Israel Matzav

Election Results Don't Mean Much

While there's a lot of gloating over the election results in the weekend editions of such mainstream outlets as the New York Times and the Washington Post, not to mention the Sunday Times of London, and not to mention some writers in the Jerusalem Post.

But writing in Friday's Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick has a different perspective:

IN SPITE of the Israeli media's best efforts, Zionism did not die on Tuesday. Although the formation of Kadima strengthened the Israeli post-Zionist Left, it is impossible to view the election results as a mandate to implement Kadima's policy of mass expulsions and military retreat from Judea and Samaria.

The nation is split in half between Left and Right. The parties that support capitulation won 54 seats and those that oppose capitulating won 50 seats.

Although both Kadima head Ehud Olmert and Labor leader Amir Peretz are capable of forming coalition governments, with the support of all seven MKs from the Gil Pensioners' Party - support that is far from assured - both have but a bare majority for the expulsion and retreat plan. Indeed, the only stable coalitions for Kadima or Labor include anti-capitulation parties. This state of affairs together with the low voter turnout Tuesday means that Kadima and its sister parties on the Left did not receive a mandate and do not have the political strength to automatically implement their expulsion and retreat plan.

So Zionism, as represented today by the Nationalist camp, is not dead. But as they did in Herzl's time, the Zionists today face difficult and complicated challenges. If Herzl's followers today follow the example he set in 1897, like him they can change Israel's current diplomatic, military and social realities. They can renew the nation's faith in itself and strengthen Israel's international posture and legitimacy. By accomplishing these goals, they will remove the threat of capitulation and loss of Jewish sovereignty for the foreseeable future and set the conditions for Israel's victory in the Palestinian terror war.

To achieve these aims, Herzl's disciples, whose most prominent political representatives are the Likud and National Union-NRP, need to operate simultaneously in the international and Jewish arenas.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:35 PM