Feb 12 2009
And the Winner Is….
The Israel elections are over - aren’t they? Not yet, and maybe not ever, with Likud party leader Netanyahu nipping at the heels of supposed victor, Tzipi Livni, head of the slightly more liberal Kadima party. Livni technically won more seats, but the religious-right won the majority overall, leaving Ehud Barak’s Labor party with the weakest hand. Both Livni and Netanyahu are looking at their options to form coalition governments with various permutations of other parties, but another option is on the table - a rotating office. Livni would serve for half of the term, and then Netanyahu would be Prime Minister for the other half. As strange as this sounds, it was done back in 1984 when the two major parties were neck and neck like they are now.
All candidates ran on a pro-aggression platform, nobody advocated peace. What does this say about the Israel electorate? Or is everybody just ashamed to say, maybe they are not so excited about the idea of obliterating the Palestinians? Is it social pressure that is fueling the antagonism of the Jewish State? The sitting PM, Ehud Olmert, now that he is no longer obligated to worry about political opinion, may take steps in the direction of peace. There is even talk that he might free the hundreds of Palestinians jailed in Israel in exchange for Gilad Schalit, who has been held by the Palestinians since 2006. Olmert seems committed to end his term with a truce between the two sides, which the new government would inherit.
And how does the Arab world feel about all of this? They see the outlook of Israel politics as dim at best. Because the right ultimately won the majority of seats, the Prime Minister can’t make any sweeping strides towards peace. The people have spoken, and they say they support further settlement of Palestinian territory and the toppling of Hamas. Still, the rest of the world will have to wait weeks for the new regime to work itself out and assert what direction they are going to take. So is their a shred of possibility that the politicians ran on an aggressive stance, but truly in their hearts want peace?
