MR Political Roundup - 2006-01-16
The Labor party is complaining about US interference in Israeli electoral politics, which is kind like us complaining when people have multiple martinis at lunch: sure, it feels good to be judgmental, but no one can really take you seriously. This is the party that hired the Clinton election team to steer Barak to victory and was more than willing to make political hay out of the Clinton administration repeatedly snubbing Netanyahu in the run-up to the election. Oh, and they just hired Democratic advisers again. Then again, hypocrisy doesn't really make you a liar - it just makes you a hypocrite. But a hypocrite it makes you nonetheless.
We've moved updates about minor parties to their own section, since it made no sense to lede with the parties that matter least.
Kadima
Friday poll data shows Olmert with - get this - a 71% approval rating. Kadima is at 42 and 43 seats depending on the poll you're looking at. Old conventional wisdom: Kadima would fall apart without Sharon. New conventional wisdom:
"He is going to be prime minister after the election, unless something incredible happens," said political scientist Abraham Diskin. "This first week was crucial and he passed it (the test)."
We especially like the fact that Israeli media has gone back to referring to Peretz as an "ex-union boss" rather than, say, "Labor Chairman".
Tzipi Livni will be appointed Foreign Minister following the resignation of the Likud ministers. So much for Peres demanding the post as a price for his continued support - although, in fairness to critics of our favorable Peres coverage, we didn't think he'd get the number 2 slot either, which he did end up getting. On the other hand, there's something to be said for his argument that it is in Kadima's best electoral interest to have him just below the top of the list - he is Israel's most successful #2.
Likud
The list is so bad that Kadima announced that they were literally insulted that Likud voters thought that this list was good enough to run against them.
Labor
In our last political roundup, we joked that Labor should return to their strategy of saying that there's no difference between Kadima and Likud, because that strategy worked so well for the US's Ralph Nader. So they did:
The Labor party's PR headquarters said in response to the results of the Likud's primary elections that they clearly prove that Likud has decided to become a branch of Kadima. "After the elections there is a chance that the two parties will constitute a social and political right-wing party. The members of the Likud Central Committee have not changed and they continue to present the public with a team that will continue to serve Likud and Kadima's go-getters," Labor officials said.
We have no idea what the YNet people are translating as "go-getters," but surely that can't be right.
Is union hack Amir Peretz planning to formally stack the Labor party with allies and sycophants? We think he might be:
The party was agitated Monday by rumors of a "mega deal" between party chairman Amir Peretz' camp and MK Benjamin Ben Eliezer's camp. The victims of the deal would be the veteran Knesset members and those identified with former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Their names will be omitted from the list of candidates which both Peretz' and Ben Eliezer's supporters will support.
Party sources said Monday that the reported deal between Peretz and Ben Eliezer's people could become a coalition to keep Barak out of the party leadership. The deal reportedly includes adding Arye Amit - whom Peretz brought into the party - to the list supported by Ben Eliezer's people. In exchange, Peretz's people will add Ben Eliezer's confidant Danny Atar to their list.
So with Israeli voters placing their disgust with corruption near the top of their priorities, Peretz is indeed positioning the Labor party at the cutting edge of Israeli politics. Not necessarily in the way that he'd like to, but no publicity is bad publicity. Unless the publicity makes it look like you're the kind of party that voters hate. Then there is such a thing as bad publicity.
Hey, maybe the move to criticize Kadima for using US influence to move voters will work out. Sure, hiring Clinton's spin team to run their campaign won't help in selling that line, but consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, right?
Minor Parties
The National Religious Party has chosen its Knesset list. Since they're currently polling at a threshold three percent (and well below it in some parts of the margin), nobody really cares. Sad, but true.
Shinui is obviously in a panic, since all their most important people left in the little 'youth rebellion' that their 170-member guiding committee staged last week. Now many of the ten sitting Shinui MKs (read: the people with experience, read: the people who matter) are considering quitting Shinui and forming a party not controlled by idiots. The people who would be left behind are proposing a compromise that would essentially reverse the primary elections - specifically, Avraham Poraz would regain his #2 slot on the Shinui ticket, and Tommy Lapid would get something more than the narrow mandate that he received last week to lead the party. Problem: Ron Levinthal, the candidate that ousted Poraz from the #2, won't accept the deal. He'd rather be at the top of a party that will get like five votes than accede to the people who built Shinui from the ground up. What is it about pride and falls? We keep forgetting.
Drama a little further left on the political spectrum, as Haim Oron beats Ran Cohen for the #2 slot on the Meretz list. The problem with Meretz's electoral chances is that they still haven't recognized the whole "we're way, way far Left" thing that they've got going on:
"The Meretz Party has outshone all other parties by the decency and quality of our primary," said Beilin. "We showed that there can be politics without hate and without all the dirt." There was a feeling of renewed optimism in the Meretz party as wide-eyed supporters gushed over the possibility of rising to ten mandates at the expense of the Shinui Party. "We have our chance, now that Shinui is going to pieces," said Dror Morag. "We can pick up those votes, especially now that we stand as the only two parties on the left."
Meretz is arguing that Peretz's recent stance of bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians - coupled with his 1950s era state-union socialism - isn't a Leftist position. And even if this doesn't bode ill for their political prospects, it definitely says something about their sobriety.
We've moved updates about minor parties to their own section, since it made no sense to lede with the parties that matter least.
Kadima
Friday poll data shows Olmert with - get this - a 71% approval rating. Kadima is at 42 and 43 seats depending on the poll you're looking at. Old conventional wisdom: Kadima would fall apart without Sharon. New conventional wisdom:
"He is going to be prime minister after the election, unless something incredible happens," said political scientist Abraham Diskin. "This first week was crucial and he passed it (the test)."
We especially like the fact that Israeli media has gone back to referring to Peretz as an "ex-union boss" rather than, say, "Labor Chairman".
Tzipi Livni will be appointed Foreign Minister following the resignation of the Likud ministers. So much for Peres demanding the post as a price for his continued support - although, in fairness to critics of our favorable Peres coverage, we didn't think he'd get the number 2 slot either, which he did end up getting. On the other hand, there's something to be said for his argument that it is in Kadima's best electoral interest to have him just below the top of the list - he is Israel's most successful #2.
Likud
The list is so bad that Kadima announced that they were literally insulted that Likud voters thought that this list was good enough to run against them.
Labor
In our last political roundup, we joked that Labor should return to their strategy of saying that there's no difference between Kadima and Likud, because that strategy worked so well for the US's Ralph Nader. So they did:
The Labor party's PR headquarters said in response to the results of the Likud's primary elections that they clearly prove that Likud has decided to become a branch of Kadima. "After the elections there is a chance that the two parties will constitute a social and political right-wing party. The members of the Likud Central Committee have not changed and they continue to present the public with a team that will continue to serve Likud and Kadima's go-getters," Labor officials said.
We have no idea what the YNet people are translating as "go-getters," but surely that can't be right.
Is union hack Amir Peretz planning to formally stack the Labor party with allies and sycophants? We think he might be:
The party was agitated Monday by rumors of a "mega deal" between party chairman Amir Peretz' camp and MK Benjamin Ben Eliezer's camp. The victims of the deal would be the veteran Knesset members and those identified with former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Their names will be omitted from the list of candidates which both Peretz' and Ben Eliezer's supporters will support.
Party sources said Monday that the reported deal between Peretz and Ben Eliezer's people could become a coalition to keep Barak out of the party leadership. The deal reportedly includes adding Arye Amit - whom Peretz brought into the party - to the list supported by Ben Eliezer's people. In exchange, Peretz's people will add Ben Eliezer's confidant Danny Atar to their list.
So with Israeli voters placing their disgust with corruption near the top of their priorities, Peretz is indeed positioning the Labor party at the cutting edge of Israeli politics. Not necessarily in the way that he'd like to, but no publicity is bad publicity. Unless the publicity makes it look like you're the kind of party that voters hate. Then there is such a thing as bad publicity.
Hey, maybe the move to criticize Kadima for using US influence to move voters will work out. Sure, hiring Clinton's spin team to run their campaign won't help in selling that line, but consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, right?
Minor Parties
The National Religious Party has chosen its Knesset list. Since they're currently polling at a threshold three percent (and well below it in some parts of the margin), nobody really cares. Sad, but true.
Shinui is obviously in a panic, since all their most important people left in the little 'youth rebellion' that their 170-member guiding committee staged last week. Now many of the ten sitting Shinui MKs (read: the people with experience, read: the people who matter) are considering quitting Shinui and forming a party not controlled by idiots. The people who would be left behind are proposing a compromise that would essentially reverse the primary elections - specifically, Avraham Poraz would regain his #2 slot on the Shinui ticket, and Tommy Lapid would get something more than the narrow mandate that he received last week to lead the party. Problem: Ron Levinthal, the candidate that ousted Poraz from the #2, won't accept the deal. He'd rather be at the top of a party that will get like five votes than accede to the people who built Shinui from the ground up. What is it about pride and falls? We keep forgetting.
Drama a little further left on the political spectrum, as Haim Oron beats Ran Cohen for the #2 slot on the Meretz list. The problem with Meretz's electoral chances is that they still haven't recognized the whole "we're way, way far Left" thing that they've got going on:
"The Meretz Party has outshone all other parties by the decency and quality of our primary," said Beilin. "We showed that there can be politics without hate and without all the dirt." There was a feeling of renewed optimism in the Meretz party as wide-eyed supporters gushed over the possibility of rising to ten mandates at the expense of the Shinui Party. "We have our chance, now that Shinui is going to pieces," said Dror Morag. "We can pick up those votes, especially now that we stand as the only two parties on the left."
Meretz is arguing that Peretz's recent stance of bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians - coupled with his 1950s era state-union socialism - isn't a Leftist position. And even if this doesn't bode ill for their political prospects, it definitely says something about their sobriety.
