Between the vortex and the vacuum

Yisrael Medad
Green-Lined/JPost
05 January '10

If you read this JPost report, you'll find a host of hot items including: "revised order"; "remedies for some of the complaints"; "a 10-month freeze on construction"; "underlined by the Supreme Court"; "I confess that the arrangement we devised is not the best one"; "a heated Law Committee hearing"; "The meeting got off to a bad start"; "the Law Committee was being exploited"; and much more.

All the above refer to the November 25 Cabinet decision to suspend construction beyond the Green Line that was discussed in a Knesset comittee this past week. The suspension order was concieved with no grounded consideration of its possible ramifications - neither political, diplomatic, strategic or the simple aspects of how to compensate builders for their financial losses. This last point even received the sympathy of Israel's Supreme Court, which demanded that the Defense Ministry get their act together quick.

This is but another example of what I term the "between the vortex and the vacuum" characteristic of Israeli politics. Yes, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is, to be fair, in an unenviable position by virtue of his job. As head not only of a coalition government but one that includes the erstwhile main opposition parliamentary faction, the Labor Party, most of his time is usually spent quenching sparks and flames of third-tier politicians, not to mention the ego-busters. That, unfortunately, is the nature of the game and has been for decades.

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