The Peretz Effect Melts Down the Likud
by Dean Andromidas
Nov. 25 (EIRNS)The latest aftershock from the political earthquake generated by the election of Amir Peretz as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party, and the simultaneous weakening of the neo-con Cheney cabal in Washington, has collapsed the biggest political house in Israel, the right-wing Likud Party.
On Nov. 21, Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister and founding member of the Likud Party, resigned as the party's chairman and left the Likud, taking 13 of Likud's Knesset members with him (the Knesset is the Israeli parliament). Sharon's new party, Kadmina (Forward), also includes non-Likud Knesset members such as Haim Ramon of the Labor Party and independent David Tal.
While Sharon is convinced his latest maneuver will enable him to keep his office in the March 28 general election, well-known Israeli military historian Meir Pa'il told New Federalist that the reality is that Sharon's splitting the Likud has put the rightwing's largest faction into a "process of disintegration. This is good news no matter what Sharon's own intentions might be." With the disintegration of the right, the election of Peretz as new Labor Party leader is now transforming the entire Israeli political landscape, allowing for the first time an open debate on "what Israel must do for the next generations," Pa'il said.
Pa'il, who is also a member of the pro-peace Meretz-Yahad Party, said that a successful future for Israel requires a withdrawal from the West Bank and a peace treaty with the Palestinians. With the remains of the Likud in the hands of leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau, that party will continue in disarray. Netanyahu and Landau are "Israeli Jewish fascists, I would not call them Nazis, but they are fascists," said Pa'il.
Statesman Lyndon LaRouche commented that Sharon, ever the political realist, is reacting to the coming ouster of his political patron in Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney. And while the Cheney cabal continues to press Israel to launch a new war against almost anybody, Sharon may not go along, for his own survival. After all, said LaRouche, Sharon only commits the crimes that he knows he can get away with.
The Peretz Effect
Internally, Sharon's latest gambit is aimed at defeating the new agenda Peretz has set for the country. Peretz is demanding an end to the neo-liberal economic policies implemented by Netanyahu when the latter was Finance Minister in Sharon's government. These policies have led to widespread poverty, leaving one in four Israeli children living under the poverty line; many go hungry, and Israeli pensioners can be seen rummaging through garbage bins. At the same time, Sharon has been spending billions of dollars on building his Berlin Wall of the Middle East; his so called "settlement blocks" that take up half of the West Bank; and a military machine that just purchased two submarines equipped with nuclear weapons.
A powerhouse grass-roots organizer and chairman of the Histadrut trade-union federation, Peretz has tremendous credibility among Israel's growing numbers of economically distressed. Born in Morocco, Peretz is seen as a powerful leader within the "Mazrahi" (Jews born in Muslim countries of North Africa and Southwest Asia), whose primary base of support has been from that economically distressed Mazrahi community.
Peretz is also orienting his campaign to political developments in Washington centered on American statesman Lyndon LaRouche's mobilization against Cheney and his cabal. Within days of his election as head of Labor, Peretz held private meetings with former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).
For more than a year, Sharon had been conspiring with Haim Roman, the Labor Party Knesset member who just defected to Sharon's party, to create a new "centrist" party, taking members from both Likud and Labor. However, the Peretz victory reshuffled the political deck and put fight back into the Labor Party, and Sharon has failed to gain the support from Labor he expected.
In what is being reported as a major blow to Sharon, Avishai Braverman, the highly respected president of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, rebuffed Sharon's invitation to join his new party, and then announced on Nov. 24 that he was joining the Labor Party.
All Israeli opinion polls have so far given Sharon up to 33 seats in the 120-seat Knesset in the upcoming elections, a result which would make him Prime Minister. But another poll revealed that 65% of the public view Omri Sharon, the son of Ariel Sharon, as the most corrupt public official in Israel, while 54% believe this title belongs to Netanyahu and 41% believe the title belongs to Ariel Sharon!
One Israeli political commentator told New Federalist, "The polls are showing Sharon will win if elections were held today, but they're not. Between now and March 28, the date of the elections, who knows, maybe Sharon will get indicted for corruption."
On Nov. 22, the office of Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz released a statement saying that it had no intention of letting up on the ongoing investigation into possible criminal activity by Sharon. This involves the case called the Cyril Kern Affair. Kern allegedly transferred up to $4.5 million into the bank accounts of Sharon's ranch, which could be considered a case of bribery.
War Threat
Meanwhile, there continues to be talk of Sharon initiating a war as a campaign tactic.
Military commentator Ze'ev Schiff, writing in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, made an explicit warning that Sharon's security chiefs might help him in his election campaign by launching provocations that could influence the elections.
Schiff refers to the fear that Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, Mossad chief Meir Dagan, and Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin will now lack "internal monitoring" and possibly launch unwarranted targetted assassinations and other aggressive activity.
Schiff failed to mention the one fact that everyone knows: These three security chiefs have all been handpicked by Sharon and follow his orders.
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