Requiem for Kadima

Late yesterday afternoon Shaul Mofaz, the leader of Kadima, announced that due to unbridgeable differences between Kadima’s views and the views held by Prime Minister Netanyahu and the ruling coalition in the Israeli Knesset towards drafting new legislation to replace the expiring Tal Law, Kadima has found it necessary to withdraw from the coalition they had joined only nine weeks ago. An entirely new law was necessitated by the unconstitutional ruling striking down the existing Tal Law by former Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch in the final weeks of her term of service. It is likely that the mainstream Israeli media will play up the split from the coalition by Kadima a mere two months after joining the coalition as a failure in the leadership of the coalition by Netanyahu. The reality is very likely to prove otherwise, but do not hold your breath waiting for the media to reach such a conclusion as they are heavily invested in casting Prime Minister Netanyahu as incompetent and ruining the coalition of the people by his support of the extreme Orthodox and Haredi communities and the illegal settlements in Judea and Samaria. They will use the ill-fated end to retaining Kadima in the coalition as further proof of Netanyahu, Likud, and the settler fanatic extremist parties in the coalition, especially should the Knesset vote to accept and enact as Israeli policy the recent results of the Levy Commission. This was a report on the legality of the existing settlements and any further Jewish settlement activities in Judea and Samaria under International Law, the Geneva Conventions, and numerous treaties which were signed and ratified by numerous European governments, the United States and the United Nations in its founding documents pertaining to respecting and implementing all agreements from the League of Nations, all of which defined the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as belonging to the Jewish State once it had been formed and allowed, encouraged and insisted even, Jewish settlement in order to facilitate such formation.

The real question is whether allowing Kadima to join the coalition and revealing their anti-religious fanaticism and anti-settlement dispositions served the coalition or not. The near future will prove that by allowing Kadima to join the coalition and tasking them to lead in crafting a new law establishing a universal draft, which they had demanded they be allowed in order to join the coalition, and then refusing to moderate their poisonous demands victimizing the religious communities as the Plesner Committee recommendations held. Members of the coalition accused Plesner of attempting to wage war on the religious communities while ignoring any service commitment by Arab Israelis and other minorities by pressing for severe sanction on solely religious Jews who refused service. Kadima leadership stood fast demanding near total drafting of all Hareidim with drastic penalties to be imposed on any refusing to comply without addressing the fact that a sizeable portion of the secular community also tend to go to extremes to avoid service. The end result of allowing Kadima to force this confrontation will likely be a split in the Kadima membership with the larger part leaving the coalition while a possibly sizeable remainder declining to leave with the rest and remaining in the coalition. This will result in making Likud the majority party and will reduce the size and following of Kadima. How anybody can call strengthening the coalition by making the best of an unpleasant confrontation forced by Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz who overplayed his hand in an attempt to destroy the coalition thus leaving him and Kadima weaker and Likud and Netanyahu strengthened a failure escapes me. Most rational people would look at how this will eventually turn out and congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu with pulling a virtual coup against Shaul Mofaz and the strongest of the opposition parties by allowing them to push their hand too stridently and dashing themselves against the rocks of public opinion and political realities.

The main fallout from this overstated coalition crisis is the remaining need for crafting a replacement draft law for the soon expired Tal Law. The advantage now is that the entire controversy over how to craft the new law and whether service should be strictly applied solely upon the Haredi and Orthodox communities and enforced in a vicious manner or whether the solution should be applied humanely and with reasoned and crafted steps allowing for a gradual adoption of the new standards will be discussed and implemented in an adult manner instead as by the spiteful insult of childlike adults throwing a fit. The public was treated to a full disclosure of the original intent of former Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch to subvert the universal Torah Study by the Hareidim by pressing them into mandatory military or community service in place of Yeshiva studies. The debate being made public will allow a more reasoned approach which will retain the best of the Yeshiva studies of Torah, a vital and important pursuit in the service of Israeli society, while still making arrangements to allow and eventually require a larger percentage of Hareidim and Orthodox to perform IDF or community service bringing these communities into closer alignment with the service rates of the rest of Israeli society. It has also opened up the discussion on whether the Arab Israeli society should also be called to do at a minimum some form of community service if they prefer to refuse IDF enlistment. Despite the media claims which are sure to come decrying the death of Israeli democracy with the exit by Kadima from the coalition, the Israeli people will have been given a greater voice and a closer inspection of the machinations of the debate on this vital and definitive issue. If that is not real democracy and a healthy attitude of governance, then I don’t know what is. We must tip our hat and credit Prime Minister Netanyahu with having played a smarter game of politics than his opponents while also including the will of the majority of people in deciding the path for the government on of the the most vital and momentous legislations before the Knesset.

Beyond the Cusp

They Call This a Peace Process?

The nonfunctional process existing between Israel and the Arab World continues in its usual agonizing spiral of never-ending demands and denials emanating from Mahmoud Abbas. Though it is usually stated as the Palestinian Israeli Peace Process, in reality everyone recognizes that the Palestinians are simply the political ploy the Arab World uses in their never ending quest to destroy Israel. The titular head of the Palestinians has refused a number of things which should disqualify anything he is associated with from receiving any recognition from the United States and the rest of the Western World, especially if they actually mean they support democracy, human rights and freedom. But he once again stated that at no time will there ever be a reason which would allow him to recognize Israel as a Jewish State. So, let us look at this latest twist of reasoning from Mahmoud Abbas that we can include in the ever-lengthening list of his previous best of demands and denials.

 

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stated once again this past Sunday that the PA will not meet Israel’s demand that it recognize Israel as the Jewish State. His reasoning was that to do so would negate any standing for the million and a half Palestinian Arabs living in Israel and no refugee would be allowed to come back to Israel, in keeping with the Palestinian Authority demand that Israel allow millions of Arab refugees to return to their old homes in Israeli cities as part of a future agreement, as reported by <a href=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152676#.TzhMFrQpr6M target=blank>Kol Yisrael radio by Arutz Sheva.</a> Breaking this down into its component parts and further examination reveals what he is really saying. His first claim that the Arabs in Israel would lose their standing in Israel is relating the old canard that Israel is a racist country where only Jews are allowed to vote, drive cars, hold jobs, run for political office, and a virtual cornucopia of other advantages all of which are presumably denied to the non-Jewish citizens of Israel, particularly the Arab Israelis. This is believed by many in the Palestinian Refugee Camps throughout much of the Arab World as this is exactly the treatment they receive from their Arab brothers. There is a dirty little secret; there are no Arab refugee camps in Israel. The <a href=http://mideastweb.org/mrefugees.htm target=blank>Palestinian Refugee Camps</a> are found in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. All of the Arabs who live within the Green Line plus some of those living within the Jerusalem Metropolitan Area have Israeli identification cards as Israeli citizens. All Israeli citizens, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Bahai, Arab, European, Oriental, African, absolutely every Israeli citizen have the same rights. They all have the right to vote, run for office, hold political office, work for the government, work for any employer, drive, and every other right. They are all treated equally before the law and as citizens.  So, this innuendo by Mahmoud Abbas is meant to demean and slur Israel feeding those who do the same in near constant demonstrations throughout the world and also to further their feeling of hopelessness for any rights for the Palestinian Refugees. It is to the benefit of Mahmoud Abbas and his co-terrorists to have the Palestinian Refugees believe that their sole path to any rights is through the destruction of Israel. This is only true due to the fact that they will never be given equal rights by their Arab Brothers who are also their jailors and oppressors, but that is forbidden to say as many truths in this confrontation seem to be.

 

The other part of Mahmoud Abbas complaint is actually not a lie, just a shielded truth. The reason recognizing Israel as a Jewish State negates the Palestinian Refugees ‘Right of Return’ is that the whole idea behind this concept is to flood Israel with so many Arab refugees that simply by numbers it will no longer be the Jewish State. Once the Arabs have a majority of the vote, Mahmoud Abbas believes that they will vote in an Arab government that will take the rights from the Jews and return them to the Dhimmi class they are meant to be by Islamist societies. Should Israel be recognized as the Jewish State, then relegating the Jews to virtual non-citizen status under the protection and subject to the generosity of the Muslims for their existence becomes a moot point. What people have not been told is that Israel has made offers for a peace agreement which included a partial Right of Return for some of the refugees to inside Israel. The latest offer including such an offer was proposed by former <a href=http://www.mererhetoric.com/2009/05/31/abbas-olmert-offered-us-the-west-bank-and-the-right-of-return-but-it-wasnt-good-enough/ target-blank>Prime Minister Ehud Olmert</a> along with 97% of the West Bank and was simply refused without even the courtesy of a counter offer by Mahmoud Abbas. Mahmoud Abbas has made clear on numerous occasions in every backhanded way possible that the only solution that is acceptable is the complete and total surrender to the Arabs of the State of Israel. This was one of the reasons that readmitting Hamas, Islamic Jihad and any other terrorist groups from Gaza into the PLO is completely acceptable. As Abbas has intimated numerous times, any treaty with Israel if it does not result in the destruction of Israel as the Jewish State must then reserve the right of the Palestinians to continued resistance through all means available. Translated into plain English, any treaty with Israel must either end the existence of Israel or allow the war to continue until Israel is annihilated. Who would have a problem making that agreement?

 

Beyond the Cusp