by Prof. Ron Breiman
Three senior ministers
are missing from the Likud's new Knesset list, and the media has already
declared: The Likud has moved to the Right, it's become more extreme.
For the Israeli media, there is only one end of the political spectrum.
The extreme Left is never mentioned, and no one has attributed any
extremism to Labor's Knesset candidates, let alone those from Meretz.
A deeper look, however,
reveals that on the Likud's list, 18 of the top 20 candidates served in
the outgoing Knesset, while the two new names come from the Left
(Tzachi Hanegbi) and from the Right (Moshe Feiglin). It's the proper
balance, more a process of generational change than "extremism."
With that, the Likud,
as a Center-Right party with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu squarely
in the middle of the political spectrum, represents public trends:
Sobering up from the blurry "visions for peace" and from the idea of a
"two-state solution." The public isn't becoming more extreme, it is
merely sobering up to reality.
It's not surprising
that the media, which always criticizes the government from the leftist
flank, and which enlisted itself to the cause of "peace" and to the
evictions from Gush Katif (Gaza) and northern Judea and Samaria, isn't
happy that voters have understood what it refuses to understand: "The
two-state solution" isn't a solution. It has already exploded in our
faces — with the "Oslo War" (the Second Intifada). Moreover, regarding
the matter of public discourse it is right to allow room for other
opinions, ones that don't blindly follow false prophets.
The process of sobering
up, prevalent among the general public and whose views have been partly
represented by the advancement of new candidates on the Likud's list,
is extremely slow. If this process was quicker we would see it
represented in polls showing large increases for parties to the right of
the Likud. In the meantime, this is happening slowly. Even Netanyahu
himself needs it. He needs the pressure from his Right flank to help him
withstand the heavy pressure from the Left, domestically and from
abroad.
But the "investigative"
media continues undeterred: It's "the two-state solution" or bust,
without having accounted for the risks involved in such a plan before it
was unveiled to the world, or without learning the lessons from what
has already happened because of it.
Therefore, the media is
once again promoting Tzipi Livni, the person who failed as a foreign
minister but sees herself as prime minister; the person who had a hand
in the failures of the Second Lebanon War; who is associated with the
Oslo agreement and Annapolis; and who refuses to accept the judgment
from voters in her own Kadima party, who elected someone else to replace
her; and who is doing her best to now destroy that party which she
called home. None of this bothers the media enough to avoid supporting
her.
Contrary to the
narrative espoused by the media about a "Center-Left" bloc, it is
actually just a collection of parties eating away at one another, and
there is nothing "Center" about them.
Another argument being
raised by various commentators is that Likud voters have kicked out the
law-abiding MKs, and that the Likud's new stars are opposed to the rule
of law. But actually it is the State Prosecution and the Supreme Court
that have eroded the public's trust in them, so essential to how they
function. Indeed, it's those who oppose the "friend brings a friend"
system within the Supreme Court and who support dividing the Office of
the Attorney-General's jurisdictions — who are trying to rehabilitate
the public's trust in these vital institutions.
In recent years the
balance between the various authorities has been disturbed due to
over-interference from the judicial system and its overwhelming power in
relation to the legislative and law enforcement branches. Part of this
phenomenon stems from the government itself, which transfers some of the
decisions it should be making itself to the attorney-general or Supreme
Court. Those who support a balance do not oppose democracy or the rule
of law.
Professor Ron Breiman served as chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel from 2001 to 2005.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2966
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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