Hanoch Daum
Photo: Rafi Deloya
Tzipi, I expected more
Hanoch Daum unimpressed with Tzipi Livni’s conduct in the wake of general elections
Oh, Tzipi,
Tzipi, I really did not expect such a pathetic speech.
What was your victory declaration at 1 am Wednesday all about? What did you mean when you said that “the people chose Kadima?” Which people exactly? Because my people, Tzipi, mostly chose the National Camp, with a solid majority of 65 Knesset seats compared to 45 mandates won by the Zionist leftist camp.
I find it difficult to comprehend, Tzipi, how you stood up there on stage, a rather intelligent woman after all, and explained that the nation unequivocally wants you as the prime minister. How could you say that the people have spoken and that the people chose Kadima, when the numbers, oh the numbers, say something else entirely?
How idiotic is this nation in your view? How much nonsense courtesy of your public relations advisors can it swallow?
Indeed, there was some kind of shift in the last two days before the elections, and it is indeed possible that your party won a few thousand votes more than Likud, particularly at the expense of Meretz and the Labor Party. So what?
This is not how the system works, for crying out loud. This is not a system of government where you directly elect the prime minister. This is a representative Knesset. This system is about blocs. It may be a miserable system, but this is the system. And you cannot change this system with a ridiculous and childish speech.
In your speech you said that you will form a government. How will you do that, Ms. Livni, how? With the fewer than 50 Knesset seats that the leftist bloc won? You were unable to do it when you had 70 mandates to work with, so how will you do it with 50?
National unity now
Benjamin Netanyahu will be the State of Israel’s next prime minister. If he has no choice, he will have to form a rightist national government, and a year from now, when things relax, he will have to start evacuating outposts, thereby removing the most rightist parties from his government and replacing them with rightist elements from Kadima, which will crumble in the opposition.
Of course, it would be better to form a national unity government at this time already, yet Livni, which knows how to explain how much this nation needs and wants unity, is unwilling to act in a noble manner and admit that this national unity government is good even if she doesn’t head it.
Livni wants unity, but not that much. For her, the national interest is less important than her own interest.
Netanyahu will want to save the economy after all. Will Shas allow him to do that? He will want to evacuate outposts. Will the National Union allow him to do that? If he wants to change the system of government, will United Torah Judaism allow that?
The right thing is for Livni to join Netanyahu, yet she apparently won’t do it. She prefers to try to drag this nation to another election in two years, rather than show responsibility and help Netanyahu lead the country to a new road.
