95 Days Until the Election
UPDATES 7 pm Israel time, Thursday, December 11 2014:
—>Election updates:
*Gideon Sa’ar has decided not to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu in the Likud primaries following Netanyahu’s successful attempt to move up Likud primaries to the last week of this month. As has been written on this blog previously, the Israeli public is suffering from Netanyahu-fatigue and Sa’ar may have been Likud’s best chance of hanging on to power.
*Moshe Kahlon has named his new party “Kulanu”–which means “All of us.” While he has yet to publish a list of those running with him, if those whom he has approached agree to join him, Kulanu will be a force to be reckoned with. Expect Kulanu to steadily rise in the polls.
*Your humble continues to shake his head in disbelief at the agreement that Herzog of Labor has agreed to with Livni of Hatenua. Announced at a joint press conference yesterday, the agreement calls for a rotating prime ministership with Herzog taking the first two years and Livni the last two.
The new Herzog-Livni combo cartooned on facebook this morning (photo: elkin).
In the first place, why did Herzog rescue Livni from the political dead and give her the store? Polls showed that Labor was likely to win about 16 seats in the coming election and that Hatenua was likely to win none. The reason that Hatenua was likely to win none is simply because of Tzipi Livni’s extreme unpopularity. What does Hertzog gain by hanging the Livni albatross around Labor’s neck?
In the second place, why did Herzog antagonize his own base in the Labor Party? Herzog has guaranteed 4 spots high on the Labor list to people in Hatenua instead of people in Labor. None of the legislators on the Labor back bench are happy about Livni.
In the third place, why did Herzog virtually ensure that he will not be prime minister after the election? Yisrael Beiteinu (Lieberman) and Kulanu (Kahlon) will almost certainly not enter into a coalition headed, jointly or otherwise, by Livni.
So what did Herzog stand to gain? A temporary bump in the polls? Interestingly, a poll taken yesterday showed the Herzog-Livni team getting 22 seats in the coming election. Another poll today has that number down to 20. Similarly a poll yesterday that seemed to show that the Herzog-Livni prime ministership was favored by the Israeli public has changed today. Today’s poll has Netanyahu favored by 26%, Herzog-Livni by 23%, and Bennett by 13%.
By the way, in a deft Orwellian move, the ultra lefties Herzog and Livni are rebranding themselves as “the Zionist Center”. What a joke.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Rotten to the core.
That is the only way to describe the Ministry of Defense and the IDF General Command. And whereas your humble servant has been saying this for a long time, particularly in relationship to the war this summer with Hamas, two interviews given yesterday only serve to confirm this description.
Both interviews were given concerning the death yesterday of Palestinian terrorist Zaid Abu Ein–a remorseless, cold-blooded murderer who blew apart two Israeli teenagers in 1979 and who was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Israel in the years following his 1985 release in a Palestinian murderer release/exchange for three Israeli soldiers captured in Lebanon.
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First we had our so-called “Defense” Minister Moshe Ya’alon. Speaking on Israel’s Channel 10 news, Ya’alon opined: “We are sorry for the death of Ziad Abu Ein. The event in which Abu Ziad died is being investigated by the IDF. We are sorry for his death.”
Say what? Israel’s Defense Minister is sorry that one of the worst terrorists walking around in Judea and Samaria died from a heart attack that he had while trying to illegally enter and disrupt a Jewish community? Unbelievable.
But there was more.
IDF COGAT head Gen. Yoav Mordechai was interviewed on BBC TV yesterday. Here is a brief transcript of that interview:
Mordechai: “I wish to express sorrow for the death of Ziad Abu Ein.”
BBC Interviewer: “Is this an apology?”
Mordechai: “What happened is not acceptable to us and we are upset about that.”
Give me a break. What should not be acceptable to everyone is that Abu Ziad bombed a group of teenagers, served virtually no time in prison, and lived the life of a terrorist king for the last 30 years. What Mordechai should be upset about is that Abu Ziad was not executed for his heinous murders of David Lankri and Boaz Lahav back in 1979.
One person who has not forgotten those murders is the brother of Boaz Lahav. Speaking yesterday, Yaron Lahav spoke for your humble servant when he said:
“It is shocking to see how our enemies appoint a child killer to serve as their minister and leader. I do not have a sense of comfort when I see how this filthy murderer won by reaching an old age and dieing of a heart attack without being punished appropriately for the murder of innocent children.”
Yaron could have added the Ministry of Defense and IDF General Command to the reason why he is shocked.
Defending terrorists at every turn. Trying to be politically correct. Delegitimizing Israel at every opportunity. Rotten to the core.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.