Today's Situation

Advertisements for themselves, Tuesday, March 07, 2006

For some reason, Israeli political parties seem to think they need a ‘jingle’ for their advertising, and that the most successful ads are either based on humor or a vituperative attack on a rival. The jingles blend into one another like a computer-generated tune made up of many other tunes, and the radio ads at last quickly blurred into what seemed to be one long complaint. The ads, so far, are long on criticism of others, and very short on visions of their own. But presumably, as the coming three weeks of advertising proceed, we will hear responses from parties to attacks on them by other parties.

‘Omri’s diaries,’ which list the names of Likud centea committee members and possible jobs for them, remains a hot button subject, and that’s exactly what Kadima fears. After all, more than anything, Kadima is identified with Sharon, and with Ariel Sharon comatose -- and even Hadassah Hospital’s usually optimistic prognosis for him reduced to ‘decisions will have to be made soon’ about what to do with the fallen premier -- Omri Sharon is the living symbol of the father. But what everyone knew by virtue of rumor -- that Omri had his hands in every ministry and state agency and state company where he could place cronies in exchange for their support for his father -- has now been documented, and by Omri himself.

Both the Kadima and Likud lists include people who have been either convicted in court (Naomi Blumenthal in Likud) or are facing charges (Tzachi Hanegbi in Kadima) and both parties were essentially run by Omri, on behalf of his father. Now both parties are trying to rebuff the almost daily press reports about corruption scandals and doing whatever they can to find something to attack in another party, transparently trying to say ‘this is the system and everyone does it.’ Thus, Kadima was hot and bothered this morning about a report that Labor’s Amir Peretz, speaking at an election rally attended by Histadrut members, called on them for support. Kadima charged Peretz’s appeal for support was ‘corruption’ because, after all, Peretz used to be the chairman of the Histadrut. Besides, both Kadima and Likud politicians Olmert and Netanyahu have long since used the ‘Histadrut’ as a whipping boy, the devil incarnate strangling the Israeli economy.

But all this electioneering is taking a back seat to the big story this morning -- the High Court of Justice has approved an arrangement whereby Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir and his girlfriend cum wife Larissa Trimbobbler can use artificial insemination to make a baby. The current events shows gave a lot of time to discussing the issue, with some arguing that just because Amir committed a heinous crime, it does not mean he should be singled out for special punishment, and others arguing the opposite. Few raised the question how the child to be conceived will be able to have a normal life in Israel, if he or she is known as Amir’s offspring.

That story vastly overshadowed the Gaza assassination yesterday of two Islamic Jihad operatives in an air force missile attack that also killed three children. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Army Radio that ‘of course we regret any innocent loss of life … but the cost benefit of eliminating the terrorists, whether those who launch the Qassams or those who send them to do so, is quite clear. And it is clear to all that we do not target innocents.’ Very few in Israel question the assassination policy, which over the past five years has been used to kill dozens of Palestinians that Israel accused of involvement in terror activity -- and dozens more innocent passersby who happened to be in the vicinity. Mofaz said the assassination policy would continue against ‘all those’ who use terror against us -- and indicated that would include Hamas leaders, if Hamas resumes terrorist activities. Mofaz, by the way, emphasized that Israel must take a wait and see approach to how the Hamas forms a government and what that government does, before making dramatic decisions.

But he supports the decision to use humanitarian groups to funnel funds to the Palestinian people while denying funds -- including some $50 million a month in Palestinian taxes collected by Israel on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf -- to the PA itself. That $50 million a month was used by the PA to pay about 25 percent of the PA payroll every month. Mofaz emphasized that Israel would be holding onto the money for the Palestinians, not confiscating it, and would be ready to hand it over to the PA if Hamas accepts Israel’s three basic demands: recognition of Israel, acceptance of past signed agreements between Israel and the PA, and disarming the Hamas militia. So far, Hamas appears to be refusing to do any of that -- but it has yet to form a government and despite almost daily reports that it is on the verge of doing so, it does not appear to be in any great hurry to do so.

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