Livni "Guns Them Down"

JPost reports:

Livni thwarts attempt at early Kadima primary

Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni scored a big political victory on Monday when she withstood a rebellion in the Kadima faction and succeeded in passing a proposal to delay discussions about holding a new leadership race until at least May.

MKs Shaul Mofaz, Avi Dichter, and Meir Sheetrit, who intend to run against Livni, demanded a faction meeting about advancing the primary, currently set for three months before the next general election, which could take place as late as October 2013. Livni surprised her rivals by calling their bluff and enabling the debate to take place.

And she's taking on Bibi:

Livni meets Abbas in Amman, urges renewed talks

Kadima head Tzipi Livni met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Wednesday, and asked him to renounce unilateral steps toward statehood and to fight Islamic extremism.

...“We must act now and work together against Islamic extremist forces,” she said. “It is clear to everyone that serious negotiations can reduces the damage.”  Livni was joined on her trip by Kadima MK Ronnie Bar-On and former Kadima ministers Tzachi Hanegbi and Haim Ramon. The four held a joint press conference in the Knesset upon their return from Amman.

...The opposition leader said that she did not meet with Abbas to “negotiate instead of the Israeli government,” and that if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took steps to restart talks, Kadima would support him....

...“Both sides are responsible,” Livni said.

(k/t for photoshop = LM)

Manny Winston Told Us So

“I TOLD YOU SO”

by Emanuel A. Winston, Mid East analyst & commentator

On December 13th I published a forecast on the high probability that Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (resigned due to imminent criminal indictments but still in power) and Defense Minister Ehud Barak would launch an attack (years too late) but, in sufficient time to help them and their cohorts in elections.

Today, December 31st, FOX NEWS with Bill Reilly and Dick Morris were discussing the Israeli retaliatory attack on Hamas in Gaza. Dick Morris, a well-known analyst, said that Hamas wanted a fight which gave the Kadima Party (Olmert, Barak and Livni) a better chance to succeed in the coming elections and to keep Bibi Netanyahu out of power...

Manny, who with his wife, Gail, fight the good fight and have been personal friends for years and I salute them.

His articles appear all over and can be found archived here. And alos at this site.

Follow-up On That Anti-Bibi Campaign of Kadima

Kadima, the clean party, remember?

Their campaign to portray Benjamin nNetanyahu as a liar has been reined in.

Kadima to clarify ads against Netanyahu

The Central Elections Committee has rejected a request by Likud MK Michael Eitan to halt Kadima's anonymous campaign against Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, but instructed Kadima to officially endorse the ads on buses and billboards within three days.

On Thursday, committee chairman Eliezer Rivlin rejected Eitan's petition against unsigned Kadima ads that read, "Bibi? I don't believe him."

Rivlin told Kadima to identify the ads on billboards and buses as its responsibility within three days...

...Former Likud spokesman Ophir Akunis, who is currently a candidate on the party's Knesset list, said in response that "the party of the greatest bluffs in the history of Israeli politics should be the last one to talk about bluffing. The Israeli public has already seen through Kadima's bluff - [it's] a party of advertisers - and no tricks can help the campaigners, who know that the product they're marketing - Kadima under [Foreign Minister Tzipi] Livni's leadership - is defective and unwanted."

...The Likud responded that Rivlin's decision constituted a victory because it declared the ads illegal.

They actually claimed at Kadima that the Internet advertising space was not covered by the law. Ha!

Likud Is Furious

I saw the above on a bus today.

I came back home, searched around a bit and found out that the Likud is furious about the slogan.

It translates as: " Bibi? I don't believe him."

Haaretz (in Hebrew) is reporting that the Likud is demanding that either the bus posters be removed in that they represent electioneering not in accordance with the regulations or that a sposor's name be attached. In Israel, non-party bodies cannot participate in electioneering.

The fact that the posters are anonymous is not only simple cowardice but it allows a real party, say, Kadima, from assuming resposnibility for dirty politicking as well as having the advertisements assigned to the allowance each party is permitted. And it also would damage Tzipi Livni's image as a clean politician. I'm guessing Eyal Arad is behind it for he's the eminence grise of black work or dirty tricks and loves to deal in "psychological propaganda".

More to come.

Finally, Olmert Doing Something Right

Kadima officials: Olmert sabotaging our campaign

Senior members of the Kadima party have claimed recently that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is sabotaging Chairwoman Tzipi Livni's election campaign and not behaving as would be expected from a prime minister during elections.

The criticism grew stronger over the weekend, after Kadima members read the public opinion polls and realized that their party was losing power, while the Likud and Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu were gaining popularity.

"Olmert fails to consider the fact that Kadima has entered an election campaign period," said one senior official, known as the prime minister's close associate.

The criticism was mostly directed at Olmert's statements during the state ceremony in memory of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl, when he said Israel should return to the 1967 border.

"His remarks are irresponsible, particularly when it comes to diplomatic issues, and voices opinions which suit the Labor Party or Meretz," said one of the officials, a Kadima minister.

Senior party members have also claimed that the prime minister excludes the foreign minister from diplomatic processes and is trying "to make her look small"...

Ms. Clean Tzipi Livni Cheats

Kadima voting extended over Livni low turnout concerns

The Kadima Party on Wednesday decided to extend the voting in its primary election by 30 minutes, after party leadership frontrunner Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, having voiced disappointment with the relative low voter turnout, asked to keep the polls open an extra hour.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, Livni's main rival in the primary, appealed Livni's request, and ultimately the voting was extended by 30 minutes, to close at 10:30 P.M.

Is Olmert Going to Resign in September?

Hold your horses.

Who says the Kadima party will hold primaries then?

Kadima's legal advisor Eitan Haberman revealed in the meeting that the party's internal courts recommended holding another vote to approve holding a primary at all, because of legal problems with the first vote. Haberman said a decision would be made soon on whether to agree to the court's request.

Who Said Disengagement Is No More?

Read on and pay attention to the last sentence:-

Avi Kadosh, administrator of the Negev kibbutz where the Kassam fell, said that his community has suffered hundreds of rocket attacks since the outbreak of the Oslo War in 2000.

"Where is the IDF?" Kadosh asked on Voice of Israel government radio. He charged the government with "knowing how to explain but not to act." The kibbutz official said if the IDF does not know how to react to the attacks, then the government should at least provide protection for residents. "We feel detached from the rest of the country," added Kadosh.

There it is - the new version of the Sharon-Olmert Disengagement policy which is actually a disengagement from Zionism.

So, we do we disengage Olmert and Kadima from office?

Kadima's Tzipi Livni Can't Even Get Her Role Right

She was supposed to bring down Ehud Olmert.

Guess even that is too much.

I recall interviewing her on my (and Rami Sadan's) Media Critique program over at Arutz 7, when she indicated to me that in her position as responsible for overseas Hasbara and information activities (she does have a good command of English). She basically indicated that she had been stymied and that my ideas of how to improve the capability of response (and not exclusively the content) were not even going to be on the agenda despit that for years - if not decades - the right-wing of Zionism had been demanding a different approach and attitude (especially as the Foreign ministry staff were anti-nationalists and wishy-washies). She was a failure then.

Bye-by Tzipi.

Joke

Q. How do you transport, in Israel, five Members of Knesset suspected of
criminal activity in a police van?

A. Two up front and then another three "mi'Kadima" (from Kadima or, in
Hebrew, "up front")