I've been starving for news of this, but I must admit I still don't understand what the hell is going on. This only gives us something to chew on "in the meantime."
Analysis by Anshel Pfeffer: Bibi's Strategy based on his need for speed
Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu has a problem. For the last seven months, every single poll has placed him as the most popular candidate for prime minister and the Likud as the largest party in the Knesset - if the election were to take place today. But there are no elections on the horizon and Netanyahu is worried that he might soon begin to lose momentum.He might be leading in the polls, but running against the most unpopular government in Israel's history and receiving only 30 Knesset seats on average isn't that great. Neither is being the preferred candidate (with the support of less than a quarter of the electorate) such a great achievement when the main rivals are Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Three months from now, Labor could be fielding a fresh and appealing candidate and Netanyahu could suddenly seem rather shop-soiled....
In part, Netanyahu is paying for his miscalculation eight months ago. In the aftermath of the second Lebanon war, with all the public anger and the campaigns being waged by the reservists and the bereaved families, it seemed as if the government's fall was imminent. Netanyahu believed that he would soon be called to the helm and decided to be statesman-like rather than attack Olmert and Peretz directly.
Instead he launched himself on an international crusade against the Iranian regime and its nuclear program. He reaped the reward for his responsible stand in the arena of public opinion, but as Vice Premier Shimon Peres, a serial victim of polls, once said, "They are like perfume: wonderful to smell but dangerous to drink."
Meanwhile, back on earth, the harsh political reality is that the government has proved remarkably tenacious.... The government might have lost nearly all its credibility, but it still enjoys a large majority and, theoretically, elections might not take place for another three and a half years.
Netanyahu isn't capable of waiting anywhere near that long. Even if he manages to stay the course, he's going to look old and tired by the time the country returns to the ballot box....
Commenter Ovadiah ben Avraham, an Israeli, calls this
a whining useless article ... It's all just "neener neener, Bibi's not so great, look at who he's running against after all" blah blah blah.And Ben Israel says Bibi and the Likud betrayed Gush Katif. That could certainly be at the heart of all our troubles.
And though I understand his frustration, Abe in the U.S. is awfully hostile:
What kind of people retain a coward like Olmert? A people with no will to exist. Israel isn't a country, it's a hospice.
Ouch.