In the end, it wasn't even close
Sorry for the long break. I did not get to post as much as expected before I went out this evening, was out longer than anticipated and then had (and have but will defer it to the morning to the extent possible) work to be done.Tuesday, was the opposition Kadima party's primary. Although Kadima is in opposition, it is currently the largest party in the Knesset. It is not in the coalition because party leader Tzipi Livni was not willing to cut a deal with Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud. That may now change.
All of the polls I saw showed Livni losing to her deputy, Shaul Mofaz. But none of them had her losing by more than 10%. In the end, it was devastating. Mofaz garnered between 64.5 and 65% of the vote, with Livni getting the balance. Livni has made noises about leaving the party and starting her own party if she loses, but all 12 Knesset members who were pledged to her have now said that they will not leave. If she leaves, she will apparently be going alone. No one else in her party is willing to jeopardize their political career for her overdone selfish ego.
Mofaz was expected to come to Kadima’s headquarters in Petah Tikva to deliver a victory speech. His associates said that in the speech, he would call for unity in the party and try to persuade Livni to remain in Kadima.More here.
“The day after [my victory], I will already start efforts to form Israel’s next government,” Mofaz told supporters in Beersheba on a tour of southern polling stations Tuesday afternoon. “I have already formed a team to work on my first hundred days [as Kadima chairman].”
Sources close to Mofaz said they spoke to all 12 MKs who supported Livni in the race in recent days and they all said they would remain in the party under Mofaz’s leadership.
Livni might have hinted about her future when she told reporters at her campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning that she “doesn’t believe in opposition inside parties” and that she formed Kadima and believes in its future.
When she was asked by Army Radio whether she would stay in the party if she lost, she said, “I am sick of that question. I don’t think the public cares what happens to me personally if I don’t win. It’s a subject that only the press cares about.”
The election was marred by a low turnout. Only a little more than 40 percent of the party’s 95,000 members came out to vote on the rainy day. By contrast, in the first round of voting in September’s Labor leadership race, the turnout was 67%.
I would bet that Livni stays in Kadima. And I wouldn't bet on Kadima going into the coalition so quickly.
Labels: Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, Tzipi Livni
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:42 AM
2 Comments:
Mofaz was good at inter-country military efforts. And I think I remember Mofaz and Barak being the point people on the equipment over some years (e.g., F-15I). I've heard him speak before (not in person, but somewhere on TV or something?) and he sounded very competent. Hopefully, he will become more visible again.
I guess I just try to imagine Ariel Sharon doing the things and aligning in the U.S. (and I don't even know who you guys are lined up with in Europe) the way it has gone recently, and I'm thinking it has become a brave new world. I think Sharon would have been different. Maybe PM Netanyahu and Gen. Mofaz (and Gen. Barak) will make a formidable team.
Mofaz is a farce. This is the guy who literally ran between Likud and Kadima podiums not sure where his TL'ing would be accepted.
Hopefully, Mofaz and his Kadima party of empty-headed nobodies will go the way of Labor and Meretz and Tommy Lapid and so many more like them.
But the bottom line is that we have no lack of stupid Jews who gave these useless polihacks their life-long Knesset pensions.
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