Kadima after Sharon

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 7 January 2006 | Elliot Jager

[anotherview]

Jan. 7, 2006 21:24
Kadima after Sharon
By ELLIOT JAGER

As these words are being written, Ariel Sharon lies in a coma in the intensive care unit of Hadassah Hospital, Ein Kerem. The prognosis isn't known, yet it's obvious he won't be returning to the Prime Minister's Office. His career is finished. Still, the party he founded at the end of November remains not only politically viable but essential to Israel's political well-being.

Kadima already has an iconic founder, a working party platform, an organizational director (Avigdor Yitzhaki), a plethora of talented politicians and, most importantly, an overarching mission that goes beyond Sharon the man. That mission is to give Israelis a choice between Amir Peretz and Binyamin Netanyahu.

Peretz and those to his left remain convinced that there is a Palestinian negotiating partner, and continue to embrace the ghost of Oslo. Netanyahu, and those to his right, oppose unilateralism and claim to want "a better deal" from the Palestinians. Some desire no deal at all. They are comfortable with the status quo.

That is why Kadima's centrist alternative is no less imperative today than it was when Sharon first broke away from the Likud. Kadima's pragmatism was articulated by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on November 29, when she summarized the new party's political platform:

"The Jewish people have a national and historic right to the Land of Israel; but to maintain a Jewish majority in a Jewish democratic state we have to concede parts of the Land of Israel...."

Thus while Kadima understands the inevitability of a Palestinian Arab state, it certainly does not relish the prospect. It accepts the internationally-brokered road map diplomatic plan - with the explicit proviso that the Palestinians first fulfill their obligations: dismantling the terrorist groups and ending violence and incitement. Kadima calls for maintaining the major settlement blocs, and supports an undivided Jerusalem (a fairly meaningless mantra, I admit).

I'm not suggesting that Kadima's platform could not be improved. For instance, a truly centrist party would favor a civil marriage option as well as support for non-Orthodox conversions.

BUT I'M not deluding myself. Kadima could easily fizzle out, just like Yigal Yadin's Democratic Movement for Change, Yitzhak Mordechai's Center Party, and now Tommy Lapid's Shinui.

For that not to happen, Ehud Olmert, Meir Sheetrit, Tzipi Livni and Avi Dichter, in consultation with other Kadima politicians, will have to make some tough decisions, quickly. Kadima needs not only to replace Sharon but also to display the esprit de corps and unity so abysmally lacking in Likud and Labor.

My own preference is for the 60-year-old Olmert. And I say this despite the fact that as mayor of Jerusalem he neither had my garbage collected as often as I would have liked nor used municipal taxes efficiently.

Olmert is the most seasoned and polished politician in Kadima's ranks, having been mayor of Israel's largest city (1993-2003), a Knesset member, a minister and, previously, a successful attorney. He has excellent English, already knows the key players in Washington, London, Brussels and Berlin, and has the added advantage of being Acting Prime Minister.

He was out front on the need for unilateral disengagement even before the idea captured the support of most Israelis. He was the first to join Kadmia after Sharon established it. And he's cunning enough to follow in Sharon's tactical footsteps. He has an excellent political and familial pedigree in the Jabotinsky movement. He was a member of Betar. All this tells me he's capable of striking the right balance between ideological principle and realpolitik.

Is Olmert a squeaky-clean politician? Let's not kid ourselves. But, like many Israelis, I'd rather have a shrewd, slightly shady character at the helm of the state than a knave or charlatan.

PLATFORM OR no platform, the ethos of Kadima is clear to savvy Israelis. I refer you to the interview published on October 11, 2004 between Sharon's consigliere Dov Weissglass and Haaretz's Avi Shavit.

Here is the lawyer encapsulating the thinking of his foremost client: "Because of his trenchant realism, Arik never believed in permanent settlements: He didn't believe in the one-fell-swoop approach. Sharon doesn't think that after a conflict of 104 years it's possible to come up with a piece of paper that will end the matter.

"...Very quickly we discovered that we were up against a [Palestinian] stone wall, that when you get to the decision-making center, nothing happens."

So what unilateralism does, Weissglass explained, is to "make it possible for Israel to park conveniently in an interim situation that distances us as far as possible from political pressure. It legitimizes our contention that there is no negotiating with the Palestinians."

And so it has been.

The months ahead will not be easy ones. There is the need to deal with the Iranian threat - while emphasizing that this is a problem for the West and not just for Israel. Construction of the security barrier must be accelerated. Ground must be broken on the E1 project to connect Jerusalem to Ma'aleh Adumin - an area where Sharon has dragged his heels.

The next premier must devote himself to defining and solidifying the Israeli consensus, not just on security issues but on a range of domestic priorities to make this society a more equitable and cohesive one.

Kadima can yet make history by reflecting a 21st-century political realignment of the Israeli body politic - one that gives expression to the country's pragmatic mainstream. But it can only do so if its luminaries are able to summon up the altruism to postpone gratification and put the nation first.

[anotherview]

Just one to balance all the anti-Kadima pieces on FR.

[anotherview]

ping.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

I don't even see how you could describe anyone as being "anti-Kadima."

Kadima is a party with no tangible policies, and no discernible leader, which is pretty interesting since insofar as it had any perceptible agenda at all it was embodied by its founder, who has been permanently removed from the political process.

Being "anti-Kadima" is essentially being "anti-nothing."

There's nothing concrete to oppose except a party that's about nothing.

It's akin to being opposed to an episode of Seinfeld.

[doctorhugo]

...and a little balance couldn't hurt a person!

So tell me, in the Land of Zion, the true believer only wishes for one thing:
Lih'yot am chofshi b'artzenu. Eretz Tziyon v'yirushalayim.

If this is so, and we both know it is, then a clear mind and an open heart must recognize this. That there is a need to find a way to somehow make the Palestinian peoples reject those among them that live and breathe for the hatred of Israel and Israelis. My homeland and birth land is here in the US, so I don't have the advantage of your dual perspective. However, I am also wizened by years that you do not have as yet the benefit of. That is to say, I am NOT of the naive persuasion, nor the bleeding heart, but simply one who still at this late date, even admittedly aware of the hateful and violent obstacles, ever the pragmatic realist...still wonders this. If indeed, we are The Chosen, might it not be in this simplicity that the reason is this. We have as our manifest destiny the duty to find the way for true peace in our time. That which no other peoples, nor nation has been able to do.

[anotherview]

Kadima's platform was laid out in detail by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni before the Prime Minister fell ill. It therefore has tangible policies. It also has a leader: Ehud Olmert. Most of the party (basically everyone but Shimon Peres) has pledged support to Olmert for the coming election. So... your post is just plain wrong.

The Kadima platform, as laid out my Minister Livni on 28 November 2005:

• The Israeli nation has a national and historic right to the whole of Israel. However, in order to maintain a Jewish majority, part of the Land of Israel must be given up to maintain a Jewish and democratic state.
• Israel shall remain a Jewish state and homeland. Jewish majority in Israel will be preserved by territorial concessions to Palestinians.
• Jerusalem and large settlement blocks in the West Bank will be kept under Israeli control.
• The Israeli national agenda to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieve two states for two nations will be the road map. It will be carried out in stages: dismantling terror organizations, collecting firearms, implementing security reforms in the Palestinian Authority, and preventing incitement. At the end of the process, a demilitarized Palestinian state devoid of terror will be established.
• Israel's political system will be modified to ensure stability: Legislative proposals will be made to increase the MKs' commitment to enable the public's bypassing central committees and vote contractors, and bring an end to the tyranny of the Likud Central Committee. One possibility would be holding primary, regional and personal elections to the Knesset and the Prime Minister's office.
• Kadima would not rule out a future coalition partnership with any Israeli political party or person.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

That is the most generic, vague list of platitudes and banalities that I've ever come across.

Even for a political party that was born out of political expediency it's surprising how unimpressive that is.

How is bringing an "end to the tyranny of the Likud Central Committee" a vital public policy matter?

Call me crazy, but I think preventing the denizens of Hamasistan, i.e. the Gaza Strip, from importing even more long-range missiles from Hezbollah is a bit more pressing as far as pivotal national issues go.

[Sabramerican]

You're being to kind.

In other words, Israel is to be the Jewish State in those parts we don't give away because there are too many Arabs.

We have a vision of the "Palestinians" being a Light on to the Nations that has dismantled terror and gave up it's arms and desire to kill us.

We hate Likud but would have them in a coalition if necessary.

If none of our fantasies materialize, after we have given up land, we will give up more land, and fantasize some more.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

I honestly don't see how anyone can claim to be a conservative while voting for a party whose standard-bearer is an double-dealing pol like Ehud Olmert, who makes John Kerry look principled by way of comparison.

[anotherview]

This is why I called you (and Caroline Glick, for that matter) delusional in the other thread. Anyone who thinks we can rule over three or four million hostile Arabs is delusional. Anyone who thinks we can remain a Jewish democratic state when Arabs become a majority within our borders is delusional. Anyone who thinks we can "transfer" or kill a few million Arabs without inetrnational intervention and retribution has a suicidal delusion.

[Sabramerican]

Any time you wish to match my analysis of Israeli issues with Ms. Glick's you are more then welcome and I will be complimented. You can even add an insult up to the limit of your limited intellect.

I challenge you to find a single post in my more then five years on FR where I stated an opinion that Israel should retain all the territories. Dare you to find even one. Or a single instance where I advocated transfer as possible policy.

I am against a unilateral surrender. I am against treating Israelis as so much garbage to be discarded and thrown on a heap. I am against the trampling of Democratic norms. I am against corrupt politicians. I am against the clowns who currently run Israel.

I am guessing you no longer will vote for Shinui. I remember when you also implied I was delusional when I predicted they would evaporate.

[Salem]

"...Anyone who thinks we can "transfer" or kill a few million Arabs without inetrnational intervention and retribution has a suicidal delusion."

Yet the Arab world thinks they can kill a few million Jews, and could care less about international "intervention and retribution."

Listen, FRiend, I always appreciated your attempts at seeing this ongoing conflict resolved. But the the hard facts of contemporary reality are lain out everyday here at Free Republic. The environment that prevailed in pre-WW II Germany and Europe is, and has been, re-created again in the wider Middle East and a leftist, Postmodern European Union. It's past "opposing" and "decrying" it in intellectual and cultural circles, it's rolling again now and most evident in its extreme in the whole geopolitical scenario surrounding Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Will the world intervene on behalf of the Jews, should the blind and delusional hatred of fundamentalist Islam propel the Arab world and their allies to move decisively against Israel?

What's different than 60 years ago?

A quote from the Holocaust Chronicle:

"'...Although Israel's cultural, intellectual, and political lives reflect a broad spectrum of issues, always looming over the nation is the specter of a repeat of the Holocaust. Profound Jewish thinker Richard Rubenstein has described the stern resolve of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Israel, which in turn allows us a crucial insight into the Israeli mind: "We may die on the sands of Palestine, but we will never again accommodate ourselves to your good graces or your prejudices. There may some day be another Massada in which every Jew fights to the last man before being overwhelmed by his enemies."

"There will never be another Auschwitz," he continued. "Jews will never again trust in your humanity only to endure the most degrading of impersonal deaths. We have folded our tents. We will be wanderers no longer. We will no longer live among you. For better or worse, we are going home.'" [Permalink]

The world's "humanity" is continually reflected in their daily veiled contempt for the Jews represented in the Nation of Israel. Kadima just does not reflect the grasp of this hardcore reality.

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[doctorhugo]

In Livni's Kadima platform does not ONE thing stand out as madness?

This little excerpt>>>"Jewish majority in Israel will be preserved by territorial concessions to Palestinians." I understand the intent, the meaning; however, any way you slice it..it is what is is acknowledged to be..., a concession. Not just any concession though, yet another concession to rewarding violence and that cannot stand. It is untoward that, yet again, politicians are willing to step backwards and draw another line in the sand. And at what point do they stop backing up? When the Ashqelon seawater laps at their ankles?

For me the bottom line should be...that the ball is in the Palestinian court. It is long past time for THEM, the ludicrous PA, to show by deed that they are and will take open action as a matter of policy and do what must be done. If they can't, so be it. Their collective fate is in THEIR hands, not ours. Israel has bent over backwards to the point of falling on her butt! ENOUGH already!

[Sabramerican]

It's all madness.

Kadima is considered a break away from Likud of the "rational" Likud members. Therefore it has stature as a mature political party.

Just hours ago the news from Israel is that Shimon Peres, who is a normal society would be ashamed to walk the streets considering how much damage he has done and how much Israeli blood has been shed because of his views, is now number two on the Kadima Knesset list.

Kadima is an insane asylum populated by political whores.

[bill1952]

Yet the Arab world thinks they can kill a few million Jews, and could care less about international "intervention and retribution."

Bingo. You now have my vote for whatever.

[doctorhugo]

On the madness....Agreed!

Israel has one obligation to her people and that is to intercept at every opportunity all shipments of arms headed for Hamas and the rest, to continue to dispatch 'kill' teams to wherever to exact retribution swiftly and with finality, and lastly to do whatever it takes to render Iran's threat "non-existent" and SOON.

These goons, and I include all her Arab neighbors, have grown to taking Israel too lightly. The time grows very near for the swift sacrifice of one snake as a lesson to the rest. Then and only then will the resolve from without come to defang the Palestinian terrorists within. Force is all they respect.

[Torie]

The problem with you, is that no one knows where you stand, you trimer you. :)

[Sabramerican]

have grown to taking Israel too lightly

Only one party can plead mia culpa to that truth: Israel

The time grows very near

Olmert, with Peres looking over his shoulder? LOL.

Hope I'm wrong.

[Sabramerican]

Trimer?

[Torie]

You know on the one hand, but on the other hand kind of thing. Wait, maybe I am projecting. (That's a 60's psychobabble term, in case you are a young whippersnapper.)