High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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unity governments don't work
of course not.......the negative or evil in any compromise advances.....the only question is 'how much'?
The author correctly understands that Olmert is a loser, but he lets Sharon off the hook too easily. Sharon was strong, so he could evacuate Gaza. Great. Even this author recognizes this was a mistake, with one sentence that slips out: "Sharon gambled with Israeli lives while expecting nothing in return, which was clearly a bad bet even then."
But more than that, Sharon set up this coalition in the first place, which sure as hell wasn't what he was elected to do when the voters threw out the last major idiot, Ehud Barak. Sharon was the one who made this loser situation possible. It would be one thing if the conservatives had been voted out, but instead he voluntarily turned the country in the direction of weakness and failure. That was not a sensible action by a strong leader. Either he had a minor stroke or he lost his common sense toward the end.
But the article is certainly right about the present government. It is a total disaster.
"When Sharon created Kadima, Israel was in a political stalemate over how to achieve peace."
Torn between religious wackos and leftwing peace nuts, Kadima was and is in theory the appropriate vehicle for achieving peace for Isreal. Having it run by Olmert however is unfortunante.
A familiar problem to us Americans. Must be the nature of the beast.
Great post, SJackson. Thanks!
Israel needs to recreate its governmental system to provide for dirct election of representatives to the Knesset. As it is, people vote for a party only, and that means that the party leaders who decide who gets which rank in the party slate are the only kingmakers. It also means that a party that receives 5% of the vote throughout the country will get 5% of the Knesset (6 seats), thereby diluting the representation of those who received a majorty/plurality.
Oh, and to top it off Israel's Supreme Court under its recently-retired chief justice has become wildly activist in ways that Americans can only dream of. The Supreme Court badly needs to be reined in.