NUMBER OF DAYS UNTIL THE ISRAELI ELECTION: 15
ISRAELSTREET endorses NAFTALI BENNETT for Prime Minister
Head of “HaBayit HaYehudi” (The Jewish Home) political party
UPDATES 4 pm Israeli time Monday:
The scene in northern and central Israel today.
*Intense flooding in Israel during the last 24 hours as heavy winds and rains continue to pound northern and central Israel with snow on the Golan Heights.
One of hundreds of trees down--this one in Petah Tikvah.
Trees have been uprooted, rivers are overflowing, malls have been closed, and agricultural areas like the Hula Valley are knee deep in water. Roads have also been closed in the Judean Desert.
*PM Netanyahu announced yesterday that a new fence is being built along the Syrian border because of the takeover of Syrian border towns by terror groups such as Al-Qaeda. Soon Israel will be completely enclosed by fences.
*Shin Bet reports that there were 111 Palestinian terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria in the month of December. Within these terror attacks, 98 Molotov cocktails were thrown (29 in Jerusalem), 3 grenades were thrown at Israeli security personnel, and there were multiple shootings and stabbings. Many of the attacks were “rock” attacks against Israeli motorists and IDF soldiers. In addition, two mortars were launched out of Gaza at southern Israel.
TODAY’S BLOG:
With the election only two weeks away, virtually all news in Israel has now turned to politics.
The attempt by Tzipi Livni (Tzipi Livni party) to forge an alliance of the three “center-left” parties ended in failure last night with no one able to agree on anything. For example, Yachimovich of Labor will not join a Netanyahu post-election coalition, but Livni and Lapid (Aesh Atid) will not rule it out. More than this, Lapid in particular says that the values of his party are not those of Labor and Livni–he claims to be “centrist” and accuses the other two of being “leftist.”
Naftali Bennett continues to rise in the polls.
However, the most interesting and accurate comments of the day once again came from the leader of Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home), Naftali Bennett, whom this israelstreet blog endorses for Prime Minister.
In an interview, Bennett voiced many of the concerns that your humble servant has had with Benjamin Netanyahu in the past–and has for a future Netanyahu government. Referring to secret meetings between the representatives of Livni and Netanyahu last week, Bennett said:
“It seems that the prime minister’s plan is, I’m afraid, to form a leftwing government – Likud, Tzipi Livni, Amram Mitzna and Amir Peretz. The last time a national government was elected, a moment after the elections Netanyahu welcomed Barak in. Such a government will again start a futile diplomatic move instead of dealing with the real issues.
Your humble servant could not agree more. In his guise as “Defense Minister”, Ehud Barak has been a disaster for Israel as has his fellow “leftist” Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. Netanyahu’s penchant for surrounding himself with those on the political “left” has done nothing except harm the state of Israel.
More than this, Bennett put his finger exactly on the problem with the “Left”:
“The Left is obsessed with relinquishing parts of the land into the hands of the enemy. We can’t have peace with the Palestinians. Enough. How long can we talk about this? We can only reach coexistence, and those who can reach it are not the ones who go to Annapolis, but rather the settlers, who drive alongside them in Route 60, stand next to them in supermarket checkouts and work with them. We haven’t a shred of hatred for Arabs. The time has arrived for a ‘supermarket peace.'”
The problem can not be stated more eloquently. For more than 64 years Israel has tried and tried to make peace with the Palestinians only to be rejected each time. It is far past time to take the situation for what it is and move on and make the best of it. Coexistence yes, peace no.
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