Posted on 02/15/2006 7:41:33 AM PST by Ziva
By Susan L. Rosenbluth, The Jewish Voice and Opinion, Englewood, NJ
Someone once joked that the Israeli chicken is made up of a Left wing and a Right wing and nothing in the middle. These days, not only is this true, it seems to be getting worse. With elections coming at the end of March, the two sides are locked in a struggle in which the lack of trust is the only common denominator.
Neither the Right nor the Left accepts Kadima, which was started by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last November, as “centrist,” if that term means finding middle ground between the right- and left-wing positions. The Right sees Kadima as essentially a left-wing party, and Mr. Sharon acknowledged that he began Kadima because he could not move Likud as far to the Left as he wanted to go. The Left sees Kadima as accepting left-wing arguments, but not necessarily left-wing solutions.
“Kadima wants to disengage unilaterally from the Palestinians, while we would have preferred negotiations. But even Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed that unilateral withdrawals might lead to negotiations,” said Louis Roth, assistant executive director of Americans for Peace Now.
Doing Anything
Those on the Left and Right are deeply suspicious that the other will do anything—legal or questionable—to win the next elections.
The Left looks at the Right and sees violent youths who, the Left says, are not content merely to break the law; they see youths who do not even recognize the secular law. Many Leftists are convinced that from the ranks of the Right, a future assassin is lying in wait for a Left-wing Israeli prime minister, possibly even Mr. Olmert, 60.
For its part, the Right sees the Left as secular humanists who neither know nor care about Jewish tradition, true Jewish values, or Jewish history. The Right is convinced the Left, which includes the courts, the media, many academicians, and left-wing politicians, are determined to give away the Land that constitutes the Jewish patrimony.
Many on the Right believe the Left would be happiest if the Religious-Zionist camp picked up stakes and left the country.
State Funeral?
A case in point showing just how serious the distrust has become, is the current discussion among some right-wingers concerning Mr. Sharon’s deteriorating state of health.
“We are deeply suspicious that the Left is planning to keep Prime Minister Sharon alive (at least in the public’s perception) until shortly before elections, and then they will hold an enormous State funeral, with Ehud Olmert presiding and George Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and all the European heads of state in attendance. The pretext will be that they are there to honor Sharon; the truth is they will be there to give Olmert’s election chances a boost. Their battle cry will be to elect Olmert for the ‘Sharon legacy,’” said Yossi Fuchs, head of the legal department of the right-wing organization, Land of Israel Forum.
The sudden decision on February 11, once again to rush the 77-year-old Mr. Sharon into the operating room, did nothing to alter the Right’s suspicions.
“For one month, ever since Sharon collapsed the second time, the public has been left completely in the dark concerning his condition. We know nothing. We fear he may be dead or even brain-dead, and that they are keeping him alive so that the Left can stage his funeral,” said Mr. Fuchs.
“Serious but Stable”
According to Israeli news reports, Mr. Sharon has been in “serious but stable” condition since enduring several rounds of emergency surgery last month to stop brain hemorrhaging that followed his January 4th stroke.
A scan of his digestive tract early February 11 reportedly revealed restricted blood flow, and Mr. Sharon was rushed into the operating room at Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital, where, during four hours of surgery, doctors reportedly removed nearly two feet, or roughly one-third, of his large intestine.
After surgery, Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of Hadassah-Ein Kerem, reported that Mr. Sharon remained in the same “serious but stable condition.”
“The surgery didn’t improve Sharon’s health,” said Mr. Mor-Yosef.
Incapacitated
Mr. Fuchs believes that, in January, after Mr. Sharon suffered his second, more massive stroke, Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz should have pronounced the prime minister “permanently unable to fulfill his duties.” In that case, the Right fully expected Mr. Mazuz, who is widely seen by the Right as part of the left-wing establishment, to appoint Mr. Olmert, who is part of Mr. Sharon’s Kadima faction, to fill his place.
Before the pronouncement could be made, Mr. Fuchs went to the Supreme Court to argue that, in Mr. Sharon’s permanent absence, the new prime minister should come from the faction “on behalf of which the original prime minister was elected,” in other words, the Likud. That would have meant Benjamin Netanyahu, as leader of the Likud, would have been named prime minister, at least until elections were held.
“Sharon’s mandate belonged to Likud and to choose a prime minister from a different party was akin to replacing the regime without elections,” said Mr. Fuchs.
“Temporary”
But Mr. Mazuz never pronounced Mr. Sharon permanently incapacitated. He used another designation: perpetually temporarily incapacitated. This meant Mr. Sharon’s official second-in-command, Mr. Olmert, assumed the position, “temporarily.”
According to Mr. Fuchs, the entire issue was, in fact, only theoretical. Even if Mr. Sharon had been pronounced permanently incapacitated, the acting government under Mr. Olmert would have had 100 days before being required to turn over the reins to Mr. Netanyahu. By that time, new elections would have been held, making the entire exercise moot.
Nevertheless, the Right saw Mr. Mazuz’s designation of Mr. Sharon’s status as just another left-wing tactical action to prevent the Right from assuming its legitimate position. The Left saw it as allowing Mr. Sharon’s “legacy” to continue.
Dead?
Of course, if Mr. Sharon had expired, Mr. Netanyahu, as leader of Likud, would have been given the immediate right to form a new government until Election Day, according to Israeli law.
Many on the Right have expressed the gnawing suspicion that Mr. Sharon may, in fact, already be dead, and that his status is being hidden by the Left.
“If that were so, Kadima, too, might be dead,” said Mr. Fuchs.
Paranoia
Leaders of the Left while recognizing the almost complete lack of trust on both sides, dismissed these suspicions.
“The level of paranoia and conspiracy thinking on the part of the Right really goes overboard sometimes. It is exceedingly cruel to believe Sharon’s children would do this to their father,” said Mr. Roth.
Larry Garber, executive director of the left-wing New Israel Fund, called the Right’s suspicion that the government would plan to hold Mr. Sharon’s funeral at a time most politically beneficial for Mr. Olmert “silly, ridiculous, and not deserving of comment.”
Extreme
David Saranga, the Israeli Consul for Media and Public Relations in New York, said, in the last five years, the Israeli Right and Left have both grown “more extreme.” As a result, he said, “the center” has “grown tremendously,” but he refused to name Kadima as the personification of that elusive “center.”
The major event dividing the Right and Left, he said, was the disengagement from Gaza and Northern Samaria in August 2005, and, with it, the expulsion of 10,000 Jews from their homes and communities.
“This was the line that defined the Israelis. Those in favor of the disengagement support territorial concessions; those opposed favor sticking to the ideology of ‘greater Israel,” said Mr. Saranga. “That is where the Left and Right are today.”
Solidified by Hamas
Some observers say that the elections in the Palestinian Authority in January further solidified the differences between the Israeli Right and Left. When Hamas won the elections, the Israeli Left saw the results as indicative that the Left-wing argument was correct in maintaining that there is no “partner” on the Palestinian side and that Israel should engage in unilateral withdrawals to disengage from the Arabs.
The Right, on the other hand, saw in the Palestinian elections an Arab conviction that, in unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, Israel had rewarded the terrorists, teaching them terrorism would pay handsome dividends.
Asked about the funeral that the Right fears the Left might be planning for Mr. Sharon, Mr. Saranga called it “nonsense.”
“The doctors of Hadassah Hospital are doing their utmost to cure Sharon. All Jews would do better to pray for him now and not deal with such a strange hypothesis,” he said.
Mr. Fuchs was not convinced. “The Left understands how much they need Olmert in these weeks before elections. If they pronounce Sharon dead now, Olmert would be through,” he said.
An expanded version of this article will be published in the 2/24/06 issue of The Jewish Press.
Its because the left, much like here in this country, cannot be trusted with national security.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
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"Its because the left, much like here in this country, cannot be trusted with national security."
True. I completely distrust the Left, both here and in Israel. However, I have to add that the Israeli Right seems insane to me. (I am an American Jew.)
I should add, I am basing this on a few recent things I've read, not an overall long-term impression. My statement should've been narrower.
What's so insane about not wanting to feed pieces of Israel to the crocodile? The right wants to defend every piece of Israeli soil (hard fought and won in previous wars). Sharon and the left want to disengage from Judea itself.
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