Israel Matzav

Guess who's financing the 'housing crisis' protests

I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear Channel 2 News reported on Tuesday night that the Kadima party, led by Israel's number one opportunist, is paying for the signs used by 'protesters' in Tel Aviv, and is in constant contact with the protest leaders, in a bid to paint Prime Minister Netanyahu as solely responsible for the crisis (link in Hebrew). That's just plain wrong. Netanyahu gets some blame for the crisis - he's been in power for more than two years. But so does Livni. And not just for her past actions in previous governments.

This is from an article written by Evelyn Gordon that is, unfortunately, behind the JPost's paywall (I got it by email).

Nevertheless, Netanyahu faces one objective difficulty in enacting reforms: His own economic policies are diametrically opposed to those of several major coalition partners, including Shas, United Torah Judaism and Independence. All these parties favor more government control over the economy and more government largess. As a result, vital reforms like forcing the Israel Lands Administration to release more land for construction – thereby easing the land shortage that is a major cause of soaring housing prices – have been stuck in the Knesset for over two years.

And that’s where Livni comes in.

The party whose economic views are closest to Netanyahu’s is Livni’s Kadima, and that also goes for many other domestic issues (for instance, reforming the system of government). Consequently, Kadima was the first party Netanyahu invited to join his coalition: He needed it to enact the domestic reforms he craved. And by the usual standards of Israeli coalition negotiations, he was prepared to pay generously.

But Livni posed two completely unprecedented demands. First, according to Hebrew media reports, she demanded a rotation deal for the premiership. Netanyahu’s center-right bloc trounced Livni’s center-left bloc 65 seats to 44, and Israel has never had a rotating premiership when one party was capable of forming a government without its main rival. All previous rotation deals arose because neither major party could form a government without the other. Yet Livni essentially demanded that he overturn the election results and hand her the job Israeli voters had denied her.

Perhaps even worse, however, she demanded full authority over negotiations with the Palestinians even while Netanyahu was serving as premier. And no prime minister could reasonably cede control of one of Israel’s most crucial foreign-policy issues. Thus Netanyahu was left with no choice but to cobble together his current coalition.

Moreover, having chosen to stay in opposition, Livni largely refused to let her party support Netanyahu from outside the government even on proposals that Kadima had backed while it was in power. Had she offered to support certain key bills, it might have been possible to pass them despite the objections of some coalition members.

Finally, Livni pulled the same trick on diplomatic issues, relentlessly attacking Netanyahu as “anti-peace” even though many of his negotiating positions – which the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly and unequivocally rejected - are identical to those she herself espoused as foreign minister in 2006-09: Israel must retain the settlement blocs, Palestinian refugees must be resettled outside Israel and the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state. This greatly increased international pressure on Netanyahu, since Western powers would have found it harder to keep demanding that he soften these positions had the opposition leader made it clear they reflect an Israeli consensus. And that in turn forced Netanyahu to devote more time and energy to diplomatic damage control, leaving less time and attention for domestic issues.

Unfortunately, there's a price to be paid for Livni's opportunism. And Israel is paying it.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, housing crisis, Israeli economy, Israeli taxes, Tzipi Livni

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:36 PM