Terror War to Resume by End of Week, Will We be Ready?

 

News of terror attacks on Israelis have been curiously missing from the news since elections were announced after the vote in the Knesset to dissolve the last government largely due to acts against the government by two Ministers leading two of the parties in the coalition. This set up a situation where Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammed Deifs, Marwan Barghouti, Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal as the leaders of Hamas, Fatah and the PLO have called for a ceasefire of sorts where terrorism is silenced until the Israeli elections. This is done so as to give Israelis a false sense of security and has occurred in the run-up to elections like clock-work. If it wasn’t for the political ads on the television, radio and in our mailboxes we would probably call for elections one week after each government took power thus having waged a successful war against terrorism. This would have a secondary effect of also making the government so dysfunctional that there would also be very few if any new laws and regulations and perhaps taxes might get reduced at some point. But the sad thing is that whoever gains the position of Prime Minister will attempt to hold power at all costs and that is where the problems lie.

 

There are a group of dangerous leaders of parties in the mix and some people running under parties which have merged to form what is being titled as the Arab block which includes a number of candidates who actually work to destroy Israel and support terrorism such as Haneen Zoabi and Ahmad Tibi, one actively supports Hamas and sailed on the Mavi Marmara and despite knowing of the plans to ambush and murder any IDF forces who would be required by the actions to prevent the ship from successfully running the blockade and the other had served as a top advisor to Yasser Arafat yet are permanent figures who have had the courts protect their rights to sit in the Israeli parliament of the Knesset. This alone should remove any and all claims of discrimination in Israel against Arabs but is ignored by the leftist who have decided the derision of Israel is their raison d’être. Also included in this Knesset list are communists, a party standing for the rights of alternate life styles and other small parties who will be able to be represented solely due to joining this group of assorted misfits of the political system. Then there are Tzipi Livni who heads a party whose name, Hatnua, translates to mean Party which means when the news refers to her party as Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua Party they are actually saying the Tzipi Livni Party Party which accurately defines the party as it was founded so Tzipi Livni could chase after her defined self-fated role as Israel’s Prime Minister. Another Party is Yesh Atid headed by Yair Lapid, a former television news anchor and another who entertains delusions of glory and a new future if only the Israelis would see things as he does which would include his sitting as the Prime Minister of Israel for life. The translation of Lapid’s party name of Yesh Atid is “There is a Future” which translates better as being there is a Lapid defined future which I would rather avoid.

 

The final piece of the election puzzle is this merger calling itself the “Zionist Camp” of the combination of the Labor Party and Livni’s Hatnua Party. What makes this an interesting scenario is that both Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog would be best described politically as being Post-Zionists who like Post-Modernists exist more for what they oppose than what they stand for. The Post Zionists no longer hold that Israel is the state of the Jews as much as it is a multi-ethnic multi-cultural democracy which is defined by its combinations of peoples and not so much by being the Jewish State. They do not believe that the Torah defines a Mitzvah to settle all of the land and are still enamored with the idea of “Land for Peace” in which if Israel would only give Mahmoud Abbas and his Arab Authority what they claim they want currently which consists of Judea and Samaria along with half of Jerusalem including every ancient Jewish holy site which would then be beyond the ability for any Jews to visit and mostly to be destroyed once again after being reclaimed and restored after the Six Day War when these lands came under Israeli control being liberated from Jordanian occupation after Jordan joined the war in the hopes of sharing the riches of a destroyed Israel. They do not believe Abbas when he speaks to Arab audiences in Ramallah and other Arab controlled and semiautonomous regions within Judea and Samaria where he calls for the liberation of all of his imagined Arab State from the “river to the sea” which translates to from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and includes all of Israel being conquered and made Judenrein, Jew free; a condition he also addresses when he speaks of the cleansing of this Arab entity and purifying its lands with blood flowing until the river run red. Such speeches can be found by searching the MEMRI data base or choosing items at random from their collection of Arab and Muslim speeches, news, television shows and more from the other side of the Arab and Muslim world which is mostly uncovered and unrevealed to the Western world as doing so would destroy the façade of a reasonable Arab and Muslim world ready to live at peace with the West. The Zionist Camp is calling for cooperation with the desires and demands from the White House and placing Israel’s future on the whims and fancy of President Obama and mending the rift caused by Prime Minister Netanyahu. This would entail an almost complete surrender without gaining even the slightest hint of peace or an end to the terror war.

 

So, who do we believe would make a better alternative than the Zionist Camp and Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog, Netanyahu? The answer is not Netanyahu nor is it Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog, remember that the last two come in a single package and as things stand they would take their turn as Prime Minister in that order. That in and of itself gives a great indicator of the lack of character strength of Hertzog if as the leader of the dominant party in their coalition he still allowed Tzipi to be the dominant one taking the lead even if her presence is mostly ignored by the campaign they are running. So, where could Israel seek a leader who might prevent a disaster and is not Benyamin Netanyahu? Eli Yishai would make an exceedingly good choice though he is too obscure to ever be considered and his party had merged with another and their combined parties will only barely make it into the next Knesset. So we have had to rule out the most desirable candidate, then who might be chosen by President Reuven Rivlin initially to form a coalition? The entire package which might be made which would be difficult unless every religious or leaning religious Zionist voted for their first preference instead of voting Likud out of fear of Hertzog and especially Livni getting their hands on the seat of power, then Israel might honestly have a possibility to find a leader who is dynamic and capable of standing up for Israel on the international scene and against the coming storm from the White House. This is also the person and party, Jewish Home “הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi” leader Naftali Bennett, we have chosen to support though we also fully understand and agree with those who choose to vote for Eli Yishai and applaud their choice as well. We are also tired and truly fed up with Netanyahu all too often playing at being the true diplomat and polite in persona in dealing with United States President Obama and the leadership of the European Union as well as the independent governments of Europe and the entirety of the anti-Israel world, they will never be appeased as long as Israel exists. The unofficial but still deadly building freeze which Netanyahu has enforced is very much to blame for the rising price of housing and needs to be terminated. Hertzog/Livni will do worse, they will encourage and support demolition of Jewish communities beyond the Green Line to genuflect before and appease the White House. Naftali Bennett should be granted a chance to put his “No more apologizing” slogan into use as Prime Minister. He would hopefully stand as proud in the seat of power as he has on the campaign and be just as unyielding as he has portrayed himself and the members of his party. Perhaps Jewish Home really is our home and the home of all Zionists.

 

Some will point to the fact that Naftali Bennett himself has said he is not yet ready to be Prime Minister. Who is? Naftali Bennett has the drive and the willingness to directly address the problems Israel faces and has already addressed the biggest of them all, the overbearing drive for Israeli leaders to be constantly apologizing for Israel existing and that must stop. That will not happen with Netanyahu or the other choice of Hertzog/Livni that the media and power brokers have told us are the only choices. Hey, guess what? We can vote anybody into the top position simply by voting bravely for our true hope for the future, the religious Zionists who have the bravery of those who believe they have a real answer for the challenges Israel faces. Naftali Bennett if actually listened to and if one actually researched the voting pattern of his Jewish Home members in the Knesset one would see they represent responsible positions on economic challenges as well as on defending Israel and her right to exist as an equal amongst the nations of this world. The one challenge is Bennett claiming he is not ready to be Prime Minister. That statement was made as deference to Netanyahu more likely than any other reason. Truth be told, in many ways Bennett represents potentially the Israeli Churchill. People may not realize that Winston Churchill did not feel comfortable with becoming Prime Minister of England, especially as they were headed into a war, a very costly and difficult war. Israel has been in two wars, one with the Arabs who wish to destroy us and the other with the Western powers who believe by sacrificing Israel they will have satiated the Arab and Muslim appetites as all they desire is Israel and as the Europeans and President Obama see it, rightfully so do they desire Israel. Many in the West see the establishment of Israel to be a bad response to the sins of World War II and they are mostly ignorant of the San Remo Conference and all the rest of the history behind the formation of the Jewish State dating back to 1920 or even earlier to include the Balfour Declaration. Most of the history behind Modern Israel traces back to just after World War I and have nothing to do with World War II or the camps or the Nazis, it has to do with a debt by the nations of the world to allow the Jews to return to their brethren who remained in Israel surviving the desecrations and dissolution of the Jewish People by scattering them to the far reaches of the Roman Empire. Bennett may not feel ready but he will never be ready as being the Prime Minister is a huge step for anybody and Naftali is no different. What Naftali has proven is he speaks English well and gives an accomplished presentation of the truths about Israel and her history which included three-thousand-plus year history of residing right here between the Jordan River and the Sea with two tribes residing on the east bank of the Jordan River where they grazed their herds. Naftali Bennett may require having the mantle of leadership of our nation of Israel thrust upon him and then we can watch him either shrink, quite unlikely, or more likely, blossom into a great and historic figure placing him on a near par of the pinnacle the founders of Israel are placed. The best argument to vote Jewish Home and thrust Naftali Bennett into the Prime Minister’s seat is because other than Eli Yishai, Naftali is as close to Ze’ev Jabotinsky as we are likely to see in our times. So, if you deep in your heart would want Naftali as the next leader of Israel and were thinking of voting Likud because Naftali has no chance to win the Prime Minister’s chair, that will be true if you are too afraid to vote with your heart and love of Israel, take the chance, all of those who actually desire another choice than Hertzog/Livni or Netanyahu, then vote הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi and then we will see a new leader and a capable leader if my gut feelings are correct. I see Prime Minister Bennett as the beginning of a whole new period in the life of Israel and the Jewish People. We owe it to the history and the future of Israel to vote exactly what our hearts and minds tell us but many refuse to accept, that we need to break from the rut of Labor or Likud, we need a fresh and new start. That fresh and new start is with הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi and Naftali Bennett.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Leftist Conspiracy, Israel, Europe, the United States, and Beyond

 

Elections, media hype, political mass rallies, press control, universal currency and world governance are all leftist fronts where the extreme leftists are pushing the implementation of their socialist humanism ideals no matter the cost or the great dangers of potential dire results. The initial target in the West is the redefinition of religion from Judeo-Christian to Secular Socialist Humanism which seeks to establish a new world religion that will serve their aims to make a better world. This has led in many Jewish congregations in the United States and Europe to the redefining of Tikkun Olam from being a form of self-improvement first and having a communal accomplishment of improving each member leading to a more righteous community and thus making a more fair and caring world instead to improving the world which is designed as a socialist paradise where income inequality has been reduced, providing it does not impinge on the level of luxury of the leftists lives who are implementing this new equality of incomes, and the setting of a livable minimum wage instead of an actual simple minimum wage. They often demand that there be green areas set where there can be no building, limits on the heights for buildings and building freezes within cities and at the same time rent controls and affordable housing and rent subsidy housing but usually not near their neighborhoods. They pass completely meaningless nuclear free zone laws despite the fact that there have been absolutely no intentions to construct any such power plants. Sometimes they also pass zoning restrictions against coal or other carbon based power plants despite there being no power generation plants placed or proposed to ever be placed within their neighborhoods. There is a perfect example representing the nuclear free zone concept exists straddling the border between Montgomery County, Maryland and Washington D.C. in the Nuclear Free Tacoma Park which was declared a nuclear-free zone in 1983 by then-mayor Sam Abbott. Unfortunately for the Takoma Park library which had purchased new computers to replace their relics in June of 2012 they realized they had made an unforgivable error, the computers were Hewlett-Packard computers and Hewlett-Packard had been contracted to work on nuclear weapons thus making these computers not kosher for use within their nuclear-free zone. The city council gave the library a waver after a couple of months of severe hand-wringing. Strange but true. Another classical case of leftists hoisted with their own petard.

 

What I have noticed is that more and more as time passes is that leftists will use the world media, which they largely control, and other resources even to the point of populating rallies paid for by leftist groups or even other government agencies under leftist influence or from nations already under leftist control in order to influence elections in other Western nations in order to assist leftist parties to win elections. This has become very evident in the current Israeli elections and has an interesting twist which proves that this has been set-up and planned for quite some time leaving only exactly how deep this conspiracy had reached. First off to get back to the front end of this what very well might be a mad and crazed conspiracy theory we need to get back to the reelection campaign of President Obama. Throughout the campaign there was a theme that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was actively supporting Republican Mitt Romney in an attempt to unseat President Obama by instructing the Jews and supporters of Israel to put Romney into the Presidency because Prime Minister Netanyahu could not get along with President Obama. This little theme kept creeping into the campaign despite repeated denials in interview after interview by Netanyahu. Reality did not interfere with the story as it was just a given that Prime Minister Netanyahu personally could not get along with President Obama no matter how much President Obama gave in to Israel on, how much he worked to protect Israel, often even from herself and specifically from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s own extremist demands and attitudes which will only destroy Israel and lose her all the nations which used to be her friends. Nobody could quite understand this false conspiracy between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama.

 

Move back a bit before going on to the Israeli elections in 2013 to the government of Prime Minister Sharon in its post-Likud Kadima mode when the disengagement from Gaza was imminent and it was not until the last possible moment and only after great amounts of needless debate and hemming and hawing before leaving the government. This caused many to question which Netanyahu valued higher, his friendships especially when being called into question and his Zionist views which he claims are so central to his political life. Then came his winning the Prime Ministership in 2009 and his appointing of Ehud Barak as his Minister of Defense which led to some to question how deep Ehud Barak’s influence was being felt in cabinet decisions and how far the fact that Ehud Barak was Bibi’s commander in the IDF. This came to a head when President Obama demanded an extended building freeze beyond the Green Line which ended up being enforced for ten months despite support by the public to resist making such a sacrifice. Then came the elections in 2013 which returned Benyamin Netanyahu to Prime Minister and his first move was to include Tzipi Livni and her new Party’s paltry six mandates and appointed her to be Minister of Justice and made her the lead negotiator with Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Authority government in Area A of Judea and Samaria. There have been rumors and even some unconfirmed reporting that there was another building freeze put in place to please President Obama and to placate Mahmoud Abbas and company. Now we are entering the last stretch of another election which this time places Tzipi Livni in direct opposition to Prime Minister Netanyahu as she has allied herself with the Labor Party and Yitzhak Hertzog.

 

It seems to be almost a theme in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political career to have former Likudniks who have drifted, some even fled, away from Likud and the Zionist and right leaning camps to post-Zionist, and in Tzipi Livnis’s case, far leftist camp about as far as one could get from their Likud beginnings as they possibly could. This election has become a three ring circus with every ring and every act being some version of the theme, “Anybody but Bibi.” This has been the theme from Yair Lapid, Tzipi Livni, Yitzhak Hertzog, Zahava Gal-On and who knows how many other party leaders and NGOs. Where this Israeli election has the normal interference from the European Union and numerous European governments but there is a repeat of the Netanyahu opposition in 1999 when President Clinton sent James Carville and company to do everything possible and funded their efforts against Bibi. This election it is President Obama who sent Jeremy Bird and a group called either V15 or V2015 which is organizing as massive a grassroots door knocking army and has virtually unlimited funding as OneVoice which was recently awarded $200,000 for future projects by the United States State Department. This may be the first time that the United States State Department has financed the efforts to unseat a sitting Prime Minister of an ally in his nation’s elections. The efforts being put forth to beat Prime Minister Netanyahu is code-named “Anybody but Bibi” but is all about electing Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog and prevent the formation of a Zionist or right wing government. This has gotten to the point where even President Reuven Rivlin has come and spoken of his desire if the election appears to be close and no clear victory is won to bring the two main parties, Labor/Hatnua and Likud together to form a so-called unity government with the intended design to formulate some new manner of electing the Israeli governance which will make it more difficult to topple a government and force the government to function with the elected people rather than holding elections every year to year and a half as so many Parliamentary governance like all those dysfunctional across all of Europe, or that is how it is being sold. All of these different packages are all designed to assure that there not be another Bibi dominated government and to prevent the formation of a Zionist and right wing government which will not cooperate with President Obama which is the result most sought by the leftist interference from the United States and Europe.

 

The really odd thing about the V15/OneVoice campaign theme is based on a simple word, “Change,” just change without the pairing with hope. Maybe the campaign genii from the Obama reelection campaign and also veterans from the 2008 initial election of President Obama using the mantra of “Hope and Change” and the so very rhythmic chanting of, “Yes We Can!” was just too easily recognized so instead they decided to go with something appropriate and simple but definitely unrecognizable, new, fresh and completely original so they came up with, “Change.” No hope included, just change, not even yes we might, just change, but everybody knows the real chant is anyone but Bibi. The V15 people necessarily never mention OneVoice and try not to allude to President Obama or overtly that they are campaigning for Hertzog and Livni, they just stick with the change of government and anybody but Bibi though everybody knows what that means, and it does not mean Deri from Shas, Bennett from Jewish Home or any of the others though most would be acceptable as long as they would not include Bibi in their coalition. But the truth is if you are attempting to defeat Bibi Netanyahu then you are campaigning for Hertzog and Livni. Further, if anyone cares to listen to what Hertzog and Livni were screaming about for the weeks leading up to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent addressing of the United States joint session of Congress then you heard their entire campaign platform. Their plan is to repair the relations between Israel and President Obama by dutifully obeying any and everything that President Obama demands from them.

 

This means that they will gladly withdraw all Jewish Israelis from all of Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem and pull back behind the Green Line even without meeting with Mahmoud Abbas. This they will perform so as to allow President Obama to force Abbas to then agree to take the lands and hopefully accept them and agree to end his demands and make peace. Perhaps this is when the hope enters the formulas. Thus far nobody has addressed one little potentially troubling scenario, what happens should Mahmoud Abbas take the now purged lands which have been made Judenrein as he demands and refuse to make peace demanding instead that Israel accept some five-million Arab refugees within their now truncated borders and even then he actually says that he will still not make peace until all the Jews have been removed from his greater Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Is this where the Hopeless Changes would be enforced and Israel made to accept every last Arab claiming to be a refugee regardless of their ancestral history? As I said, nobody has addressed this and I can assure you this will be exactly what will occur should Livni and Hertzog be given the opportunity to form and coalition and they succeed in forming a government predicated on accessing to every wish of President Obama in his mad quest for peace in the Middle East and his winning another Nobel Peace Prize.

 

If this interference in the Israeli election works for the international forces of the socialist extreme leftists then all of the Western nations can expect a full court press to place leftist government into power wherever it proves possible and then the attempt to impose a One World universal currency, a deal that the Russians have been very strongly proposing and supporting and have run into a singular blockade, the Chinese thus far are refusing to accept such a currency and are willing to continue using the dollar as their currency is defined as a set value against the dollar so it behooves them to retain the dollar as the petro-dollar and the reserve currency of the world. If for a moment anyone believes that the making of a universal currency will work please take a long and hard look at Europe and the Euro. The same problems that Greece is facing as their economic plans did not fare well when compared to Germany or any other Euro nation. One cannot have a common currency unless every nation using that currency agrees to centralize their economic governance. That simply means if there is a world currency then there must be a world governance. That is the desire of the leftists and is why they are allying themselves currently with the forces of Islam as they view their militancy as the fastest route to a single governance over the world except the leftists believe they will be able to redefine Islam to transform it into their secular social humanist governance and have overlooked the slightest of problems, the Islamists will be so very busy murdering these very same extreme leftists for their beliefs, especially for their liberal views over women, abortion, same sex marriage, alternate lifestyles, drinking of alcohol and virtually everything else they accept even to the way they dress. The misadventure starts with the election coming within two weeks in Israel, March 17, 2015 to be exact, and if in any way Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is not chosen to form a Zionist coalition, or if he does not choose a Zionist coalition, then there will be endless interference and meddling in every election coming for the foreseeable future.

 

In some manners and ways even should Netanyahu be chosen to form the next government that is far from guaranteeing that he will form the kind of government required from him if Israel is to survive the calamities coming in the next few years. Obeying every dictation out of Washington, the White House in particular, would be a recipe for disaster and could very possibly signal the end of the Jewish People. In some ways it might be better for the survival of the free world and the Jewish People if one of the following were to be chosen though all are a longshot but are probably necessary for Netanyahu to choose in forming his government and the parties and their leaders are Jewish Home and Naftali Bennett, United Torah Judaism and Yaakov Litzman with Moshe Gafni, Yachad – Otzma and Eli Yishai and finally Yisrael Beiteinu and Avigdor Liberman. As things appear currently the polls are showing the race too close to call and in many ways it appears that whichever side between Netanyahu and Livni/Hertzog is given the nod to form a coalition will very probably succeed. Should Netanyahu allow his seeming personal problems with Naftali Bennett force him to refuse to bring Jewish Home in at all then he would be faced with accepting either a unity government which will cause problems and lead to a short-lived governing coalition which could easily be brought down. If the fears that some have expressed that Netanyahu’s Zionist streak may not be as wide or as deeply held as many have been led to believe and that his wavering on that point might cause him to make a unity government to honestly address the election processes and make a new and less fragile manner of governance might mean more to him. Additionally, there have been reports of some difficulties between President Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu which also could come into play. Thankfully we have only a matter of days to scrutinize the elections and then all will be revealed and the die cast and our fates determined.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Existential Crisis Most Likely to Bring New Elections

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister in his own mind Yair Lapid had their fateful meeting where the real Prime Minister basically laid out what would be required from Yair Lapid and his party members in order to continue the current coalition. One of the problems which have struck the coalition has been the idea by the other party leaders that they should be the Prime Minister and run the government. Yair Lapid was rumored to even have attempted to patch together his own coalition and exercise a coup of sorts and take over the government through a deal with opposition parties thus forcing a new government without having new elections. Then we have the twisted dreams of Tzipi Livni who believes that she is fated to be Prime Minister because she honestly feels she has been robbed of her opportunity to lead the nation and will likely continue to pursue this phantom reality for the rest of her political life. There is the expected leader and head of the opposition parties Yitzhak Herzog, the leader of the Labor Party, has already claimed his rightful position as Prime Minister in waiting convinced that new elections will serve as the cleansing of the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu and instead bring a liberal wave sweeping Herzog into the Prime Minister slot. He was quoted speaking of the inevitable results of new elections stating, “The Labor party will lead the bloc that will win the election and give hope and a new reality for the citizens of Israel.” Apparently these Prime Ministerial candidates holding these delusional beliefs have either not read any of the polling done or they believe, as Yitzhak Herzog stated just the other day, that the polls are meaningless as they have sampled those they know and all of the people in their circle agree that new elections will place them at the head of the next government. If I were to ask those closest to me if I would win the coming elections and get to form the next coalition government I am sure that at least one or two would play along and assure me that I was not delusional, but they would also realize I was joking. Unfortunately for Israel, these Prime Minister wannabes are not joking and believe their own propaganda that they are the next chosen one.

 

This crisis was brought to a head when the proposed Jewish State Law which was intended to restate and reaffirm that Israel is the home of the Jewish People as well as a democracy where every citizen is guaranteed their respective rights as citizens. To any casual observer this law would be a no brainer but instead it became the initial protest vote where both Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni threatened their voting against the Jewish State Law should it be brought to the Knesset for a vote. This led to rewording the bill in attempts to make it palatable to the few who insisted on remaining unappeasable. The reality is that both party leaders were actually more upset that the governing coalition refused to tow their line and follow their agendas and instead were following the agenda put forth by the Prime Minister and originally voted for as part and parcel of joining the coalition upon its formation. So, it now appears that Israel is about to go into another election with all the usual posturing and backstabbing starting with each party holding their disparate meetings or votes or some combination thereof in order to present their list of proposed Knesset Ministers for well past their polled expectations to receive once the election results are finalized. The expectations from current polling, something that is almost meaningless as elections have historically brought surprises and twists beyond belief, has Likud remaining the largest block of Ministerial positions and thus most likely to be chosen to form the next coalition. There are indications that the next largest party might be Jewish Home which will be a surprise to the leftist parties who are expecting the Israeli voters to cast off both Likud and Jewish Home in favor of Labor, Meretz and Yesh Atid. The polling has also indicated that Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party will only manage to win half the number of seats in the Knesset than they did in their initial and surprising success in their inaugural presentation before the voting public in the last election. These polls also depicted Tzipi Livni’s HaTnuah Party as barely making a minimal entry number of seats if even breaking the threshold required to be represented in the Knesset, let alone receive the nod to form the next government. The one hope all of those vying to be the next Prime Minister can invest their aspirations upon is that the least likely thing which was unexpected by all the pollsters, party leaders, experts and prognosticators and initially dismissed as insignificant can still resonate with the Israeli public while remaining below the radar and surging forth on election day to produce the unexpected results in the next elections completely throwing all the news outlets an unseen curve which they will be at a loss to explain. The elections may prove once again that there is no such thing as a sure bet when the voting public gets to make the decisions.

 

Of course new elections are not yet guaranteed as it will take a vote in the Knesset to dissolve the parliament and hold elections and there is the possibility that Yair Lapid will return to the fold and swallow his pride for the good of the coalition and by such an action garner some new supporters which always is a desired result for any politician. Lapid was given five acts he must agree to if he desires to avoid new elections. These were to stop attacking the coalition and especially to end his criticisms of the building plans in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Israeli relations with the United States. Next he was to transfer the six billion shekels to the defense budget as promised for their development of Iron Dome systems and armored personnel carriers. Third was to release the funding for the IDF relocation to the new Negev as was agreed upon by coalition agreements, something Lapid was blocking going so far as to have frozen this funding taking what he referred to as a principled stand. Fourth was for him to support the final version of the Jewish State Law. Finally he would be required to surrender and shelve the zero percent VAT relief bill he had been pushing for very determinedly. This final demand is expected to be the last straw and the one Lapid will refuse to meet thus likely forcing new elections.

 

One reading the polls would expect that Lapid would find it easier to remain in the current coalition where his Yesh Atid Party enjoys nineteen seats in the Knesset, a far cry better than the nine seats which many polls have indicated he would receive from new elections. The guessing here believes that Yesh Atid would probably suffer an even bigger embarrassment and only manage six or maybe seven seats and be on its way to extinction unless Yair Lapid could find a path back to the promises and apparent ideals he initially presented as the guiding essentials set forth in the last election. Those who suspected that much of the Zionist and nationalist line that Minister Lapid had professed was more ruse than ideological foundation as it was presented. These suspicions proved to be valid as once in the government Yair Lapid appeared to inexorably veer to the left and discard much of his nationalist agenda and instead attempt to inject his liberal slant into policy even at the expense of manipulating the budget which he had promised certain arrangements and allocations which he in the end did not deliver on. And this may only be the tip of the iceberg of potential changes which might be produced by holding new elections. The largest changes are always the ways in which the factions and parties arrange their own coalitions’ makeup. The most evident breakup has already taken place in which the one-time marriage of Likud with Yisrael Beiteinu which will also mean that Avigdor Lieberman will be leading his own party rather than being second on the combined ticket with Bibi Netanyahu taking the top slot. Netanyahu is probably expected by most to continue to take the top slot on any Likud ticket but that may not be as guaranteed as one might believe. There will be a credible challenge to Netanyahu in the voting for the Likud ticket as Danny Danon is expected to give Netanyahu a challenge from the right and even more nationalistic Zionist side of the party. We could potentially see a Likud ticket with a new face at the helm which may signal a changing of the guard within Likud even should Danny Danon fall short in his challenge. Danon is definitely one of the future leaders in Likud and the time is rapidly approaching for these new leaders to step forth. Other than the breakup of Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu, there may be other alterations to more parties and combinations than could be readily covered in this article and are best left for after the parties have all filed and made public their intents. Then there will be the leadership challenges in parties other than Likud. We have to wait and see if the somewhat controversial leader of Jewish Home, Naftali Bennett, remains the top man on their ticket and whether they will continue with their current makeup or if some factions might go it on their own. Then there may be a contest for the leadership position of the Haredi parties, largely concerning in Shas and whether the more liberal and left leaning Arye Deri remains in the number one slot or if Eli Yishai or Ariel Atias will make a successful challenge from the more nationalist and right leaning side of the party. With the passing of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef there can now be a true contest for the leadership of the Shas Party. Labor just recently had a change in leadership with Yitzhak Herzog taking the top spot replacing Shelly Yachimovitch. After all is said and done the next government may very well have a similar outward appearance to the current coalition but within there will be some changes, just how many and how far this difference proves to be remains to be seen. If Likud has a new person topping their ticket, such a change could excite the electorate or perhaps the shock of Bibi Netanyahu being replaced will be too much for the Israeli public. Then there are some polls which have shown Jewish Home Party actually replacing Likud as the leader in the Knesset and thus very likely making their first name on their Knesset list the next Prime Minister. It still remains to be seen if that name will continue to be Naftali Bennett. And then again, there is still hope for yours truly as, after all, those I have talked to still hold out hope for me to be picked to form the next government, and why not? Talk about strange happenings, that would take the cake.

 

Beyond the Cusp