Israeli News: A Daily Analysis

A Daily Analysis

By Marc Schulman

October 26, 2008- New Elections in February

It is not official that Israel will hold early elections most likely in February 2009. Minister of Foreign Relations and Kadima Head Tzpi Livni officially announced that she cannot put together a coalition and therefore is calling for new elections. Now that she has failed there is a great deal of criticism on how she carried on the negotiations. Those criticizing state that she should have not wasted so much time talking to Minister of Defense Barak, and of course that she should not have wasted her time with Shas the way she did.

In fact it would seem that Shas was never interested in reaching an agreement. It seems that Shas Minister Yishai stated privately that they would never enter into a new agreement with Kadima. It would also seem that Netanyahu was busy behind the scenes with the Rabbis and possibly with the Pension Party to stop them from entering into an agreement. Its also not clear what part Barak played in all that took place. Barak may prefer being Netanyahu's Minister of Defense than Livni's. In he end with hindsight it is clear she should have called for new elections instead of trying to form a government. Of course hind site is always 20/20.

Meanwhile, Israel will have to live with a transition government headed by Prime Minister Olmert. During this period the government is not allowed to take any major actions, neither political nor economic. This will last for three months until the elections and then the month or two after until a new government is formed. So by the time it is all over, Olmert will have managed to extend his term from the time he announced he will step down by almost a year.

Last night an illegal set of buildings near Kiryat Araba were taken down by the army. One of the settlers, who is a member of Kach, was caught on tape calling for terrible things to happen to members of the IDF. Among other things he called for there to be more cases of Gilad Shalit, and for G-d to slay members of the IDF.