MK Gideon Sa’ar meets Likud activists in Haifa, says the ongoing political crisis must end.
By Hezki Baruch,INN
MK Gideon Sa’ar met on Wednesday evening with about 200 activists at the Likud branch in Haifa.
Sa’ar, who is running for the leadership of the Likud, said that the ongoing political crisis that is exhausting the state and stealing its resources must be ended.
“A new, strong and stable government must be allowed to be formed. If a change is not made – the Likud’s rule is in jeopardy in Netanyahu’s election – it is an election of the next leader of the opposition. Electing me is choosing a strong and stable government led by the Likud. The right has not lost the majority among the people. And we also have a majority in the Knesset. And yet twice this year, no government was formed,” claimed Sa’ar.
“Today it is clear: I enlarge the right-wing bloc. Netanyahu decreases it. He is enlarging the left-wing bloc and I am decreasing it. This is a critical moment. This is the last moment to make a change. If we do not change the Likud leadership next week – there will be a change in the country’s leadership on March 2. The left-wing camp will come to power,” he warned.
In his remarks, Sa’ar also addressed the necessary changes in the judicial system, saying that those who have not dealt with these issues in the past decade can no longer do so. “If we don’t make the change in eight days, everything we believe in will be in jeopardy.”
This from IMRA (Aaron Lerner) provides the most recent example of why Sa’ars promise to reform the judicial system “in eight days” is an absolute necessity for the survival of democratic government and the rule of law in Israel:
@ Adam Dalgliesh:Your crystal ball failed because you did not understand that Liberman would not sit with the Arabs and vice -versa. That many in the Blue-White do not want to sit with the Arabs. That Meretz and Liberman would also not sit with each other. Never mind the Arabs most of them in the Joint List do not want to sit in a government.
Israeli politics are not able to be understood by just reading the English Press. It really helps to listening to the politicians either in person or on TV speaking or in group discussions. It helps when you know some of their close friends and are in discussions with them.
Gantz may become Prime Minister that is certainly possible.
Predicting who will emerge in a government coalition is not easy at this point. What we do know is that if Bibi is the head of the Likud that chances for the right decrease and chances of the Likud in a coalition decreases.
If Saar were to run on the head of the Likud that could result in a unity government with the Blue/White, Labor/Gesher and the New Right. This certainly would be a better outcome than the Blue/White, Meretz, Labor/Gesher and the UTJ/Shas making up the government. The UTJ/Shas have sent out signals that after a third election that they would sit with the Blue/White. In-Spite of great differences they could find a way even with Lapid as the one of the big four in Blue/White.
Another possible explanation for Gantz’s failure to bring Leiberman and the anti-Zionist parties together for some sort of working alliance may be that he simply lacked the political skills to accomplish this. A skillful politician could have found enough common ground between the two potential coalition partners to get them to work together, at least for a time. For example, he could build on Leiberman’s past support for a version of Obama’s “territorial swap” idea, and his consistent support for Israeli economic aid to the Palestinians, including the Palestinians of Gaza–for example, he supported Ashkenazi’s proposal that Israel build some kind of port for Gaza, and/or the creation of a transit/inspection point for goods imported by Hamas (supposedly obviating the need for an Israeli “blockade”), to create some common ground between Leiberman and the Arab representatives. Another approach that Gantz could have used to bring both Leiberman and the Arabs together would have been to have given Leiberman a promise that the Arabs would have no say on national security-related issues, while giving the Arabs, in private, a wink and a nod that he would in fact consult with them, and perhaps Abbas, concerning these issues. Politicians, after all, make contradictory promises to people whose support they need, even though this is an unethical practice. And Gantz had already demonstrated an ability to mislead people about his intentions and/or keep them secret. A more skillful politician could certainly have built a 65-vote coalition during the fall, and avoided a third election.
Gantz’s failure in the 60 days after the September election to build a functioning coalition does not bode well for the future. If he fails again to form a coalition because of his political ineptitude or stubborn refusal to compromise with his opponents–traits that were on display during the second round of the crisis–than there is a real danger that there will be a prolonged period with no functioning government at all. And that could mean the collapse of the state and its conquest by foreign armies.
@ Bear Klein: My chrystal ball failed me as to the timing of Gantz’s ascension to the prime minister’s office. But it has yet to be shown that that will not happen in March or April. My chrystal ball may have been inaccurate as to the timing.
It is true that I assumed Leiberman, having said publicly several times that he preferred Gantz for the next Prime Minister over Netanyahu, and having formed a vote-sharing agreement with Blue-White before the September election, would find a way to justify jobning Gantz-Lapid-led cabinet. Perhaps he has more integrity than I gave him credit for, although I still think that is unlikely. Perhaps he faced a revolt in his own party or from some in his Knesset delegation if he joined a Blue-White government. In fact, there were reports to that effect in the Israeli English-language press. Perhaps he just wants to disrupt things in order to get even with a political establishment that he feels has insufficiently rewarded him over the years. Perhaps he is a secret agent of Putin, who may wish to keep Israel weak and dependent on Russian support. Who knows. But the rational thing for him to do, given his previous decisions earlier in the year,would have been to join a Gantz government. I shouldn’t be blamed for assuming, incorrectly as it turned out, that he would act in what appeared to be his own best interests and that of his party. For whatever reasons, he did not.
@ roamnrab:
The question IS- can and/or WILL they get their marbles together- for the sake of saving the future of the country? Or will they continue on the current (and past) path of Self-Righteousness-Self-Promotion, at the cost of that (our) future???
The Answer to my question JUST ARRIVED:
[…]
VERY SAD!
Adam Dalgliesh Said:
Adam,
I couldn’t agree more.
The question IS- can and/or WILL they get their marbles together- for the sake of saving the future of the country? Or will they continue on the current (and past) path of Self-Righteousness-Self-Promotion, at the cost of that (our) future???
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
The Blue/White stated position has been a unity government with the Likud with someone else besides for Netenyahu heading Likud.
The Blue/Whites main position was form a government without Netenyahu. There are true Right wingers in the Blue-White who all hate Bibi but get along with most other Likudniks as they come from the Likud. Yes there are also those who fall to the left of center.
If you wish to believe differently that is fine. Question, I hoped you threw out your crystal ball after it kept telling you that the Gantz will form a government with the Arab Joint List and Liberman.
@ Bear Klein: Unquestionably the Right has a serious problem no matter how you look at it. According to press leaks, the Attorney General is planning to indict by Deri of Shas and Lizmann of the UTJ, the two leading haredi cabinet members in the present government. Most Blue-whites and the parties to the left of Blue-Whites are secularists and will be very reluctant to form a coalition with the haredim in any case. If their leaders are indicted, the left bloc will be even less willing to form a coalition with them.
Gantz will not want Likud headed by Sa’ar in his government , even less than the Likud headed by Netanyahu, because Gantz and Saa’ars positions on how to deal with the “two-state solution,” the PLO, Hamas, and the settlements are diametrically opposed to each other. He will go to great lengths to find a way to avoid this. The Likud “back-benchers,” who will all remain on the Likud list per agreement between Bibi and Sa’ar, are also extremely willing to join a coalition headed by Gantz and Lapid, for the same reasons.
It is inconceivable that Blue-White’s Knesset members, or much the less the parties to the Left of Blue-White, would agree to serve in a government headed by Saar, whose principles they absolutely oppose. The Arab parties would definitely refuse to support a government headed by Sa’ar.
Contrary to what many believe, all of the Knesset parties have sincerely held principles, and are extremely reluctant to cooperate with parties that hold diametrically opposite principles.
The most likely result of the third election is that the Left bloc will win a clear majority and will be able to form a government under Gantz, without right-wing participation. “Change” is in the air, and the media are overwhelmingly in favor of Blue-White. Voters are tired of the political stalemate.
If the Right bloc does maintain enough seats to form a blocking minority, then we may have a fourth election. Since few want this, enough voters will probably switch from “Right” to “Left” to avoid this calamity .
No edit feature so I changed above comment.
Right Wing picks up a few seats with Saar and it is able to be part of a coalition. Bibi clearly has so many political enemies that he can NOT form a government, as proven in two previous elections.
The UTJ/Shas have given strong hints that after the next election they would be open to being in a coalition with Blue/White. So the center, left and the Haredi are likely to be the next coalition if the Likud is led by Netenyahu with the Likud and National Religious Parties in the opposition.
So, unless an upset occurs in the Likud primaries and Saar wins the right has a serious problem. Saar at the top of the Likud would allow it to be part of a coalition either right wing or in a unity government. Allowing the right to have influence in the government which is much less likely if Bibi is at the head of the Likud.
Right Wing picks up a few seats with Saar and it is able to be part of a coalition. Bibi clearly has so many political enemies that he can form a government.
The UTJ/Shas have given strong hints that after the next election they would be open to being in a coalition with Blue/White. So the center, left and the Haredi are likely to be the next coalition if the Likud is led by Netenyahu with the Likud and National Religious Parties in the opposition.
So, unless an upset occurs in the Likud primaries and Saar wins the right has a serious problem.
It is important to realize that the right-wing block only picks up 3 seats with Saar as the Likud candidate (according to Jeremy’s Knesset Insider’s latest poll) only because the national- religious parties (whatever name they run on) just barely passes the threshold to get four seats in the Knesset with Saar, while it doesn’t pass the threshold with Bibi as the candidate. The Likud party actually loses four seats with Saar as the candidate, according to this poll. What presumably happens is that just enough seats shift from Likud to the national-religious parties with Saar heading the list to give the national-religious some Knesset seats. This means tha Bibi is more popular with Likud voters than Sa’ar. Probably Likud Bibi-loyalists who dislike Sa’ar are planning on “defecting” to the national-religious parties. This gives a Saar-led bloc only an ephemeral, uncertain advantage, as many of these voters may return to the Likud by election day, thereby preventing the national-religious parties from getting any seats.
The nationalist Right needs to recreate its “United Right” list, which took eight seats in the 2nd Knesset election. With the religious-right and secular right nationalist parties running separately, they are both doomed, along with the right bloc as a whole.