Thursday, January 24, 2013 12:13:03 AM
Israel election result hands rising star Yair Lapid a pivotal role
Former journalist whose party won second largest share of seats
is courted by both Binyamin Netanyahu and Shelly Yachimovich
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Wednesday 23 January 2013 17.26 GMT
Yair Lapid celebrates at his party's headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Photograph: Edi Israel/Israel Sun/Rex Feat
Yair Lapid, the celebrity journalist turned politician who shook the Israeli political landscape with an unexpectedly strong showing in Tuesday's election, was last night being intensively courted by parties on both right and left who are desperate to snare him for their camp.
Lapid, whose party came second, winning 19 of 120 parliamentary seats, was the target of competing appeals by Binyamin Netanyahu .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/binyamin-netanyahu , who – although weakened – is expected to form another coalition government, and Shelly Yachimovich, who is likely to be leader of the opposition.
Lapid's pivotal role followed a poor result for Netanyahu's rightwing alliance, which secured 31 seats, down from a previous total of 42. In a blow to the incumbent prime minister, a sizeable proportion of former supporters are believed to have switched allegiance to Lapid, who entered politics only a year ago.
Netanyahu is considering complex options for the next coalition government, the inevitable outcome of Israel's .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/israel .. electoral system of proportional representation. He telephoned Lapid shortly after exit polls accurately predicted the result of the election, telling him: "We have the opportunity to do great things together."
Further conversations between the pair took place in private, but one of the main issues for negotiation was thought to be an end to the exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews from compulsory military service. The mantra of "sharing the burden" was central to Lapid's election campaign.
A statement from Netanyahu on Wednesday signalled a shift in his priorities, in order to tick the boxes of Lapid's political platform. "The Israeli public wants me to continue leading the country and it wants me to build a coalition that would create three major changes domestically: more equal distribution of the national burden [military service], affordable housing, and change in the system of government," he said.
During his first term, Netanyahu focused on security issues, with the Iranian nuclear programme at the top of his list of priorities.
Yachimovich, leader of the Labour party, urged Lapid to join an alternative centre-left camp, which could try to form a coalition government or be a robust opposition to another rightwing-religious government.
After congratulating Lapid on his "remarkable achievement", she told reporters: "I urge him not to join a Netanyahu-led government and not take part in the middle-class calamity which will happen the day after he is sworn in. Should he choose the other way – I'll stand by him and assist." She intended to do all in her power to "take advantage of the political possibility opened yesterday to form a coalition of moderate, social, peace advocate and centrist forces without Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister".
If this was not possible, she would remain in opposition. "This will be a strong, aggressive and biting opposition and we'll do all we can to prevent Netanyahu from imposing the socially unbearable hell he's planning if he manages to form a government."
Support for Lapid accelerated in the final days of the election campaign, during which opinion polls are banned. The final surveys, published last Friday, forecast around 12 seats for Lapid's Yesh Atid party while advising that almost one in five voters was undecided.
As well as attracting disillusioned former Netanyahu voters, Lapid appears to have capitalised on the wave of anger felt in Israel in the past two years over the high cost of living, especially for young families.
Massive "social justice" protests swept the country 18 months ago, culminating in almost half a million people taking to the streets in September 2011.
"In the winter of 2013 the biggest protest of all was held. There were not half a million people there as there were in the summer of 2011; rather, it was millions of people," wrote Yael Paz-Melamed in Ma'ariv. "The silent majority in Israel, the people who work, pay taxes, go to the army, serve in reserve duty, and especially those who chose to live here freely – they got off of the couch, filled the ballot boxes and took back the power they deserve."
The White House said its relations with Israel would not change regardless of the result, but called for a resumption of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Spokesman Jay Carney pushed back on the notion that Barack Obama and Netanyahu need to recalibrate their relationship. "No leader has met more often with or spent more time on the phone with President Obama than prime minister Netanyahu. That relationship is strong, and it is a relationship that allows for a free and open discussion of ideas and positions," Carney said.
One of Israel's most respected commentators, Nahum Barnea, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth: "The lesson [of the election] must begin at the protest movement of the summer of 2011. By the time autumn arrived, the tents on the streets had been dismantled, the general sense was that the protest was dead and buried. That wasn't the case. The seeds had been sown. They were waiting for the rain in order to sprout, and the rain came … The feeling of disgust with the political game rules did not die: it only increased further. It went beyond Facebook posts and influenced not only the younger generation in the big cities, but other age groups and other sectors of the society."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/23/israel-election-results-yair-lapid
======
Let us live in our land
Netanyahu and Lapid complement each other, if the two of them can get the better of themselves, conquer their evil inclinations and build mutual trust, they could be a pretty good leadership team.
By Ari Shavit | Jan.24, 2013 | 5:21 AM
The election results are first and foremost personal results: One candidate ?(Benjamin Netanyahu?) failed humiliatingly, and another candidate ?(Yair Lapid?) triumphed magnificently. Now the two of them will have to work together and form a government. Likud-Beiteinu succeeded in defeating itself via Yesh Atid, and turned its unchallenged rule into history.
Drunk with power, the settlers and nationalists made the public sick of them and allowed an inexperienced television star to move four or five critical Knesset seats from the right-wing bloc to the center bloc. That is how, in a way no one predicted, a sort of equality was created between the blocs and the short reign of King Bibi was put to an end. Netanyahu, it seems, will win a third term as prime minister, but he will not rule the country. His life will not be easy, not politically and not in terms of policy.
The results of the election are also structural results: They return Israel to the center. A decade ago Ariel Sharon realized that the political gold mine was in the center of the political map, and as a result moved the Likud to the center in 2003 and founded Kadima in 2005 - and became the king of Israel.
Netanyahu also understood that the jackpot is located in the center, but refused to act on this knowledge. In 2010 he made no significant moves in the peace process, in 2011 he did not wholeheartedly adopt the social protest, and in 2012 he missed a golden opportunity for a unity government with Shaul Mofaz. Instead of taking the risks involved in moving into the light, Netanyahu preferred to remain in the darkness with the Haredim and settlers, who rewarded him by taking advantage of him and stealing his party.
So now, the man who didn’t move to the center out of choice and strength is being dragged into the center against his will. But he will learn his lesson. Even Netanyahu and his successors in the Likud leadership will remember very well that the extreme right brought them down in 1992, toppled them in 1999 and cut them down in 2013.
This week the idiotic march of the right to the right wing of the right came to an end, and the renewed march of the right toward the center began.
But above all, the election results have significance for our identity. The dramatic headline of the election is short: Israel is not right-wing. This week proved that as opposed to the impression both here in Israel and in the world, Israel is not messianic and not racist and not anti-democratic. We are not all Moshe Feiglin.
As opposed the common feeling recently, not everything is black in Israel and not everything is lost. There is hope. True, the quiet revolt that took place two days ago at the polls was a slightly crazy revolt. That is not how the new center needed to present itself to its voters, and that is not exactly how Lapid’s Knesset list should have looked. The election campaign and voting patterns also reflected the stupidity and superficiality of the age of reality programming. Nonetheless, the revolt is a promising one, of the sane Israel against the insane one. The revolt is impressive, of the enlightened Israel against the dark Israel.
It turns out now that the new Israelis of 2013 are the new General Zionists. Let us live, they say. Let us live here in this country.
Now the ball is in Netanyahu and Lapid’s court. In a certain way, these two complement each other: Netanyahu has historical understanding and Lapid has common sense; Netanyahu has experience and Lapid has a positive approach to life; Netanyahu has diplomatic and economic abilities and Lapid has emotional and human abilities. If the two of them can get the better of themselves, conquer their evil inclinations and build mutual trust, they could be a pretty good leadership team.
The cautious and surprising hope that Israeli citizens planted on Tuesday in the blue ballot boxes is hope that must not be ignored. Netanyahu’s last chance is Lapid’s first opportunity, and our great hope.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/let-us-live-in-our-land.premium-1.496021
Former journalist whose party won second largest share of seats
is courted by both Binyamin Netanyahu and Shelly Yachimovich
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
The Guardian, Wednesday 23 January 2013 17.26 GMT
Yair Lapid celebrates at his party's headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Photograph: Edi Israel/Israel Sun/Rex Feat
Yair Lapid, the celebrity journalist turned politician who shook the Israeli political landscape with an unexpectedly strong showing in Tuesday's election, was last night being intensively courted by parties on both right and left who are desperate to snare him for their camp.
Lapid, whose party came second, winning 19 of 120 parliamentary seats, was the target of competing appeals by Binyamin Netanyahu .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/binyamin-netanyahu , who – although weakened – is expected to form another coalition government, and Shelly Yachimovich, who is likely to be leader of the opposition.
Lapid's pivotal role followed a poor result for Netanyahu's rightwing alliance, which secured 31 seats, down from a previous total of 42. In a blow to the incumbent prime minister, a sizeable proportion of former supporters are believed to have switched allegiance to Lapid, who entered politics only a year ago.
Netanyahu is considering complex options for the next coalition government, the inevitable outcome of Israel's .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/israel .. electoral system of proportional representation. He telephoned Lapid shortly after exit polls accurately predicted the result of the election, telling him: "We have the opportunity to do great things together."
Further conversations between the pair took place in private, but one of the main issues for negotiation was thought to be an end to the exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews from compulsory military service. The mantra of "sharing the burden" was central to Lapid's election campaign.
A statement from Netanyahu on Wednesday signalled a shift in his priorities, in order to tick the boxes of Lapid's political platform. "The Israeli public wants me to continue leading the country and it wants me to build a coalition that would create three major changes domestically: more equal distribution of the national burden [military service], affordable housing, and change in the system of government," he said.
During his first term, Netanyahu focused on security issues, with the Iranian nuclear programme at the top of his list of priorities.
Yachimovich, leader of the Labour party, urged Lapid to join an alternative centre-left camp, which could try to form a coalition government or be a robust opposition to another rightwing-religious government.
After congratulating Lapid on his "remarkable achievement", she told reporters: "I urge him not to join a Netanyahu-led government and not take part in the middle-class calamity which will happen the day after he is sworn in. Should he choose the other way – I'll stand by him and assist." She intended to do all in her power to "take advantage of the political possibility opened yesterday to form a coalition of moderate, social, peace advocate and centrist forces without Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister".
If this was not possible, she would remain in opposition. "This will be a strong, aggressive and biting opposition and we'll do all we can to prevent Netanyahu from imposing the socially unbearable hell he's planning if he manages to form a government."
Support for Lapid accelerated in the final days of the election campaign, during which opinion polls are banned. The final surveys, published last Friday, forecast around 12 seats for Lapid's Yesh Atid party while advising that almost one in five voters was undecided.
As well as attracting disillusioned former Netanyahu voters, Lapid appears to have capitalised on the wave of anger felt in Israel in the past two years over the high cost of living, especially for young families.
Massive "social justice" protests swept the country 18 months ago, culminating in almost half a million people taking to the streets in September 2011.
"In the winter of 2013 the biggest protest of all was held. There were not half a million people there as there were in the summer of 2011; rather, it was millions of people," wrote Yael Paz-Melamed in Ma'ariv. "The silent majority in Israel, the people who work, pay taxes, go to the army, serve in reserve duty, and especially those who chose to live here freely – they got off of the couch, filled the ballot boxes and took back the power they deserve."
The White House said its relations with Israel would not change regardless of the result, but called for a resumption of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Spokesman Jay Carney pushed back on the notion that Barack Obama and Netanyahu need to recalibrate their relationship. "No leader has met more often with or spent more time on the phone with President Obama than prime minister Netanyahu. That relationship is strong, and it is a relationship that allows for a free and open discussion of ideas and positions," Carney said.
One of Israel's most respected commentators, Nahum Barnea, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth: "The lesson [of the election] must begin at the protest movement of the summer of 2011. By the time autumn arrived, the tents on the streets had been dismantled, the general sense was that the protest was dead and buried. That wasn't the case. The seeds had been sown. They were waiting for the rain in order to sprout, and the rain came … The feeling of disgust with the political game rules did not die: it only increased further. It went beyond Facebook posts and influenced not only the younger generation in the big cities, but other age groups and other sectors of the society."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/23/israel-election-results-yair-lapid
======
Let us live in our land
Netanyahu and Lapid complement each other, if the two of them can get the better of themselves, conquer their evil inclinations and build mutual trust, they could be a pretty good leadership team.
By Ari Shavit | Jan.24, 2013 | 5:21 AM
The election results are first and foremost personal results: One candidate ?(Benjamin Netanyahu?) failed humiliatingly, and another candidate ?(Yair Lapid?) triumphed magnificently. Now the two of them will have to work together and form a government. Likud-Beiteinu succeeded in defeating itself via Yesh Atid, and turned its unchallenged rule into history.
Drunk with power, the settlers and nationalists made the public sick of them and allowed an inexperienced television star to move four or five critical Knesset seats from the right-wing bloc to the center bloc. That is how, in a way no one predicted, a sort of equality was created between the blocs and the short reign of King Bibi was put to an end. Netanyahu, it seems, will win a third term as prime minister, but he will not rule the country. His life will not be easy, not politically and not in terms of policy.
The results of the election are also structural results: They return Israel to the center. A decade ago Ariel Sharon realized that the political gold mine was in the center of the political map, and as a result moved the Likud to the center in 2003 and founded Kadima in 2005 - and became the king of Israel.
Netanyahu also understood that the jackpot is located in the center, but refused to act on this knowledge. In 2010 he made no significant moves in the peace process, in 2011 he did not wholeheartedly adopt the social protest, and in 2012 he missed a golden opportunity for a unity government with Shaul Mofaz. Instead of taking the risks involved in moving into the light, Netanyahu preferred to remain in the darkness with the Haredim and settlers, who rewarded him by taking advantage of him and stealing his party.
So now, the man who didn’t move to the center out of choice and strength is being dragged into the center against his will. But he will learn his lesson. Even Netanyahu and his successors in the Likud leadership will remember very well that the extreme right brought them down in 1992, toppled them in 1999 and cut them down in 2013.
This week the idiotic march of the right to the right wing of the right came to an end, and the renewed march of the right toward the center began.
But above all, the election results have significance for our identity. The dramatic headline of the election is short: Israel is not right-wing. This week proved that as opposed to the impression both here in Israel and in the world, Israel is not messianic and not racist and not anti-democratic. We are not all Moshe Feiglin.
As opposed the common feeling recently, not everything is black in Israel and not everything is lost. There is hope. True, the quiet revolt that took place two days ago at the polls was a slightly crazy revolt. That is not how the new center needed to present itself to its voters, and that is not exactly how Lapid’s Knesset list should have looked. The election campaign and voting patterns also reflected the stupidity and superficiality of the age of reality programming. Nonetheless, the revolt is a promising one, of the sane Israel against the insane one. The revolt is impressive, of the enlightened Israel against the dark Israel.
It turns out now that the new Israelis of 2013 are the new General Zionists. Let us live, they say. Let us live here in this country.
Now the ball is in Netanyahu and Lapid’s court. In a certain way, these two complement each other: Netanyahu has historical understanding and Lapid has common sense; Netanyahu has experience and Lapid has a positive approach to life; Netanyahu has diplomatic and economic abilities and Lapid has emotional and human abilities. If the two of them can get the better of themselves, conquer their evil inclinations and build mutual trust, they could be a pretty good leadership team.
The cautious and surprising hope that Israeli citizens planted on Tuesday in the blue ballot boxes is hope that must not be ignored. Netanyahu’s last chance is Lapid’s first opportunity, and our great hope.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/let-us-live-in-our-land.premium-1.496021
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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