Mere Rhetoric: Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-06-13 - Labor Primary Voters Are Total... Oh Forget It (Updated: President Shimon Peres)

Update: Finally!

And may we add that MK Reuven Rivlin acquitted himself as a gentleman and certainly did no disservice to himself or to the office he sought.

Original:
Labor primary - The most traumatic event in recent Israeli memory is not Intifada II, but rather the inability to defeat Hezbollah fast enough in Lebanon II. The genesis of Lebanon II - already hinted at by the Winograd Commission and likely to be made explicit - was Israel's rushed exit from Lebanon in May of 2000, coupled with subsequent inattention to the northern border. The Prime Minister responsible for that rushed withdrawal - humiliatingly abandoning decades-long Israeli allies to their fate - was Ehud Barak. Yesterday, Ehud Barak was elected by Labor primary voters to represent them and to stand against Benjamin Netanyahu in a likely winter election. What pushed Barak over the edge was his absolute domination of the Arab and Druze votes. Which, not coincidentally, is also what pushed him over Netanyahu in the 1999 election (quite the Apartheid state Israel is).

Labor may still win the next election despite their best efforts, but seriously - are these people retarded? Or are they just insanely corrupt:

Ayalon praised Barak for his victory and said that he would cooperate with the new chairman. However, he told Israel Radio that irrespective of the result, which he said he accepted, he would submit a complaint to police and to the attorney general over misdemeanors he claimed were witnessed at several polling stations... The head of a polling station in Shfaram was allegedly caught stuffing dozens of ballots for Barak. In Tira, police came to the polling station after its chairman complained he was attacked by a Barak loyalist. The Ayalon campaign asked to stop the voting in Julis, because people were voting there without identification.

Don't think that you have to choose one or the other. "Retarded and corrupt" is certainly an acceptable answer.

President - In line with that, how about this for sentences that make us sad:

Labor's 19 MKs will have the freedom to vote for Peres or Rivlin. How many of them will vote Rivlin because they have an unsettled account with Peres? How many will submit an unmarked ballot because they don't forgive Peres for setting up Kadima... Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Amir Peretz are known within Labor to be hostile to Peres. And so Labor is the party that will tip the balance and ultimately decide the election.

Well that's just fantastic. Putting the most incompetent man in the country in charge of the Defense Ministry during a war wasn't enough? Now they have to block the most competent diplomat in the country from the Presidency? Today is going to be super.

References:
* Barak wins Labor primary marred by forgery allegations [JPost]
* Call to Order / Peres' relentless campaign [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-07 - It's Futile No Confidence Motion Day In the Knesset
* Israeli Politics Roundup - 2007-05-08 - Yeah, So That Happened
* Israeli Politics Roundup - Think Of Today and Tomorrow's Elections As Warm-Ups