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Home Front: Politix

Liberal Jews Turn on Obama Over Iran Deal

2015-04-14

[ALGEMEINER] The top political and intellectual leaders of the Israeli left are coming out against President B.O.'s capitulation to Iran. This development will impact the political dynamics in Israel, the American Jewish community, and the US-Israel relationship. And it will leave J Street on the fringe, once again. I believe they're discounting Short Attention Span Syndrome. The mantle of "Hope and Change" is shifting from B.O. to The Divine Mrs. C. At some point in the next year she will make the approximate statement "Israel has had no better friend than I!" Purportedly intelligent Jewish donors, their eyes blank, will utter "Hokay" and write the same checks they always write. Money being fungible, those checks will mingle with other checks, drawn on Arab banks, written by people who heard the other speech, about how Hill and Bill stand with the Paleostinian People™ and always have. Israel's Labor Party opposition, known during the recent election campaign as the Zionist Union, issued an official blurb on April 2 criticizing Obama's Iran deal. The head of the party's Knesset delegation, MK Eitan Cabel, elaborated on his Facebook page: "I refuse to join those applauding the agreement with Iran, because the truth is it keeps me awake at night. President B.O. promises that if the Iranians cheat, the world will know, but isn't that exactly what the Americans promised after the agreement with North Korea?" The senior Labor Party official continued: "When a crazy religious regime with a proven track record of terrorism and cheating receives permission to get that close to a nuclear bomb, I am very worried. The fact that the man who is in charge of making sure the deal won't be broken has a proven record of mocking his own redlines, makes me even more worried." Calling Prime Minister Netanyahu's efforts against the Iran deal "a correct struggle," the Labor Party MK emphasized that he is "standing behind Netanyahu" because "in the face of a nuclear Iran, there is no coalition and there is no opposition--we are all Israelis." Meanwhile, ...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... Haaretz editor Aluf Benn, himself a virulent critic of Netanyahu in the past, wrote on April 5 that Netanyahu's call for the international community to insist that Iran recognize Israel's right to exist was taken directly from the campaign rhetoric of Labor Party chairman Yitzhak Herzog. There are signs of change among leading Israeli left-wing intellectuals, as well. Israeli author Ari Shavit, who has been the darling of the American Jewish left because of his recent book urging more Israeli concessions to the Arabs, may find himself with fewer speaking engagements on these shores in the near future, now that he too has come out against the Iran capitulation.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Reaction over Lebanon war report: Olmert refuses to resign as cabinet minister quits

2007-05-02

A member of Ehud Olmert’s cabinet quit on Tuesday, opening the first crack in Israel’s government after the prime minister vowed to ride out a scathing reprimand by an inquiry into last year’s costly Lebanon war. Announcing he was stepping down, Eitan Cabel, a minister without portfolio from the Israeli leader’s main governing partner, the Labour Party, told a news conference: “I cannot sit in a government headed by Ehud Olmert.” Cabel said Olmert “must resign” after the Winograd Commission probing the conflict with Hezbollah gunmen listed severe failings on the part of the premier, Defence Minister Amir Peretz of Labour and the army chief, who has already quit. The panel said the government had rubber-stamped the decision to go to war but Olmert bore “supreme responsibility” for launching the air, sea and land offensive without a proper plan after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12. The government-appointed commission, however, stopped short of recommending that Olmert step down. A snap Israel Radio opinion poll after its interim report examining the start of the war found that 69 percent of Israelis wanted Olmert to go. Olmert, who heads the centrist Kadima party, said he would not resign, insisting he was the best man to put things right. “It would not be right to quit and I have no intention of doing so,” Olmert told Israelis in a concise televised address, hours after the nation watched former Supreme Court judge Eliyahu Winograd read out sharp criticism of his actions. Cabel said he would try to persuade Labour to pull out of its power-sharing partnership with Kadima. Labour holds a leadership election on May 28 that Peretz is widely expected to lose. Labour holds 19 of the Olmert coalition’s 78 seats in the 120-member parliament. A survivor of decades at the heart of Israel’s combative politics, Olmert declared himself “indestructible” last month. “This government made the decisions and this government will deal with correcting the defects,” Olmert told the nation on Monday. The cabinet would meet on Wednesday to discuss how.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Opposition to PM's 'cowardly' inquiry decision grows

2006-08-31

Opposition to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to launch two committees of inquiry swelled in the Knesset Tuesday, as politicians rejected his decision as "insufficient and cowardly." Labor ministers Ophir Paz-Pines and Eitan Cabel added their voices to the growing complaints about the decision and promised they would vote against it in the upcoming cabinet meeting. "I intend to oppose [Olmert's decision] in the government, and will try to convince other ministers," said Paz-Pines. "The commission Olmert has appointed to investigate the political echelons does not have clear authority or a timetable, and increasing the number of commissions of inquiry will lead to chaos." Knesset members were disappointed Monday night when Olmert ignored their calls for a state committee of inquiry, which would have the authority to conduct a comprehensive investigation and dismiss officials if it saw fit. The two committees formed by Olmert will independently investigate the government's handling of the war. While the opposition party MKs sounded their criticism of Olmert's decision immediately following his announcement, opponents within the coalition have been slower to emerge. Several MKs have taken parliamentary action against Olmert, including MK Arye Eldad (NU-NRP), who filed a private bill to call for a state commission, and MK Uri Ariel (NU-NRP), who called on Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to convene the Knesset immediately for an emergency session. In the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, all of the MKs save the three Kadima MKs issued a call for a state commission on Tuesday. While opposition among the MKs grew, there was little they could do to force Olmert to retract the two inquiry committees and form a state commission. If, however, enough ministers were convinced to vote against the inquiry committees, Olmert could be faced with a serious rebellion that might lead to reevaluating the coalition, said a source in the Prime Minister's Office. That type of rebellion remained unlikely, however, as many ministers said they were still gauging the public's reaction and the ongoing reservist protests before they decided on their support. Most important may be the decision by Defense Minister and Labor chairman Amir Peretz. Sources close to Peretz said he was still weighing his options, but had no fear of a state commission of inquiry. "It would be seen as a real slap in the face if Peretz joined the opposition to Olmert's decision," said one source in the Defense Ministry. The declaration by Cabel, however, who serves as Labor faction chairman and has been a close ally to Peretz, could nudge Peretz closer to the opposition. "Peretz has been having trouble keeping support in the party, and he might be forced to join the opposition so that he can reel in criticism that he has become an Olmert lackey," said one senior Labor Party official. Labor MKs Avishay Braverman, Ami Ayalon, Danny Yatom and Matan Vilna'i, who have led the rebellion against Peretz's leadership, have all come out against the two inquiry committees and in favor of a state commission of inquiry.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Kadima does well in polling despite Sharon's illness

2006-01-12

Ariel Sharon's party and his likely successor Ehud Olmert received a boost Wednesday from polls showing they would easily win Israel's March election even without the incapacitated prime minister at the helm. The latest surveys put Sharon's centrist Kadima Party well ahead of its rivals, though campaigning has been frozen since the 77-year-old leader suffered a massive stroke a week ago. Kadima, which Sharon formed to capitalize on broad backing for Israel's Gaza pullout in September, already had been widely favored to win a sweeping victory in the March 28 election. But after the January 4 stroke, many political analysts had questioned whether the party, largely seen as a product of the force of Sharon's personality and shifting approach to the Palestinians, could survive. However, polls in the Haaretz and Maariv dailies found that Kadima led by interim Prime Minister Olmert, Sharon's deputy, would take 44-45 seats in Israel's 120-seat Parliament, its strongest showing so far. The polls predicted the center-left Labor Party under Amir Peretz would get 16-18 seats while the rightist Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu after Sharon's defection, would fall to third place with 13-15 seats. Labor secretary general Eitan Cabel dismissed Kadima's rise in the polls as an "expression of public sympathy" for Sharon and predicted the effects would wear off. Even Kadima's campaign manager, Cabinet minister Tsahi Hanegbi, voiced surprise, saying: "Some of this is certainly an emotional vote." Many Israelis doubt Olmert, 60, a former Jerusalem mayor and Sharon loyalist who has served in the prime minister's shadow, has the stature and charisma to take bold steps with the Palestinians that Sharon may have envisioned. Much of Sharon's popularity in Israel stems from a belief that he could take diplomatic action that no one else could get away with, given his background as an archetypal hawk.

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