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Israel’s New Coalition: Why Netanyahu Has Moved to the Center
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| Contributor | 411 Name Removed |
| Last Edited | 411 Name Removed May 09, 2012 02:33am |
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| Category | Analysis |
| Author | Karl Vick |
| News Date | Tuesday, May 8, 2012 08:30:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By unveiling a new governing coalition that includes the centrist Kadima party, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only called off a national election he had just set for early September, he also re-calibrated the outlook of Israel‘s political establishment. In the bargain, he spared his defense minister Ehud Barak, his former commander and current wingman in the campaign to threaten Iran, the indignity of facing voters who likely would have sent him packing.
What was behind Netanyahu’s surprise alliance with Kadima, which was announced at 2 a.m. Tuesday? ”I know the prime minister well and one week ago, he was not thinking of this,” says Ayoob Kara, a deputy minister and Likud lawmaker. Indeed it was only on Sunday night that the prime minister looked out from the podium at the Tel Aviv fairgrounds and saw a sea of settlers at his Likud Party convention, recognizable by way of the knit skullcaps and headscarves commonly worn by the nationalist-religious Israelis who most ardently believe the West Bank was a gift from God. A rising power in the Likud, the settlers helped deprive Netanyahu of what he wanted from the convention: the power to determine the candidates on party”s election list. Over the next 48 hours, the chastened premier quietly made the deal with a faltering Kadima, all but erasing the prospect of elections before November 2013. |
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