Last-minute decision for Tzipi Livni not to run in a ‘rotation’ agreement breaks campaign promises before polls even open, MKs fire.
The announcement Monday that Tzipi Livni would not serve in a “rotation” agreement with Labor-Hatnua leader Yitzhak Herzog has drawn significant ire from MKs Monday night, who pointed out the poor timing of the announcement –the night before elections.
“The historic announcement of Livni and Herzog marks new lows in terms of broken promises,” MK Yariv Levin (Likud) stated Monday night. “If, until today, we had grown accustomed to the Left breaking its promises after elections, now these promises are being broken even before the polls open.”
“Whoever can’t handle the stress of the night before elections is not able to handle the day-to-day stresses of premiership,” he added. “Now it is absolutely clear that there is only one suitable candidate for Prime Minister – Binyamin Netanyahu – and that only one party fulfills its promises: Likud.”
“Livni’s misstep is due to panic and a lack of trustworthiness,” Deputy Environmental Protection Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) said. “Voters aren’t blind to tricks. In a moment of panic, it is already difficult for the Israeli public to follow the political twists of Buji [Yitzhak Herzog – ed.] and Livni as they struggle to close the gap between them and Likud.”
“What is clear here is that, for Labor-Hatnua, there is no path, there is no vision, there is no ability to actualize a better future for the citizens of Israel, and now, there is no trust,” he added.
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) agreed.
“Buji Herzog failed in his first test of leadership and has proven to be untrustworthy,” Katz argued. “After he crafted an entire campaign around the idea of a rotation, he retreats on that decision, and the central promises he made during the election campaign, on the night before elections due to pre-elections jitters.”
“We can only imagine what might happen if, G-d forbid, he becomes prime minister, and has to make decisions on Iran or on crucial political or economic decisions,” Katz added.
Some MKs attributed the timing to preparations – already – for a possible unity government.
“The cat is out of the bag,” MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) stated Monday. “Livni has given up the rotation agreement in order to authorize a unity government between Bibi [Netanyahu] and Buji.”
“In the tidal waves of bluffs that have been made known to the public, it is important to remember that only a vote for Jewish Home ensures a true right-wing government,” she added.
“This is a time of national emergency, and Herzog is not keeping his promises to keep Jerusalem united,” Yachad Ha’am-Itanu leader Eli Yishai quipped. “We need a strong Yachad.”
“This step shows the extent of the deception by the Israeli Left, and as such it is clear that it is not beneath any trick or ploy in order to come to power,” he elaborated.
“The Zionist Union is under pressure, we are closing the gap and tomorrow, with G-d’s help, we will win,” Yachad candidate and former Jewish Home MK Yoni Chetboun said. “The nation isn’t stupid – and it’s clear to them that with or without a rotation, this is all a matter of semantics [. . .] Buji is Tzipi. It’s impossible to detach one from the other, and it’s a bond which leads the nation to loss.”
“Tomorrow, the nationalist camp will go out to save the nation from these two, these representatives of the New Israel Fund and anti-Israel organizations,” he added.
Leftist MKs, meanwhile, have welcomed the move.
“I welcome news of the cancellation of the rotation agreement – it’s a step in the right direction,” Meretz chairman Zehava Gal-On stated Monday night.
“However, it would be meaningless if Meretz disappears,” she added. As of polls last week, Meretz stood at just four seats – barely passing the Knesset threshold. “There will not be a revolution, Netanyahu will be prime minister and Herzog will go to a national unity government.”
@ honeybee:
Thank you. It is almost normal. No pain. Everything is fine. The History Channel have some good showings. We rent lots of movies from NEXFLIX. Animal Kingdom has good specials but, for the most part. We read. My son in Law loves elephants. He collects them and, I have added considerably to his collection. Be well and enjoy nature.
It must be wonderful to live so closed to nature as you do.
@ mar55:
Hope all is going well with you. Take good care of yourself. I might also some programs on Animal Planet and the History Channels. AP had a wonderful series of programs on wild Elephants.
By maybe 3:00 AM Wednesday Israeli time exit polls should know the results. Official results by mid-day Thursday Israeli time probably.
@ mar55:
Good (for your eyes)!
FYI, first results at 10 pm, Israeli time, ie. 3 pm ET.
I should be in bed (it’s 4:00 am here). See you tomorrow 🙂
@ Avigail:
Over the years we have given up TIME magazine, the subscription to the New York Times.several other magazines and another daily newspaper. As they turned left we kept cancelling our subscriptions. We have the Wall Street Journal and another finacial publication. It is much easier to open the computer and go to several sites where you can get the news without any editorializing from the front page as in the NYTimes. Years ago after the incident with Dan Rather we decided the news were not worthy. We continue reading and buying books. Occasionally we watch a program or two on TV. Most of it on PBS. Other than that television we stay away from TV where some programs have so much violence that it is better to turn it off.Thank you for your wishes. At this point I do not have any discomfort from the operation. Another one in April. Not a big deal. Tomorrow, I’ll be on the computer early on to see what is going on in Israel. Some of the blogers who live in Israel can tell us something to the people this side of the globe.
@ bernard ross:
BR:
I think your observations about tomorrow’s Knesset election are right on target. The prime minister knows exactly how to tailor his approach to different audiences. His speech to the joint session of the United States Congress on March 3, 2015 will be long remembered, and puts Mr Netanyahu in comparison with Winston Churchill at his finest.
And his communications now must — and probably are — stressing his coolness and carefulness of approach when the large-scale shooting begins. It’s one thing for a lesser leader to threaten that he will destroy Gaza, but that’s not the kind of thinking — or talk — that is needed in the man who sits in the chair of Rosh HaMemshela of Medinat Yisrael. Careful and targeted action is what wins wars and saves the lives and limbs of Israel’s soldiers.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ ArnoldHarris:
Hello Arnold,
Same here (for the books). Good and focused sites are sufficient to get everything I need on a daily basis, without wasting an awful amount of time.
May G-d bless your daughter, my sister 🙂
I think BB will win for common sensical reasons. the deciding votes are the undecided who will be between BB and Herzog livni. they will mainly go to BB because BB’s handling of the gaza war showed calm and cautious judgement. He will not be seen as unstable and right wing dragging the nation into war on ideology but he will also not be seen as a naiive giveaway. He will be seen as the more dependable, stable, cautious, experienced of the choices and for those right in between making the last minute choices, who are not left nor right, BB will come off as the safer choice. It is only the Iran issue and US relations where he will be seen as more aggressive. The quarrel with the US probably helped get votes on the right but in the left and especially the middle caution is the by word.
@ Avigail:
AVI:
From reading your comment, I can attest that there are two things my wife and I have in common with you:
1) We have no television. My wife Stefi, a well-educated and multi-lingual woman, listens occasionally to radio music only. We get our news primarily from knowledgeable and focused blogsites and background information from our extensive home library. Unlike many people of this generation, we actually purchase, keep, and read books.
2) We have a grown daughter named Avigal, a highly-trained registered nurse at a large medical center in Wisconsin.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ mar55:
First of all, may G-d grant you a speedy recovery!
Second, there is a reason why I don’t have TV, don’t read newspapers or listen to the radio here. I only count on great blogs like this one to get all the info I need. 🙂
@ Bear Klein:
https://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=1h2qjtdm9ag57
Investigation of the musloid in chief.
@ Ted Belman:
Thank you, Ted.
After reading Debka (which I always take with a grain of salt), it just confirms what I thought: the gap never existed. You don’t close a 4 seat gap “like that” 1 day before the election. It just doesn’t happen.
When Netanyahu talked about the gap at the Rabin Square rally, he was just trying to get a better GOTV. Dude is the consummate politician.
The Left knew all along they would lose. The media just wanted to maximize their chance with the propaganda.
@ Bear Klein:
BK:
The fat lady isn’t really fat, but she just sang her final song in this particular opera.
Hail mary passes don’t work too well in American football, but maybe they do in Israeli Knesset elections.
Anyway, go ahead and chastise me for feeling so negative about democracy.
But in any case, this is the first Israeli election that I have followed in depth, and frankly, most circuses I have seen are better organized, with acts that are more graceful, and which allow all the spectators to walk out to their cars happy and not feeling that they got gyped by the price of the admission ticket.
But I might have to make the same comment next year about Mrs Clinton’s sneering-at-the-news media people, erase all the government-related emails, and power-at-any-cost run for the US presidency. Just so she can prove she is a better man than smiling and feckless Bill.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ Avigail:
Avigail, coming from an eye operation I was telling my husband the same thing. I remember when Ronald Reagan even during Ronald Reagan election, Dan Rather kept telling how Reagan had lost the election. His hate for the Republicans was such that he kept announcing the defeat of all the Republicans. People got so disgusted they stopped watching CBS. Eventually he got fired. For the last two days I have been thinking that perhaps the left and their media supporters are giving the wrong information as to make the people believe them, that they will vote for them. That is a tactic generally used by communists and all lefties.
They have known all along they were going to lose and they kept lying hoping to get away with it.
The parties have internal polls (non-published) which I have general info about. The differences on the internal pollings are razor sharp and have closed to where Likud could win or tie. Likud has more seats and Bayit Yehudi less. Herzog may even have lost a couple.
They are panicked. The only way Herzog can get into a government is together with Likud (assuming Arabs will not enter as stated and Yesh Atid and UTJ/Shas will not sit together as stated.
So Herzog is throwing a hail mary (does not really work for us Jews) to try and get more votes as they believe Livni is a drag on the ticket (is my analysis).
So double hail mary get more seats and if Livni is out of the picture Herzog could offer Bibi the same rotation deal.
I would be shocked if either hail mary worked but who really knows until the fat lady sings.
Dumping Livni makes sense if there is going to be a grand coalition government.
I doubt Buzi will come in first tomorrow. Israel’s leftist pollsters may be wrong.
We’ll have to see how it goes in the actual vote count on Tuesday.
@ Avigail:
@ ArnoldHarris:I just posted a Debka article which explains that victory was slipping from the Zionist Party’s grasp so they made this move believing it would give them extra mandates.
@ Ted Belman:
The only thing that makes sense is that the MSM have been lying about every poll, and that this 4 seats advantage doesn’t and never existed.
Something doesn’t make sense. They were ahead maybe 3 or 4 mandates on Friday. Why drop a bombshell like this on the eve of the elections? They could have been silent about it until it was tim,e for Livni to be PM. But no they fealt they haed to do it now and incur the risk of blowing everything. To my mind it was a desparate move. Not for a moment do I think this move was expected to improve their position. Why they did it, I have no idea. I think it helps us tremendously.
Well, Ted, this is something entirely new and unexpected; Buji dumping Tzipi from the main left wing coalition the day before the election. Does this presage Netanyahu setting up a national (dis)unity coalition? Will Tzipi’s voters just stay home, and award the election to Netanyahu after all?
Before I comment further on this, I would be interested in reading your take on the motives, the process, and the likely outfall.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI