That's yesterday, first day after the election. There is no word out yet from Moshe Kahlon and his Kulanu Party.
-- Reuters pic of Moshe Kahlon taken March 15th
The full quote from the Deputy Foreign Minister: “I have no doubt [Moshe] Kahlon is a true Likudnik and he will join our coalition.” Tzachi Hanegbi. Miri Regev repeated the "traitor" comment with emphasis.
NY Times writes the following as today's news:
"Israelis emboldened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a clear mandate in balloting on Tuesday, paving the way for him to lead a right-leaning and religious coalition that could be far easier to control, since his own party holds many more seats now."The first meeting of the party leaders at President Reuven Rivlin's residence is scheduled for Sunday, the 22nd. With no immediate statement from Moshe Kahlon of Kulanu, the news is conjecture until then.
Posted here yesterday:
Contrary to corporate MSM: Israel's Kulanu "All Of Us" Party will decide the electionThe Likudniks are triumphant. Exultant in their self-congratulations. An open letter that appeared this morning's Israel Hayom:
A special moment for IsraelThat's typical of the tone taken in celebratory Likudnik writings. 100%. They all assume they are getting Kulanu.At this special moment for the people of Israel, I feel I must recite the traditional Shehecheyanu prayer, "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion." The land of Israel has been saved from a treacherous attempt to divide it.
Jerusalem will not be cut in half and it will never be the capital of a Palestinian state. Israel will continue to be a safe harbor for all of the world's Jews and the danger of a return to the 1967 borders has passed.
The Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, won Tuesday's election despite the efforts of an unprecedented coalition of interest holders who were arrayed against it. The Likud victory was like a lightning bolt that turned out the lights at the White House and the Yedioth Ahronoth offices, as well as in Ramallah, London, Paris, Geneva, Beirut and the Gaza Strip. All means possible were used to try to oust Netanyahu, yet he still won. We, the citizens of Israel, told the world that we have returned home to be a free people in our land after 2,000 years in exile. There is no power in the world that can force Israel to act against its existential interests.
The people of Israel demonstrated a clear desire for Netanyahu to lead a government based on the nationalist bloc. Moshe Kahlon and Avigdor Lieberman will not betray their voters by joining a Left-led government that would require the support of Meretz and the Joint Arab List. Even in Israeli politics, there is a minimum level of integrity that must be respected.
The establishment of a cohesive and responsible nationalist government is the only way to fulfill the social vision that has risen to the top of the country's agenda.
The citizens of Israel were wise enough not to be led astray by the hostile media, which relentlessly attacked Netanyahu for three months. The media forgot what its role was supposed to be in a democracy as it bowed to the desire of Yedioth publisher Noni Mozes to seize control of the country. A large majority of Israelis did not want power to be transferred to Mozes and his political lapdogs. Today is a shameful day of reckoning for the Israeli media, whose hypocrisy and ineptitude were fully exposed. The election results showed that the Israeli public has a complete lack of faith in the media and the information it presents. We can only hope that, for the sake of democracy, the media will learn a lesson and stop engaging in incitement. I am afraid to even think about what might have happened to the free will of voters if Israel Hayom was not in existence.
Let us also hope that the Left will accept the results of the democratic election and cease the spewing of hatred and enmity that it has specialized in over the years.
Dr. Haim Shine
I can imagine a similar letter appearing in the United States. That's if the Republicans take the White House, a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and the House of Representatives in 2016.
It's not the economy.
In Israel, fear and overt racial hatreds drew votes to Likud from two smaller Right Wing parties. Overall the right actually lost several seats.
The more mundane Left Wing objections brought a gain of 3 seats to Zionist Union and 2 seats to the Arabs' Joint List. It may not have been enough. Polls and exit polls had indicated a larger response to personal and housing system corruptions, economic imperialism aimed at the Middle Class, and the large increases to the cost of living over the last couple years.
Perpetual War was the Big Kahuna. He came disguised as the Right Wing political parties. Fear of Iran is the new bugaboo. Not until recently was this a major player in Israeli political propaganda.
The Likudnik sense of conquest is based 100% on expectation that that Likud can get the Kulanu Party to come in with them for the new coalition government.
Israel as a mirror of U.S. politics
A similar right wing triumph could happen here, of course. Likud expects to get Kulanu's 10 Knesset seats and control of the government. A Hillary Clinton candidacy could go the way of Michael Dukakis in 1988. His poll numbers were better than Hillary's this far ahead of the election. (Please, Hillary, stay the bloody Hell out of tanks.)
Election results in the United States in recent decades fail so far to reflect consistently either the basics of Middle Class self-preservation or increases to the Hispanic demographic. What goes up, often comes down.
Right Wing dogma has been the most consistent compass point for 35 years now. We have 168 righties of the John Birch Society / Likud stripe sitting as Members in the House of Representatives. They are crazies. What was a fringe world view in the 1950s/1960s/1970s -- a symptom of paranoia and mental disorder -- is now the core politics for a plurality of votes among the four main blocks in that branch of Congress.
Israel in 2015 could be the United States in 2016.
Seeing extremism take over the White House and the Senate in 2016, here, is not far off from seeing the extreme racism and anti-Middle Class economics of Bibi Netanyahu today at the cusp of dominating Israel.
Netanyahu's Likud is their Birch Society. Assuming they do get the Kulanu Party's support, beware that the Likud government is the target for what could happen in the United States 20 months from now.
More on what is happening today in Israel below the fold....