog comes across as a lightweight, and Livni is caustic. Israelis want him to lead–but not, perhaps, to govern.

3. The biggest story is foreign money. For years, Netanyahu has benefited from the positive media coverage of Israel Hayom, a free newspaper funded by American conservative Sheldon Adelson. So Netanyahu’s rivals have banded together to support a bill to ban free newspapers (a reminder that Israel remains a statist society, albeit an entrepreneurial one). Meanwhile, liberal American Jews have given millions to anti-Netanyahu efforts, AIDED ON THE GROUND BY OBAMA ALUMNI.

4. The second-biggest story is the Arab parties. Israel’s Arab population is roughly 20 percent of the whole, but has rarely played an important role in domestic politics because of internal divisions. Now, under a unified banner and with ample financial help from American donors, the Joint Arab List is expected to do very well, perhaps finishing third among all parties. That will give Israel’s Arab population more of a political voice–though likely from the opposition benches.

5. The election may not be over for weeks. Though the polls will close on Tuesday and the votes will be known by early Wednesday, the difficult process of coalition-building could take weeks. The smaller parties will hold tremendous power to decide who will lead the country. For that reason, they may prefer Netanyahu to form a government, since they would have less clout in a Zionist Union-led coalition already led jointly by Herzog and Livni. Time–a long time–will tell.

5 Things to Know About Israel's Strange Election - Breitbart

 

[muttly]

In reference to my previous post about Obama Alumni on the ground in Israel. Read the link I provided. Looks like some meddling going on from our 'UN President' and his minions. Whatever repercussions there is for this will pale if the outcome(election)is in their favor. The ends justify the means.
Article:
According to the source, the probe is looking into “funding” by OneVoice Movement – a Washington-based group that has received $350,000 in recent State Department grants, and until last November was headed by a veteran diplomat from the Clinton administrations.

A subsidiary of OneVoice is the Israel-based Victory 15 campaign, itself guided by top operatives of Obama’s White House runs, which seeks to “replace the government” of Israel.

Source: Senate panel probing ?possible Obama administration ties to anti-Netanyahu effort | Fox News

 

[skyraider]

Here is a point that sometimes gets left out.

land Israel
Question: "What is the land that God promised to Israel?"

Answer: In regards to the land that God has promised Israel, Genesis 15:18 declares to Abraham, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.” God later confirms this promise to Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob (whose name was later changed to Israel). When the Israelites were about to invade the Promised Land, God reiterated the land promise, as recorded in Joshua 1:4, “Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west.”

According to Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:4, the land God gave to Israel included everything from the Nile River in Egypt to Lebanon (south to north) and everything from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River (west to east). So, what land has God stated belongs to Israel? All of the land modern Israel currently possesses, plus all of the land of the Palestinians (the West Bank and Gaza), plus some of Egypt and Syria, plus all of Jordan, plus some of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Israel currently possesses only a fraction of the land God has promised.

*** Israeli politics goes thru many ups and downs, but ....................someone else is really in charge...

 

[cheri1122]

Done ----- we'll see what happens.

Judging by his Facebook posts/feed, he has little interest in politics, or driving. He is immersed in several other ventures that satisfy him, instead.
And for the record, I miss his input too.

 

[RLENT]

Here is a point that sometimes gets left out.

LOL ... seems in dialing us all in on "a point that gets left out", you've managed to leave out a relevant point yourself :

The promise was not unconditional - it came with some strings attached ...

Of course, if one was aware of that - and then avoided mentioning it - because one had an agenda and was seeking to influence other's opinions towards a particular outcome - it might be viewed as being something ... ahhh ... less than honest ...

 

[RLENT]

In reference to my previous post about Obama Alumni on the ground in Israel. Read the link I provided. Looks like some meddling going on from our 'UN President' and his minions.

LOL ... now you're just flailing wildly in desperation ...

First off, last time I looked it wasn't prohibited or illegal for ex-government officials - as private citizens - to support or work for political causes ... even in a foreign country ... provided they aren't lobbying the US government on behalf on a foreign entity.

If it were illegal, those Americans who have worked for Bibi on his previous campaigns would be in a heap of trouble.

Secondly, I think if you do a little digging, what you will find is that whatever funding State is doing is probably related to voter registration drives and the like ... you know: fostering democracy and greater participation in the democratic process ...

(Yeah, I know: it's anathema to the Repuglican body politic and philosophy ...)

Finally, if Bibi does get the boot - particularly as a result of greater voter participation - it will be utterly hilarious ...

What goes around comes around ... lol ...

 

[RLENT]

Israeli political ad ... lol ...: