IMRA Observation - President Peres Cannot have It Both Ways

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
30 December '12..

When representatives of the Likud Party responded today to public remarks made by President Shimon Peres that criticized Netanyahu for not finding a partner for peace in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Labor chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich responded by saying that "The Likud's lashing out at the president of the country, one of the symbols of the state of Israel, is aggressive and contemptible."

But Mr. Peres cannot have it both ways.

If he wants to enjoy the immunity from criticism of a president of Israel, he has to limit himself to his apolitical presidential functions.

But if Mr. Peres wants to participate in the rough and tumble of the policy debate – in particular in weeks before the national elections, then it is an affront to the very lifeblood of the democratic process for those who disagree with his views to be forced into silence.

Because the moment that we enter the policy debate, then to be frank about it, Mr. Peres is painfully short on depth.

Israeli Elections, Gaza Rocket Attacks, and Priorities

LOTL..
12 November '12..








As rocket attacks against southern Israel's civilian population continue throughout the day, almost all political leaders and party heads have weighed in as to what approach they feel should be taken.

The following is from the Galei Zahal site:

(Labor Party head Shelly) Yechimovich to Galei Zahal (Army Radio) 12/11/12 "This is not the time for a wider operation in Gaza"

...the head of the opposition MK Shelly Yechimovich was asked concerning the matter (continuing  rocket attacks against Israel): "We are on the eve of elections, and for an action that goes beyond air strikes or pinpoint targeting of terrorists, there is a need for stability and national consensus. It is possible there is a need for an action like this, but not now."

One can only wonder whether the residents of southern Israel will agree that an operation that could bring the rocket attacks to a halt should be deferred due this being the eve of elections. Anyone like to take a guess?

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Shelly’s macho-man mentor who would've given Assad the Golan

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
09 November '12..

Hanna Rovina, the late-great first lady of the Israeli theater, once quipped: “people with connections don’t need protectzia” (“favoritism,” in Israeli parlance).

This is perhaps why in days bygone retiring IDF generals invariably gravitated to the Labor Party, where they had ample connections which guaranteed them a helpful leg-up to the top of the political hierarchy.

It was all mutually advantageous – symbiotic, in fact. Star officers were fast-tracked to prominence, while Labor basked in their military glory. The effect lent authority to the party’s claim to be the ultimate arbiter of what’s good for our national security. We had whom to count on and the-generals-turned-politicians couldn’t agree more. They profusely sang their own praises.

But nothing is what it used to be, particularly not in Labor. And so the heiress to David Ben-Gurion’s mantle, ex-radio presenter Shelly Yacimovich, found herself without a pivotal vote-getting ex-general figurehead. She had to have one, even if thereby she admits her own lack of experience and need to rely on the mentoring of a macho-man.

So she looked and looked and finally came up with… Uri Sagi. Two weeks on, Sagi withdrew from the Labor race citing “personal reasons.” Shelly is now looking again.

But Sagi’s short-lived political dabble isn’t a negligible footnote. If anything, this brief, embarrassing episode is emblematic because Sagi is hardly in a class of his own. He is garden- variety common.

For those who don’t recall, Sagi, nearly 70, is the ex-OC Military Intelligence who for years has been bewailing the failure to cede the Golan to the Assad clan. His oft-repeated refrain is that this was “a huge historical miss, a mistake of massive strategic proportions.” Even the bloody upheavals in Syria didn’t suffice to change his tune – the one he has been humming incessantly.