And again: It's a travel day
Greetings from Ben Gurion Airport, where the Histadrut (may they dissolve speedily and in our times) has ruined my night's sleep by calling a general strike. The strike postponed my 7:35 am departure to 6:05 pm, which means I would miss my European connection. So my travel agent got me on the 10:00 am flight, which is leaving at 5:00 am. That's less than an hour from now, and I'm actually going to the gate in a few minutes.
In the meantime, within the last hour, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon caved to the blackmailers (as all of his predecessors have done) and reached a deal which gives them
even more taxpayer money. So this is also going to cost my pocket.
The Histadrut has to be the only labor federation in the world that still strikes without a strike vote, and can shut down the entire country. Back in the late 90's Haim Ramon (you can search that name in the blog) became head of the Histadrut with the goal of shutting it down. Along the way, he lost interest, and he was replaced by Amir 'Comrade' Peretz (the name should tell you enough, but you can search that one in the blog too), who brought the organization back to its former 'glory.'
I hate the Histadrut. Not just because I'm a political conservative, but
because I've never seen a group of government workers that's more
sleazy and self-interested. When I worked in government (yes, I did from
1994-98) we used to have a collection for everyone to throw out their
requests to join together. Every professional in the agency refused to
join....
Have to go board my plane and get some sleep, but since I now have five hours in Europe instead of 2.5, I should have more from there.
Sorry - could not embed a picture.
Labels: Amir Peretz, Haim Ramon, Histadrut
Poll: Center Left 'mega party' would beat Netanyahu
If we as a country are foolish enough to do this, then we as a country deserve the lousy retread leadership we would get. A JPost poll has a 'center left mega party' including former Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert, former Prime Minister Tzipi Livni,
convicted sex offender Haim Ramon (who once told Ted Koppel that if his party has just one more vote than the other side, they can
crush the other side), and the vapid Yair Lapid,
would win 31 Knesset seats as compared with 22 for the Likud.
The poll found that such a party would win more seats than Likud, which
would receive 22 mandates. Yisrael Beytenu would come in third, with 14
mandates, closely followed by Labor with 12, and Shas with 11 seats.
The poll of 500 people representing the general population was
conducted on October 9 and 10, and has a margin of error of 4.5
percent.
The poll results follow reports of progress on Wednesday
by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political opponents, in their
efforts to build a “Center-Left mega-party” that could pose a serious
challenge to him in the upcoming general election.
Netanyahu
officially informed President Shimon Peres of his intention to advance
the elections, in a meeting at the President’s Residence on Wednesday.
Peres expressed hope that the elections would be clean.
Netanyahu
finalized the election date on Thursday. The date is acceptable to all
the coalition parties and is just two days after the inauguration of the
president of the United States.
...
Ramon’s first preference is for former prime minister Ehud Olmert to
lead the mega-party, which would bring together former Kadima head Tzipi
Livni, current Kadima MKs and other well-known figures on the Left. He
would also want Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid’s party to join.
Olmert
told a stream of visitors to his office and home on Wednesday that he
would decide whether to run within a week or two after receiving the
results of in-depth surveys.
Livni, who met recently with Olmert,
will not decide her political future until she returns from a lecture
tour in the US in the middle of next week.
While popular former
IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi is legally prevented from running for
Knesset, Olmert, who is close to Ashkenazi, would present him as his
candidate for defense minister if he chooses to make a comeback.
If
Olmert heads a Center- Left bloc he would be able to form a coalition
with religious parties and with Yisrael Beytenu, whose leader, Foreign
Minister Avigdor Liberman, met with Olmert this week.
Kadima
leader Shaul Mofaz has said in closed conversations that he would not
stand in the way of an Olmert comeback, but he is not expected to
cooperate with an effort to reinstate Livni as head of the Center-Left
bloc after he defeated her by a landslide in Kadima’s leadership race.
Itzik expressed confidence that Mofaz would be willing to make political compromises for the good of the country.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Dalia Itzik, Ehud K. Olmert, Haim Ramon, Knesset elections 2013, Tzipi Livni
Three stooges to start another political party?
With elections on the horizon, the three stooges of Israeli politics (no, the picture only includes two of them) -
Ehud K. Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Haim Ramon - are talking about starting
yet another political party.
Former Kadima minister Haim Ramon said he is in discussions with former
prime minister Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni about the formation of a new
political party, although he added Olmert has not yet made a decision on
whether to return to politics, speaking with Army Radio Wednesday
morning.
Confirming he is speaking with a number of politicians about
populating a party list, Ramon said that the head of the potential party
will be chosen based on their chance of replacing Netanyahu.
MK
Dalia Itzik (Kadima) also said on Wednesday she would like to see Olmert
return to politics - in contrast with Likud ministers, who are
promoting an initiative to prevent his participation in the upcoming
elections.
In an interview with Army Radio, Itzik commented: "I want to see him as prime minister of Israel."
She
continued: "At this point we need to put fanaticism and ego to one
side, and consider how to team up with each other and to think how to do
our best for Israel."
Last week, a source close to Olmert said
the former prime minister has not ruled out returning to politics if
Netanyahu decides to advance the next general election, a possibility that was realized Wednesday evening.
Does anyone really think that Tzipi Livni is going to suppress her Obamaesque ego to let Olmert - let alone Ramon - head the ticket? And does anyone really think that Israelis are going to be stupid enough to vote for Olmert - the most corrupt politician in the country's history - again?
Labels: Ehud K. Olmert, Haim Ramon, Tzipi Livni
