Israeli News: A Daily Analysis

A Daily Analysis

By Marc Schulman

October 27, 2008- Israel's Moves Into Election Mode

The official date of Israel's next election has not yet been set. The date will be set in the next few days. Despite that fact, election politics are now in full force. The first step is for each of the parties to establish a list. In the past few years the parties have run primaries to set their Knesset list. This time the Labor party, who is expected to lose many of its seats looks like it is going to freeze its current party list. Labor stated two reasons for retaining their list: 1) the fact there is not a lot of time to hold primaries. 2) The Labor party does not have money for primaries. Of course, the unstated reasons- as one Israeli commentator relayed– its like people already sitting on a bus saying its fine... don't stop... we do not need any more people on the bus. In the Likud, Netanyahu is considering something similar. The leaders of all the major parties are talking about creating a unity government- each one, needless to say, placing themselves as the head. At the moment, Livni is leading in the polls by a small margin.

The Israeli media gave a great deal of coverage to the American attack in Syria. It would seem it was a failed American attempt to kill a top-ranking terrorist. The place they attacked was the gateway for foreign fighters entering into Iraq, and was publically supported by the Iraqi government. One thing is clear, this is another black-eye for the Assad government.