A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Time For A New Likud

Two months after he took office, Prime Minister Olmert's unilateral withdrawal plan is being ripped apart not only by right-wingers, but also by mainstream leftists like Haaretz's Ari Shavit and Ze'ev Schiff.

Olmert has already abandoned his promise to achieve international - or at least U.S. - recognition of permanent borders and annexation of settlement blocs. He no longer speaks about building E-1 to connect Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem, or retaining the Jordan Valley.

Doubts are cropping up within Kadima about Olmert's plan, which is a clear deviation from the path of Ariel Sharon.

Ehud Barak was elected in May 1999 and was gone by February 2001. Olmert can be deposed within a similar time frame.

The question will be whether the next prime minister is Labor leader and defense minister Amir Peretz, or someone from the political right.

Having been decimated in this year's election, a bold step will be necessary for a Likud return to power. Indeed, a move similar to the formation of Likud in 1973 - when Menachem Begin's Herut joined with several small parties - will be needed.

The new Likud would merge Likud with Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party. Russians are already disenchanted with Olmert, with more than two-thirds opposing his withdrawal plan. The merged party would include Binyamin Netanyahu in the top slot, and Lieberman second. It would be a mainly secular moderate right-wing party, with the National Union and the National Religious Party on its right.

Once Olmert is close to falling, it will be time to bring in some new talent, such as former Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, who would got a top slot and be a prospective defense minister. It will also be time to engage in the painful but also necessary task of bringing back Likud politicians who defected to Kadima. In exchange for whatever promises those people would receive, their role would be to tell the country that they left Likud to join Ariel Sharon, and that Ehud Olmert is no Ariel Sharon.

If these maneuvers are implemented correctly, by early 2008, Ehud Olmert could be out, Kadima could all but disintegrate, and Likud could regain its place as one of Israel's two dominant political parties.
posted on 6/23/2006