Without a doubt that would be former Foreign Minister and current head of the Kadima party Tziporah (Tzipi) Livni. Her picture ought to be in the dictionary of political terminology under cynical careerist opportunist. A miserable Foreign Minister under the odious and corrupt Ehud Barak (who also had the clownish Socialist, Amir Peretz as Defense Minister – no wonder the 2006 Lebanon War was so poorly manged), Livni has done all she can to be a toady to the Obama-Clinton regime and undermine her nations standing. Livni is the one whom The One would pick to run Israel if he could. In fact the comparisons to Pierre Laval of Vichy France is rather apt. Her failure to recognize that attacks are not on Netanyahu or Likud (the Arabs do not differentiate between political parties in Israel, after all, Jews are Jews), but on the State of Israel itself, shows her to be a politically immoral fool. Here Miss Glick completely eviscerates the odious woman.
by Caroline Glick
Saying that Israel faces daunting challenges today and that those challenges will multiply and grow in the near future should not be construed as a partisan or ideological statement. Rather, it is a statement of fact.
It is also a fact that the greatest dangers facing Israel stem from President Barack Obama’s rapid withdrawal of the US from its position as the predominant power in the Middle East on the one hand, and from Iran’s rise as a nuclear power and regional power on the other.
[…]
Alongside these conventional threats, Israel is the target of a sustained, escalating political campaign to delegitimize its right to exist and its right to defend itself by the Palestinians and the international Left. This campaign threatens Israel’s economy and prepares the ground for violent aggression against Israel by conditioning the West to believe that Israel deserves to be attacked.
Given the magnitude, multiplicity and complexity of the threats Israel faces, it would be reasonable to expect our leading politicians from all parties to place patriotism above partisanship and at least on the issues that are beyond dispute to work together to defend the country.
And it would seem reasonable to assume that the issues beyond dispute are Israel’s right to exist and defend itself as well as its need to deter or defeat its enemies.
Throughout most of the state’s 63 year history, opposition leaders have joined forces with the government to defend the country in times of trouble. Most recently, while serving as head of the opposition during Ehud Olmert’s tenure as prime minister, in 2006 Binyamin Netanyahu traveled to Europe at Olmert’s request and defended Israel’s war against Hezbollah.
During the course of hostilities, Netanyahu never criticized Olmert’s poor war leadership in public. He did not publicly criticize then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni’s scandalously incompetent handling of the cease-fire negotiations at the UN Security Council. Instead, Netanyahu communicated his criticism to Olmert behind closed doors. As he saw it, public criticism would diminish Olmert’s ability to win the war.
Shortly after Netanyahu took office in March 2009, the UN released its libelous Goldstone Report in which Olmert and his government were falsely accused of committing war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Although Netanyahu himself was not mentioned or accused of anything, he led a staunch campaign to discredit the report.
Netanyahu didn’t act as he did because he wanted to help Kadima. He acted as he did because he realized that it was Israel, not Olmert and Livni, that was under attack. As prime minister and as opposition leader, it is his job to defend Israel from attack even when the most direct beneficiaries of his actions are his political rivals.
NETANYAHU’S DECENT behavior didn’t make him a hero. His behavior is the minimum we can and should expect from our elected officials, whether they are in the government or the opposition. We should be able to reasonably expect that those who seek public office with the declared intention of serving as national leaders will always put the national interest above their partisan interests when the two conflict.
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Rather than acknowledge that attacks on the legitimacy of the democratically elected government of her country are attacks on her country, Livni has viewed every attack on Netanyahu as an opportunity to weaken his government.
In this vein, Livni has consistently sided with Obama, the Palestinians and the international Left against Netanyahu, and blamed Netanyahu for their attacks on Israel. For instance, when during his visit to the US in May, Netanyahu rejected Obama’s hostile call for Israel to retreat to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines, Livni defended Obama as a friend of Israel and accused Netanyahu of harming Israel’s ties to the US.
Indeed, Livni called for Netanyahu to resign.
Livni ignored Obama’s shocking renunciation of pledges his predecessor made to the Sharon government regarding Israel’s right to defensible borders and US rejection of the Palestinians’ demands for unlimited immigration to Israel and for Israel to vacate all the Israeli towns and villages built beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
Livni ignored the fact she herself demanded that the Palestinians renounce the so-called “right of return,” and blamed Netanyahu for all the unpleasantness. As she put it, “A prime minister that harms the relationship with the US over something unsubstantial is harming Israel’s security and deterrence.”
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In Livni’s world, the fact that the Palestinians have refused to hold negotiations with Israel for two years is an opportunity to attack Netanyahu.
The fact that her friends in Fatah just signed a unity deal with Hamas is insignificant. As for their bid to ditch the peace process and ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state without peace with Israel – that too is an opportunity to attack Netanyahu.
Last month, Netanyahu told an interviewer that the conflict with the Palestinians is not about territory but about their rejection of Israel’s right to exist. He asserted that as a consequence, it will be impossible to resolve the conflict until they change their view of Israel.
As is her wont, Livni treated her opponent’s observation about an unpleasant reality as equivalent to creating that reality. Attacking Netanyahu from the Knesset podium she hissed, “Who are you to tell the citizens of Israel that they and their children, and later their children’s children, will continue to live by their swords forever? Who are you to bury the chances of a deal and of normal life here, after just a few hours in the room meant for negotiations you didn’t conduct?”
THEN THERE is Livni’s ardent support for far-Left organizations in Israel and abroad that work actively to undermine Israel’s legitimacy. Take J Street. It took less than a year for J Street to demonstrate that its claim that it is pro-Israel is a sham. J Street lobbied the US Congress not to impose sanctions on Iran. It lobbied the Obama administration to allow an anti-Israel resolution to pass at the UN Security Council. It has included advocates of the boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign against Israel at its annual conference. It supports several of the most anti- Israel members of Congress.
Due to J Street’s hostility, the government has rightly shunned it. But Livni has embraced it – mainly in a bid to make Netanyahu look petty.
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Then there is her outspoken support for anti- Zionist Israeli and foreign organizations that participate in the international Left’s campaign to delegitimize Israel. Many of these groups worked with the Goldstone Commission and others to criminalize Kadima’s leadership – including Livni – as war criminals.
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By acting as she did, she didn’t merely hurt the government. She hurt the country. Now everyone from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to B’Tselem, to the International Solidarity Movement will cite Livni’s position as proof that there is nothing wrong with waging economic warfare against Israel. They will quote her to claim it is reasonable to single Israel out from the rest of the nations of the world for delegitimization and divestment.
Livni insists that Kadima is not a leftist party and that she is not a leftist even as her positions are identical to those of the post-Zionist Meretz party.
Livni’s political rationale is clear. She knows that despite her protestations, no one other than her media supporters believes that Kadima is a centrist party. As a consequence, her only chance of forming a government is by capturing the entire leftist vote.
Although many Kadima MKs object to her positions and criticize her for being too radical, they realize they have no choice but to go along. If they want to remain in Kadima and in politics, they must appeal to Kadima’s voters – who are all on the Left.
This is why Livni’s rival for party leadership Shaul Mofaz has adopted a peace plan that is even more radical than Livni’s plan to give Fatah everything it wants. Mofaz’s plan is to recognize and seek to negotiate a settlement with Hamas.
Mofaz is no dove. But his only option for beating Livni in the Kadima leadership primary is to outflank her on the Left.
[…]
On my way into work this morning I noticed that the Freedom Tower downtown is rising up in the city skyline. It took me by surprise so I had to take some pictures.
It is a beautiful day today, sparkling and clear. Just as it was on September 11, 2001.
Almost ten years ago I stood in this very spot and watched as the towers of our World Trade Center burned and fell.
I just heard that it is about 60% completed but it doesn’t look very much taller than the Woolworth Building so far.
Here you can see the cranes lifting the steel into place.
I watched the World Trade Center being built when I was a kid. I had been to the observation deck at the top many times. And for a short time I worked on the 97th floor of the South Tower.
