Eitan Haber
Tal Cohen
Recipe for political disaster
Eitan Haber offers nine remarks in wake of election results, calls for changing system
1. It’s complicated. Tzipi Livni won, yet Netanyahu will apparently be the prime minister. However, much still depends on the final results. One thing is clear to every Israeli voter: The political system is crushed.
Political logic dictates that Netanyahu needs to steal the carpet from under Tzipi’s feet, and therefore today he shall attempt to bring together the National Camp on all its factions and parties. Only after he secures 61 Knesset seats, he shall turn to Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak and offer them to join him. Their price on the political market will be very low by then. This way the National Camp’s dream shall be realized: Crush Kadima and break the Labor Party.
2. A wild dream: I dreamt a wild, delusional, crazy dream the night before Election Day: The moment the final results are published, Benjamin Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, and Ehud Barak make a joint appearance on our television screens. In simple Hebrew they say: In the face of the security, diplomatic and economic threats expected by the State of Israel in the next year or two, we decided to join forces, to only see the welfare of the country before us, and to form a joint government. This government shall remain in power until the Israeli and global solution to the Iranian nuclear issue is found, or until we take a joint decision. For the time being, this appears to be a realistic opportunity only if we see a rotation between Livni and Netanyahu.
3. And who will be the prime minister? The answer is very simple: The head of the largest faction, in line with the final results of the elections, rather than the results of the exit polls or almost-final results.
4. We’re screwed (part 1). The election results allow the rightist bloc with Lieberman plus Shas, United Torah Judaism, the Jewish Home, and National Union to form a government. Yet I bet this is Bibi Netanyahu’s nightmare. As opposed to those who trust in God, Bibi, the man of the world, knows that the State of Israel’s existence – yes, existence! – depends on legitimacy on the part of the nations of the world, and a rightist government like the one he can form will be an ostracized and blacklisted one-time event.
Last week it was published that Iran and Israel are the two countries most hated by international public opinion. Now, the last thing Bibi Netanyahu needs is to compete with Ahmadinejad for top spot.
5. We’re screwed (part 2). The three largest parties, all of which failed to secure even 30 mandates, are a recipe for political disaster. In the absence of a solid base of at least one large party, the next elections are merely a matter of time.
6. The next elections. Write it down: The next Knesset elections will be held in the summer of 2010.
7. What for? Does anyone remember why we had elections yesterday? What did the parties say? What will be the agenda? What did we vote on yesterday?
8. Despair meets despair. On Tuesday, near the polling stations, we saw and heard the various sectors of the Israeli nation. We encountered the reasoning of voters as to who to vote for, and the information they possessed about the various candidates, parties, and their future plans. After he was elected, Menachem Begin said that “we have a wise people.” He of course meant to the wisdom of the people who voted for him. Begin is no longer here with us – and we allow ourselves to doubt his lofty descriptions.
9. Governability. A new word entered our lexicon, governability – the ability to govern. Well, no government in the past years had the ability the govern, and the next government won’t have it either. As long as the government system in Israel allows every bastard to be king and every prime minister is trampled over, there’s no governability. We already tried out several government systems – perhaps the time has come to try out the presidential system of government?
