Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
'Dialogue of the Deaf' -- Hamas, Israel Won't Talk; Arab-Israelis Aren't Heard
A Palestinian looks at Israel's recent election and sees an impasse, with little dialogue between the major actors and a failed effort by Arab-Israelis to form their own party. New America Media contributor Jamal Dajani is director of Middle Eastern programming at Link TV.
When Palestinian voters took to the polls in January and voted for Hamas, stunning the international community, the results were described as an "earthquake." On Tuesday, March 28, in the lowest election turnout in the country's history, Israeli voters did not cause an earthquake. But the outcome was still dramatic.
Israelis apparently moved to center politically, by giving the Kadima party the majority of seats in the Israeli Knesset, rejecting Benjamin Netanyahu and dealing a major blow to the conservative Likud party. But they also surprised many analysts and pollsters by voting in large numbers for Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Beiteinu party, which calls for an Arab-free Israel. The Beiteinu party wants to place Arab towns and villages outside state borders and strip Israel's Arab residents of their citizenship.
The vision of new centrist government leader Ehud Olmert is more moderate, but only slightly. Olmert has pledged to establish permanent borders for Israel by 2010, with or without the Palestinians' approval. Several years ago, when he was mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert outlined his vision of an Israeli state with "as many Jews and as few Palestinians as possible." During his victory speech to Kadima supporters, he reiterated this vision by declaring, "In the coming period we will move to settle the final borders of the state of Israel, a Jewish state with a Jewish majority."
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=21ad27f70a576165d12e7e6e6552d984
Israelis apparently moved to center politically, by giving the Kadima party the majority of seats in the Israeli Knesset, rejecting Benjamin Netanyahu and dealing a major blow to the conservative Likud party. But they also surprised many analysts and pollsters by voting in large numbers for Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Beiteinu party, which calls for an Arab-free Israel. The Beiteinu party wants to place Arab towns and villages outside state borders and strip Israel's Arab residents of their citizenship.
The vision of new centrist government leader Ehud Olmert is more moderate, but only slightly. Olmert has pledged to establish permanent borders for Israel by 2010, with or without the Palestinians' approval. Several years ago, when he was mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert outlined his vision of an Israeli state with "as many Jews and as few Palestinians as possible." During his victory speech to Kadima supporters, he reiterated this vision by declaring, "In the coming period we will move to settle the final borders of the state of Israel, a Jewish state with a Jewish majority."
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=21ad27f70a576165d12e7e6e6552d984
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
"...... and a failed effort by Arab-Israelis to form their own party ..."
What the article presumably MEANT by that was that the Arab-Israelis failed to unite into a SINGLE party. Because there were three Arab-Israeli parties in the election and I think they got between them approximately 10 seats.
But that's not the fault of the Arab-Israelis. It's a direct consequence of the system of electing representives by "proportional representation with minimal threshhold". Now that is a very democratic method but has the consequence of providing almost no incentive for factions to unite as long as they are all above the threshhold. It means that every "kook" faction gets represented, gets its say in the national decisions. Well, that's what demcoracy is all about, yes? That we ALL get our say, even those of us whose ideas are crazy.
The point is -- look at the non-Arab Israelis. Look at into how many parties they divide themsleves. Take just the "ultra religious" Israelis and see into how many parties THEY are divided. Or the "left" Israelis. And contrary to what you might expect, these "close neighbors" often will NOT cooperate with each other -- remaining animosity from whatever battle took place when they split apart. Won't join a governing coalition if some neighbor is included but will with some you would think their natural enemies.
Watch the fun and games as the Israelis try to form a new government.
What the article presumably MEANT by that was that the Arab-Israelis failed to unite into a SINGLE party. Because there were three Arab-Israeli parties in the election and I think they got between them approximately 10 seats.
But that's not the fault of the Arab-Israelis. It's a direct consequence of the system of electing representives by "proportional representation with minimal threshhold". Now that is a very democratic method but has the consequence of providing almost no incentive for factions to unite as long as they are all above the threshhold. It means that every "kook" faction gets represented, gets its say in the national decisions. Well, that's what demcoracy is all about, yes? That we ALL get our say, even those of us whose ideas are crazy.
The point is -- look at the non-Arab Israelis. Look at into how many parties they divide themsleves. Take just the "ultra religious" Israelis and see into how many parties THEY are divided. Or the "left" Israelis. And contrary to what you might expect, these "close neighbors" often will NOT cooperate with each other -- remaining animosity from whatever battle took place when they split apart. Won't join a governing coalition if some neighbor is included but will with some you would think their natural enemies.
Watch the fun and games as the Israelis try to form a new government.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$120.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network