2007-01-09-Peretz |
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jewishsightseeing.com, January 9, 2007 |
By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM—Amir Peretz is in
trouble. The former head of the Labor Federation led the Labor
Party to another embarrassment in the most recent Knesset
election. What had always been one of the two major parties, won
only 16 percent of the vote. Nonetheless, Labor was the
second largest party in a setting of widely scattered votes, and
Peretz demanded a big job. He wanted to be finance minister, but
the prime minister would not hand over the country's economy to
one of its last outspoken socialists. The foreign ministry was not
suitable for a man who could not deliver a speech in English, so
the defense ministry was the only top slot available.
Commentators groaned. Peretz had no experience in
defense, other than his undistinguished service as a draftee years
ago. He had the bad luck of a two-front war within months of his
appointment. The results were not a heroic victory. Israelis had
been spoiled by the 1967 war to expect something in biblical
proportions. But they had done that well only in the war of 1967.
Various commissions and committees are still at work figuring out
what went wrong this time, and what leading figures may have to go
home in shame. Meanwhile, up to 75 percent of Labor Party members
are responding to polls that they do not want Amir Peretz to
remain as defense minister.
Peretz made other mistakes. When naming the Knesset
members who would serve as Labor's ministers in Olmert's
government, he did not select two of the most qualified
individuals: an economics professor who had resigned as president
of Ben Gurion University to run for the Knesset at Peretz's
urging; and a former commanding officer of the Israeli Navy. Guess
which Labor members of Knesset have been leading a revolt against
Amir Peretz?
Peretz also turned a cold shoulder to former
commanding officer of the IDF general staff and then prime
minister Ehud Barak. Barak's standing in Labor and among Israelis
generally is not entirely positive. The unilateral withdrawal from
Lebanon was a key feature of his policy as prime minister, and
that encouraged Hezbollah to the point where it provoked this past
summer's war. Then Barak led Labor to a defeat in a Knesset
election. In any case, Barak has returned to Israeli politics, and
is among the several Labor Party figures campaigning for Peretz's
job.
As one candidate after another announced his quest,
Peretz lunged dramatically, but not all that deftly. He announced
a new peace initiative with respect to the Palestinians; and froze
the scheduled extension of the security barrier into the northern
Negev, in order to protect the habitat of a desert antelope.
Both were moves to what he hopes is a constituency
in the left wing of the Labor Party. The peace initiative brought
forth cynicism verging on ridicule. The timing of this
initiative signaled Peretz's desperation to come up with
something. The prime minister is already on record as telling
Peretz that diplomacy is not part of the defense job. And there
may be no Palestinian capable of talking peace with Israel. All of
their leaders are much busier fighting one another in the streets
of Gaza and the West Bank.
The freezing of the security barrier will get
Peretz the votes of antelopes, and maybe a few from Israelis more
concerned about nature than anything else. But it will not sit
well with those who see the barrier as crucial to Israel's
defense, and are willing to inconvenience some desert creatures
for the sake of themselves and their loved ones.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is hardly in better
shape. There are no declared opponents within his party wanting to
unseat him, but his poll standings are down in the range of
Peretz's. A recent survey found his foreign minister (Tzipi Livni)
polling twice his support in a question that asked about the most
desirable candidate for prime minister, and both fell
substantially below Benyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has resurrected
and refurbished himself, thanks largely to speaking patriotically
and being out of office during the recent war.
Currently the prime minister is visiting China. He
said that he traveled in order to persuade the Chinese to work
forcefully against the Iranian nuclear program. Prospects for that
seem dim. The Chinese do a lot of business with Iran, including
the transfer of military technology, and have joined with the
Russians in opposing serious sanctions. Moreover, the schedule of
Olmert's first day there suggest another agenda, or perhaps none
at all. There were visits to the Great Wall, the Olympic Village,
a demonstration agricultural station created by Israelis, and a
meeting with the Ministry of Trade and Commerce.
It may be better for the prime minister in China
than in Israel. One news program reported that he will be facing
criminal investigations upon his return, concerning personnel
appointments and political favoritism in economic decisions. The
attorney general's office said that it was not yet ready to start
police questioning of the prime minister, but it is considering
the possibility. Not yet touching him, but close, is a police
inquiry into manipulation of income tax assessments. A prominent
figure, arrested and released on bail pending further questioning,
is a woman who has served as a close aide of Olmert when he
was mayor of Jerusalem, finance minister, and now as prime
minister.
Do not let the news discourage a visit. The weather
is good.
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