'Peace Now' beats 'Primaries Now'
Likud is dead. Long live the Likud
Why would anyone have expected the Likud Central Committee to support a move for early primaries? The party has been in power for 20 of the 28 years since winning the 1977 election, becoming Israel's perennial governing party.
Likud convention
Attila Somfalvi
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon celebrates victory over arch-rivals MKs Benjamin Netanyahu, Uzi Landau; Vice Premier Shimon Peres (Labor) calls PM from London to congratulate him on his victory.
During that time, the party has just about divested itself from any binding ideological platform. Likud governments have pursued economic and social policies of all types and stripes, from wasteful populism to strict capitalism.
Likud governments have sent the IDF to Beirut to trap PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and sent U.S. President Bill Clinton to Gaza to nudge the same Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority.
Likud governments have both passed laws proclaiming "eternal" Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and negotiated secret agreements with Damascus to return 95 percent of that territory.
And lest we forget, Likud governments energetically built settlements in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Sinai, and Likud governments destroyed settlements in Sinai, Gaza and Samaria.
Fuzzy and confused
This party, whose political outlook is completely fuzzy, confused, and given to constant change, was asked Sunday and Monday to choose between two, clear paths: The dovish path of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the hawkish one of former Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But the process was classic Likud; That is to say, a process of a party concerned only with staying in power.
Read a selection of Ynetnews' coverage of the Likud Central Committee meeting
- Long live the king
- Unity? Not at any price
- Likud member blames Netanyahu for expulsion
- Livnat comes out against Sharon
- Rest in peace, Likud
The question put to Likud Central Committee members was not – God forbid – ideological or historic.
Rather, they were asked to decide the meaningless question of whether party primaries would be held in six months time, or would be pushed up approximately two months from now.
In a stunning display of fleeing the main point in favor of a secondary one, the crucial issue of ending the occupation was packaged in the trivial one of internal party primaries.
In theory, the process gave members the option to oppose Sharon's policies but also oppose pushing up the party elections, either out of concern for the well-being of the party or a particular internal party faction.
Ideological tinge
Still, Sharon's clear victory over his party rivals carries with it an open ideological tinge.
Despite the withdrawal from Gaza, evacuation of settlements, and his speech at the U.N. in which Sharon recognized the national rights of the Palestinians, the Likud Central Committee declared its faith in the prime minister.
Sharon will lead the Likud until the next general election in November, 2006, and it can be assumed he will lead the party for that election as well, if he so chooses.
Slim margins
Netanyahu lost, but he was a hairs-breadth from victory. Sharon won, but was a hairs-breadth from defeat.
There is no way for the two to remain in the same party.
The Likud of 2005 is a trampled, fractured party, sharply divided into two, roughly even camps.
There is something dangerous and undemocratic about turning a large political party into a power-hungry machine, hell-bent on retaining power from election to election.
At the end of the day, with no clear ideological anchor, political parties will be destroyed by the winds of history.
"Primaries Now" vs. "Peace Now"
In the battle between "primaries now" and "peace now", the latter came out victorious. Now, Prime Minister Sharon must set his party leadership battle and broadcast a clear political platform.
It will not be the same Likud Sharon created a generation ago. He has given a divorce, once and for all, to that party.
In its place there is a new party, free of the Likud tradition of the Whole Land of Israel, or even the whole western part of the Land.
This new party will turn to the center of Israeli society with no trace of the old Betar anthem "Two sides of the Jordan River," replaced by the mantra "Occupation is bad for Israel."
Sharon said so himself.
