Finally, Farewell to Tsipi Livni, Failed Politician

It's hard to know where to start when discussing Tsipi Livni, who formally announced her exit from active politics today.

I was lucky to catch the live broadcast and to hear and watch it. And to make it even better was the interview from a few months ago, which they showed right afterwards.

Simply put, it was a rather pathetic end to the career of a woman, who had worked her way up the political ladder and got within millimeters of the premiership of the State of Israel. Livni succeeded Ehud Olmert as head of the then ruling Kadima Party, which they had established after breaking away from the Likud. Both Livni and Olmert had come from Betar-Revisionist homes but moved Leftward politically. When Olmert was forced to resign due to corruption indictments, Livni took over the party.

Under Livni's leadership Kadima received more Knesset seats than Likud in the 2009 elections, but she failed in the task of forming a ruling coalition. Likud's Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu succeeded in forming a coalition and has been Prime Minister ever since. This bit of history is very important in understanding the Israeli political system. It's not enough to have good ideas and policies to be Prime Minister of the State of Israel. You must be an extraordinary politician and be able to negotiate and work with people. And this also explains why the polls keep talking about Left and Right blocs. No Israeli Political Party will get over 50% of the votes, over sixty 60 of the one hundred and twenty 120 Knesset seats. An Israeli Prime Minister must be skilled at juggling while walking a circus tightrope.

Tsipi Livni not only failed in her attempt to form a coalition, the breakup of her later political "marriage" to the Labor party showcased her lack of true political skills. Today Livni's claim that her policies are the right ones, but it's her lack of political power that is stopping her, just shows how little she understands. She has insufficient political power, because not enough people like her, and they don't agree with her policies. It certainly hasn't helped that she's with a different party each election.

It's rather ironic that the extreme Left Meretz party is the only one to have shown up to show support to Livni today. But the truth is that Tsipi Livni has burnt too many bridges in her political career to be missed by ordinary Israelis.

Tsipi Livni's still young. Will she join other failed politicians like Ehud Barak on the international lecture circuit? Will she write her memoirs? No doubt we'll be hearing from her. International Leftist "think tanks" love our rejected and failed "leaders." She won't starve; that's for sure.

The Israeli Political System, So Difficult to Understand

I just visited Caroline Glick's facebook page and joined the well-wishers hoping that she'll be one of those chosen for the "discretionary" places/numbers, that Likud party leader Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu can add to the list without the expense and gamble of going through primaries.

Likud voters gave Netanyahu the right to choose the candidates who will be in the 11th and 23rd spots on the Likud candidates list.
He decided to ask the public for recommendations on his official Facebook page.
Among the names suggested were Glick, former Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fisher, Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, economist Shlomo Ma’oz, journalists Roni Daniel and Ben-Dror Yemini, television personality Avri Gilad, former Maccabi Tel Aviv star Tal Brody, former Shas MK Haim Amsalem and Shurat Hadin – Israel Law Center Executive Director Nitzana Darshan-Leitner.
“I’m very humbled that members of the public have put my name forward as their desired representative in the Knesset,” Glick said. “I don’t know if now is the right time for me and my family for a move into politics, but I do know that the people of Israel are the strongest, bravest people in the world and deserve equally valiant leaders.”

Duh? You may say. What sort of systematic democracy is that? I'm going to come clean and admit that I did vote against giving Bibi the right to add names.

I commented to Caroline, that although I would really like to see her in the Knesset, I still won't vote for Likud. I want Bibi to have to bring in a large more Right wing nationalist pro-Jews in all of the Land of Israel party into his coalition. I don't want him to feel that he has the "Right label" and Right vote, while pushing the Left's policies which he has been doing for years.

Of course there's then the obvious question, which I also asked yesterday:

Is there a reliably Right party in the Israeli political spectrum?

Sadly, I can't find it. Otzma Yehudit is not promoting itself professionally nor competently. It's more like an "underground group."

As I wrote yesterday, I may vote for the newly revamped NRP-Bayit Yehudi which seems to be evolving into what Likud should have been or should/could be if it hadn't gone so far Left.

I'm not afraid of Bibi's Likud getting fewer seats than Labor, because forming a government coalition is not a simple game of Arithmetic. It's advanced Mathematics and requires political skills that Bibi has way above Herzog and the political nymphomaniac Tsipi Livni, who has switched political beds too many times for anyone to take seriously.

And if the Mutt and Jeff team really pull it off, I'd love to see Bibi in opposition to teach him a valuable lesson. I can't imagine Labor's government lasting very long.

Just two more months until elections. Let's see what happens.

Obama Blames Israel Equally with P.A.'s Abbas

I once almost threw out an American consular official from our house for equating us "settlers" with Hamas terrorists, but my husband wouldn't support me on it. It was not long after the Arab terror attack on buses from Shiloh, which caused the death of my friend Rachella Druk, to the demonstration asking PM Shamir to be firm for Israel during the Madrid Conference. My husband had asked why American Jews who live in YESHA weren't invited to consular events. The official replied that they also don't invite the terrorists from Hamas. I told that official that he had a lot of nerve equating us with the murderers who killed my friend who's buried just down there, as  pointed in the direction of the newly inaugurated, with Rachalla's dead body, cemetery.

old picture of Shiloh Cemetery 

more recent picture of Shiloh Cemetery with Rachella Druk's grave in foreground

Well, as King Solomon wrote repeatedly in Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, "Nothing's new."

United States President Barack Hussein Obama said the same basic thing.

Speaking in the South Korean capital, Seoul, Mr Obama said that the unity deal was "unhelpful".
He said the pact was "just one of a series of choices that both the Israelis and Palestinians have made that are not conducive to trying to resolve the crisis". (BBC)

As far as the United States is concerned, Israel's policies are equivalent to the Arab terrorist actions of Hamas. Almost a quarter of a century after the Arab terrorists murdered Rachella Druk, mother of seven young children, the United States Government still considers us no different than the terrorists.

But most dangerous for Israel isn't the American policy, it's the policy of the Israel Left.  The Israeli Left blames Israel for the breakdown in negotiations with the Arabs for "peace."

Opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog (Labor) on Saturday night launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition, blaming them for the collapse of the peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
In a post on his Facebook page, Herzog called on Netanyahu to “initiate a comprehensive and courageous offer” to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. (Arutz 7)

Also, the Leftist parties in Bibi Netanyahu's coalition, like Tsipi Livni's "Movement" and Yair Lapid's "Yesh Atid-There's a Future" are saying the same dangerous, seditious, anti-Israeli garbage.

Justice Minister and Chief Negotiator Tzipi Livni announced on Israel Channel 2 that she won’t be quitting the coalition, and the decision to temporarily suspend the negotiations – for now – because of the Fatah-Hamas reunification was correct.
But Livni added that Abbas has made some bad choices, and repeatedly said “the door isn’t closed”, and when the time is right, no matter how long it takes, negotiations will start again, she will run them, and she will try to get Abbas to make the right choices.
And even though Abbas has made the wrong choices, she will still fight to reach an arrangement and reopen the doors, and try to return to negotiations, no matter how long it takes. (Jewish Press)

Yesh Atid will leave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition if negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians end and there is no diplomatic process taking place, party leader Yair Lapid said in closed conversations Tuesday.
Officials in Yesh Atid confirmed a Channel 10 report that past commitments Lapid made, in which he said he would remove his party from the coalition if there were no peace talks, applied to the situation that could arise in the coming days. (Jerusalem Post)

To be blunt, I'd say that Bibi should be "courageous" and cite Herzog, Livni, Lapid etc for sedition. Our greatest enemies are those from among our own people.  When the Jewish People and the State of Israel are on the right track for our security and sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel, then we will enjoy peace with those around us. That's the only way!

Pic of the WEEK!

My caption: The Honeymoon's over, Dear!
:))
[Thanks to News First Class for this pic!]