Translated material
Fight for survival
Israel's ruling party may change its leader
Founded at the end of 2005 by the legendary Israeli politician Ariel Sharon, the centrist Kadima (Forward) party will remain at the head of the ruling coalition. Its leader, 62-year-old Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, is confident of this: “Our party is not a satellite, but the party in power and will remain so.” But it is possible that Olmert will have to sacrifice his position to maintain the party's power.On June 11, the party in power in Israel is scheduled to hold a meeting on the issue of holding early internal party elections. According to Israeli law, if the ruling party changes its leader, he will automatically become the new prime minister. In this case, there is no need to hold early parliamentary elections. Of the 120 Knesset members, 29 are members of Kadima. The ruling coalition also includes the left party Labor (19 seats), the religious party Shas (12 seats), and the Pensioners Party (four seats).
Israeli Foreign Minister 49-year-old Tzipi Livni is in favor of re-elections in Kadima. Her rating is higher than that of other candidates for the post of party leader - 55-year-old Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter, 60-year-old Minister of Transport Shaul Mofaz and 59-year-old Interior Minister Meir Shitrit.
Israeli newspapers are already discussing the option of having a woman head the government for the second time in the state’s 60-year history. The first time this happened was in 1969, when Golda Meir came to power. So far, the biographies of the two women are similar in that they both headed the Israeli Foreign Ministry - Golda Meir from 1956 to 1966, and Tzipi Livni from 2006 to the present.
At the same time, according to many Israelis, Tzipi Livni is still very far from Golda Meir. If at first it seemed that Livni was a strong personality, now there are fewer and fewer supporters of this opinion. She has neither the strength nor the determination to openly confront the current Prime Minister and party leader Ehud Olmert. Ordinary diplomats of the Israeli Foreign Ministry are also dissatisfied with her, who, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, called her a “weak”, not an independent minister who turns a blind eye to the problems of the ministry. She will be able to lead the government more likely through a coincidence of circumstances than through her own merits.
There are also unknown pages in the biography of Tzipi Livni. From 1980 to 1984, after serving in the army, she was an agent for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. As the British newspaper The Sunday Times wrote the other day, in the early 1980s, Mossad carried out a number of liquidations of “Arab terrorists” in European countries, and young Tzipi allegedly took part in them. Moreover, according to the testimony of her colleagues, “not as a simple office employee”: “She got comfortable in European capitals, worked with male agents, most of whom were former special forces and were hunting terrorists.”
The imminent rise of Tzipi Livni (her career did not prevent her from being a mother of two children) is not obvious. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, of the top five in Kadima, only the head of the Foreign Ministry more or less consistently advocates internal party elections. Others are hoping that some sudden turn of events will boost their ratings.
One thing is obvious: fellow party members no longer perceive the current leader of Kadima, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as the real leader of the party. At the same time, Kadima is dissatisfied not so much with the fact that three police investigations are being conducted against Olmert on suspicion of corruption, but with the course that the prime minister is pursuing. “The party’s charter did not say a word about negotiations with Syria on the return of the Golan Heights,” Kadima party member and Knesset member Zeev Elkin explained to VN. “We are also unhappy that Olmert is holding negotiations with the Palestinians behind closed doors and party members cannot control them. In addition, the prime minister did not ensure the safety of the residents of the south of the country suffering from Palestinian rockets."
“ The longer Olmert delays the party elections, the longer he will remain in power ,” the Yediot Ahronot newspaper believes. But then there is a possibility that the Minister of Defense, the leader of the Labor party, Ehud Barak, will fulfill his threats and leave the ruling coalition. In this case, Israel will already have full-fledged early parliamentary elections, and not only Olmert, but also the rest of the Kadima members will have to say goodbye to their political career. However, Doctor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Alon Peled told VN that the party still has a chance to survive: “Although centrist parties traditionally do not live long in Israel, now in Kadima much depends on the internal party struggle, on whether "Many people have the potential to take a shot and raise its rating."