Articles abound about how the US is nervous about the outcome of the recent Israeli elections. Th prospect of a center-right wing government has US officials on edge. Why? After all if the will of the people in Israel decides to vote decidedly for the right wing, what business is it of Washington?
According to a Jpost report: “Still, many political analysts say there’s no doubt the Obama administration would prefer to see a national-unity government headed by Livni. “The impression in Israel is that the Obama administration has already made its preference known and that its preference is for Kadima - and that impression isn’t going anywhere,” said Georgetown University professor and
Israel expert Michael Oren. “They’d rather work with a centrist government than a right-wing government.” He added that the preference of the Obama camp, with its interest in intensive diplomacy, was “legitimate,” noting that many Israelis preferred Republican presidential candidate John McCain because they observed a greater alignment of views.”
The fact is that the State Department has had an agenda regarding Israel for decades. They would love for Israel to continue to cede land, in the hope for a peace treaty. the state Department has been blind to the actual condition on the ground. Not wanting to hold the Palestinians accountable for terror, which has scuttled almost all attempts at reaching an agreement.
This arrogance is found in a quote given by Dennis Ross, in the same article. “Dennis Ross, Clinton’s Middle East envoy and likely to be a top regional representative, described Netanyahu as “overcome by hubris” after his first election to the premiership and recalled him being “nearly insufferable, lecturing and telling us how to deal with the Arabs” in his book on the Oslo peace process. ”
With all due respect Mr. Ross, Netanyahu was right, and both Oslo and your policies while in the Clinton administration brought Israeli’s wave after wave of terror. Could it be that you are the one “overcome by hubris?”
With the local Israeli media filled with reports about a pending deal that includes the release of kidnapped Israeli Gilad Schalit, the flames of cynicism must burn wild. It’s hard to ignore this sudden flurry of diplomacy 36 hours before Israeli elections. No disrespect, but where was Tzipi Livni for the last 2.5 years? All of the sudden she is fighting tooth and nail to get an agreement done to insure his release. This has nothing to do with her trying to win an election, does it?
According to a Jpost report, Livni said, “I have the responsibility to bring
Gilad Schalit home. The cost of public debate [on this] does not contribute to the cause [of releasing Schalit]… The prudent at that time shall keep silent.”
Uh, where have you been until now? Suddenly you are overcome with your ‘responsibility’ to bring Schalit home? This is sick.
We all hope and pray that Schalit is returned home quickly and safely. Let’s hope that the lady who has failed in her ‘responsibility’ for the last few years, doesn’t get credit for an election eve surprise.
It’s no secret that i am not the biggest fan of current foreign Minister and PM wannabe Tzipi Livni and have raised many times the point of why the media doesn’t report her objectively. Well an unlikely source, from the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, came out with a blistering attack on her, and how she can’t be PM.
Ari Shavit rips into her ability to be a leader. ” But there is one fault that no one disputes: Livni is short-tempered. Her more serious critics believe she has an attention deficit. She is incapable of delving into the details of a document or of sustaining an extended discussion. She does not stay with a topic until it has been completely clarified. Her thinking is not clear and she cannot distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Unlike Netanyahu and Barak, who can get to the bottom of an issue and discuss it in all its complexity, Livni tends to oversimplify, to go for the schematic. One of the most respected figures in the country says she is opinionated and superficial.”
While that is bad enough I think it’s the fact that she can’t make a decision that should doom her in the minds of voters. After all, an Israeli leader needs to be able to make tough, unpopular decisions, and make them quickly. Shavit says, “She finds it very hard to make decisions. Even with noncritical decisions she deliberates, wavers, delays and changes her opinion over and over. Some people believe the combination of inexperience and lack of confidence paralyzes Livni. They think the foreign minister is incapable of deciding whether to launch a strike against Iran. Livni does not have the spine, levelheadedness and internal calm necessary to take the most critical decisions.”
This is really scary stuff, and the fcat that the mainstream media refuses to report it is a tremendous dis-service. Shavit takes one more shot at Livni at teh conclusion of his article. “One of the people I spoke to was especially agitated despite being a mature, restrained and conservative person. He told me he felt like a member of some cult with a terrible secret: Tzipi Livni is not fit to be prime minister. There is a black flag waving above her journey to the Prime Minister’s Office. The witness said it was inconceivable to him that the media are not revealing this secret; intolerable that the public does not know. That is why he spoke, that is why I recorded his words. That is why this piece was published. So the public will know - and decide.”
Wow. Let’s hope that the Israeli electorate heeds the warning beofre it’s too late.
