October 31, 2006
This week in Israel….. Behind the news with Gershon Baskin
It has been decided, Avigdor Lieberman is now the Minister for dealing with strategic threats to Israel – what that means is not exactly clear to anyone. Haaretz newspaper last week described Lieberman himself as a strategic threat. “The choice of the most unrestrained and irresponsible man around for this job constitutes a strategic threat in its own right. Lieberman`s lack of restraint and his unbridled tongue, comparable only to those of Iran`s president, are liable to bring disaster down upon the entire region.” (Editorial, October 24, 2006) Haaretz based its description of Lieberman on his well known “big mouth” and his tendency to shoot it off long before he begins to think about what he is saying. A case in point is when he suggested that Israel should bomb the Aswan dam when something the Egyptians did upset Lieberman’s sense of world order.
The Labour party central council voted overwhelmingly in favor of staying in the government and sharing the decision making table with Lieberman. Only Minister of Science, Culture and Sport, Ofir Pines-Paz resigned from the government in protest. I strongly admire Ofir’s courageous decision and support his bid to take over the leadership of the Labour party, however I think that the Labour party should not leave the government. The Labour party should begin to implement government decisions on the dismantling of illegal outposts that would force Lieberman to resign from the government. Amir Peretz should immediately meet with Palestinian President Abbas, even if Olmert is against such a meeting. Peretz met with Abbas during his election campaign, then he thought it was the right thing to do, he should do it again now. Why should Lieberman’s entrance to the government force Labour to leave. It is time for Labour to take a leading role in setting the agenda of the government and to stop being the puppy dog of Olmert.
Ofir out and up?
Ofir Pines-Paz has proven to be a politician with integrity. He is one of the few political leaders today who says what he means and acts on it. Once Ofir declared that he would not sit in the government with Lieberman, he had no choice, but to leave the government. In the past years he has been considering his future chances to take over the leadership of the Labour party. He probably is moving ahead with those plans before he would have liked to. Ofir proved his integrity as the Minister of Interior for a short period during the last Sharon government. He did a very good job, given the deep rooted religious and anti-Arab civil service dating back to years of Shas control of the Ministry. He hired an Israeli Arab as Director General of the Ministry, the first time in history. He went forward to tackle planning and land issues in the Arab sector and he worked hard and succeeded in getting additional budgets for deprived communities.
Ofir had been a participant in IPCRI’s Israeli-Palestinian Jerusalem working group. He stood by his beliefs and had no qualms in going public in support of two capitals in Jerusalem, even before the Labour party came out in support of dividing Jerusalem. Ofir participated in the development of the IPCRI Road Map for Jerusalem and supported that document in the press after the IPCRI meetings. Given my very high level of disappointment of Amir Peretz, I am happy to back Ofir and hope that he won’t let me down too.
The Budget is in
The Minsiter of Finance Avaham Hirschson tabled his budget for the new year in the Knesset. Hirschson reminded the members of Knesset that the budget reflects the fact that we had a war this year. The entire social-economic agenda that was the backbone of campaign season just a half year ago has completely disappeared from the budget. There will be no economic reforms, and the promises made by everyone will be kept by no one. What is clear is that the rich will get richer and the poor will continue to be poor. There is no hope in the budget submitted. There will be no new major investments in education of in infrastructures. Social welfare programs will all be postponed. Despite all of the negative impacts of the budget, it will pass with a large majority in the Knesset due to the expansion of the coalition. Even the self-claimed socially conscious party Shas will vote for the budget although there is a chance that a Shas-and part of Labour coalition in the Knesset could produce some positive revisions in the budget.
The President is still in
President Katzav is still insisting that he is innocent of sexual crimes including rape. The Attorney General has more than hinted that Katzav should step down, but because he has no authority to do more than that, Katzav has responded by asserting his innocence and notifying the High Court that no one has the authority to force him to step down. The Knesset can impeach the President and several members of the house are preparing the move fir impeachment. It would take the support of 90 MKs to impeach Katzav. The Attorney General is busy preparing the indictment against the President.
Meanwhile, the Labour party has decided to back MK Collette Avital for its next candidate for President. Collette has been an active member of the peace camp for many years and she is highly respected locally and internationally. There were rumors years ago about a romantic interlude between her and another leading candidate for the position – Shimon Peres. Peres is still denying that he is a candidate, which is probably true, because Peres will not run without an iron clad guarantee that he would win. I don’t know who is supposed to give him that guarantee, but knowing Peres’s election history is quite understandable that he does not want to lose again.
Katzav has damaged the office of the President to such an extent that our lawmakers would be better off finally deciding to do away with this unnecessary position. But why give up another job with high prestige and lots of money to waste?
Gershon Baskin is the Co-CEO of IPCRI – the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information.
