Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Israeli Election Will Not End Occupation

A friend who is a leader in APN asked me about the coming Israeli Election.  I responded by telling him about Gideon Levy’s piece the other day (reprinted by Jerome Slater http://www.jeromeslater.com/2015/02/the-great-gideon-levy.html ).  Levy says that without doubt Netanyahu will be a disaster, but he worries that Herzog may be a “worse disaster”  because he won’t make peace, but he will negotiate.  The very act of negotiating will dissipate international pressure from Israel, postponing the ultimate reckoning when it will be worse.  Netanyahu will continue racist and ill-advised policies and will lose more support from Europe and even the United States and hasten the day of reckoning.   


My friend asked, “what about Meretz?”  On one hand more Meretz (and Hadash) MKs is a good – they will work for many things we all want.  But in a larger sense, it doesn’t matter because in Israel the PM has considerably more power than the U.S. president.  If the Labor-led coalition of Hetzog and Livni known as the Zionist Camp wins, almost surely Meretz will be included in the government where the real power to make peace rests with Herzog and Livni.  In that sense, a vote for Meretz is little different than a vote for the Zionist Camp.  

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