Acting PM Olmert
Photo: Reuters
Corruption? Who cares?
Only thing Kadima's spin-masters aren't ready for is public waking up
There was hearty laughter last night at the home of one senior Kadima Party aide, a man very close to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"Worried?" he laughed. "Why should I be worried? After the campaign we ran for Arik Sharon during the Greek Island Affair, and after the whole thing with Omri Sharon and the rest of the Sharon family scandals, do you really think I'm going to get all worked up over Ehud Olmert and a few rent shenanigans? Do me a favor. Apart from a few newspaper editors who think Kadima is too strong, these scandals don't interest anyone."
Ehud Olmert's house sale and the subsequent criticism by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz about the fact that Kadima member and Minister Tzahi Hanegbi has remained in power don't bother the folks in Kadima. Up there in the stratosphere of 40 Knesset seats, they apparently know things that regular people don't.
But the things they see from there, up on the mountain of seats, can also be seen from down below. In other words: Israeli voters don't really care that their elected officials are corrupt.
And if anyone still had any doubts, this has been checked empirically. Just ask Olmert's advisors. They've checked.
Horror scenarios
For a long time, Reuven Adler and Eyal Arad, Kadima's mega-spin advisors, have kept hidden away two files the Labor and Likud parties would die to get their hands on. These files, according to Kadima officials who claim they exist, include horror films to respond to any problems that come up, and the most embarrassing details the two rival parties could possibly come up with during the campaign in order to stick it to Kadima.
In the meanwhile, the only scenario not found in Adler's and Arad's coffers is the possibility the public could awake from its deep hibernation. Were the Israeli electorate to wake up, pull its nose out of the cave and start to take an interest in its future representatives from Kadima, were people to pay attention to Meir Sheetrit's performance Tuesday in which he appeared like a version of Amir Peretz without the mustache – they would reveal that Kadima's picture isn't so great, and Olmert… how do I say it gently… is no stranger to waffling.
But this horror scenario won't apparently come true, at least not during this election campaign. For the voter, hibernation is the easier option. They snore away, squeeze open an eye to look at one more "exclusive" report about this-or-another scandal, and they go back to sleep. It's a lot more comfortable to pass the winter without thinking about it.
Bringing Ehud
And what's been happening in the Labor Party in the meanwhile? If up to now Ehud Barak's name has been whispered and hinted at in smoke-filled hallways, in recent days the party's election headquarters has been brimming with the name of the former prime minister.
Just a few weeks after Amir Peretz decided not to include Barak on the party's Knesset list, and the most hated person in the party has become a sort of messiah-on-white-donkey, a man for whom everything under the sun must be done to get him back in the picture.
The silence Barak has imposed on himself since deciding not to embarrass himself by forming a new party has done wonders for him. He spends part of his time in Israel, part abroad, and while he is here he says nothing. He doesn't give interviews, doesn't criticize, doesn't analyze.
Barak decided to forego the "I" so natural to him, and not to say anything.
Just don't blame me
He is giving Peretz and the Labor Party a chance to deal with the challenges (some will say deal with the failures) alone. Just don't come crying to him afterwards, don't say he destroyed someone's campaign.
Hamas' victory in the PA brings Barak back to the picture without his being in it at all. Last Friday, party secretary Eitan Cabel announced a new initiative to bring Barak back into the party, with Amir Peretz's blessing.
Since then, several additional facts have become clear that are meant, perhaps, to lead at the end of the day to a broad political maneuver that would get Barak back in the game and would give Labor the ability to deal with diplomatic and security challenges.
Because Peretz, with all due respect to his vacations in Morocco and Egypt, has still not managed to convince anyone he knows how to fight terrorism. It's that simple.
So what's happening?
So why isn't anything moving? In actual fact, it's not so clear that nothing is moving. Since last Wednesday, when Peretz gave the okay to start wooing Barak, the pressure has built.
While there are still no direct contacts between Barak's and Peretz's offices, and Cabel is taking his time on this matter (despite being pushed by more than a few people) – but more and more senior people in the Labor Party, including some of Peretz's closest advisors, have been saying in recent days: We need Ehud.
Those in the party looking to curry favor with Barak hope these moves will lead eventually to a process that will bring the ex-prime minister back into the picture and back into the game.
So what if polls show that Ehud is not liked? So what if most Israelis find him annoying? There is one thing you can't take away from him: When he speaks about Hamas, or the Palestinian Authority, or Hizbullah, or Iran – no one is looking at his mustache. Not even at his balding head.
People simply listen to Barak. They really do. And that is what the Labor Party is lacking today. They need people to listen to them.
