That's- ל ראוד חולשמ
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T h a t ' s A l l F o l k s 2010 - Page no. 2 |
the terror and violence. The regional outbreak died down, the attempt of the Kurds to establish a State in Northern Iraq failed,first due to Iranian intervention, and later due to Turkish intervention. Turkey, which at first consented to the establishment of a homeland for the Kurds on Iraqi soil, renounced its consent, from fear that the Kurdish residents of Turkey would want to be "annexed" to the Kurdish State. In contrast, Iraq underwent rapid rehabilitation by Shi'ite factions which overtook it from the south and from the east. Large segments of the population crossed the border from Iran and settled in Iraq. Nonetheless, its form of government, as always, remained extreme Muslim totalitarianism. Israel, on its part, returned to its old patterns of behavior, fiddling with continuous political and sectorial legislation. The social gap and the violence in society between the Orthodox and secular Jews on the one hand, and between Arabs and Jews on the other hand, only increased. Any attempt to initiate tax reforms was undermined by powerful sectorial lobbies, mainly the Orthodox and agricultural sectors, but also the Arab sector, which discovered its power after unifying ranks under the leadership of Ahmed Kivi. Ahmed Kivi gained prominence as the principal Arab leader among the Arab-Israeli members of parliament. This was done with the overt and public support of Marwan Barghouti, President of the State of Palestine. The disparities in Israeli society continued to increase at a dizzying rate, and the disparities between those parts of the population that contributed to the country and those which only lived off it, increased. If only a few years ago most of the young Israelis who completed their mandatory military service would leave the country to travel abroad for a year or so and then return, today most youths were leaving the country with no intention of returning. If up until several years ago parents would encourage their children to spend time abroad and then return, today they encourage them to leave and settle down abroad. Ads in the newspapers invited citizens of Israel to invest 20 thousand dollars in order to receive the citizenship and passport of esoteric countries around the world. The State of Israel began to become repugnant, strange and distant. Violence and filth were everywhere. Foreign workers, who had multiplied in numbers in recent years, almost completely dominated the southern half of Tel-Aviv and Israelis took pains to avoid those places where they settled. Local authorities, income tax authorities, and National Insurance became more and more destitute in their struggle against the citizens of Israel. Sharon's security achievements had been squandered only a few years after he retired. The balance of power in the right-wing Likud party following Sharon's retirement was between Silvan Shalom and Bibi Netanyahu, who had been Israel's Prime Minister between 1996 and 1999. The latter discovered that his power base in the party core had been completely decimated during the years of Sharon's rule. Moreover, Sharon publicly supported the candidacy of Silvan Shalom as his heir in the Likud. Sporting the victory wreaths of the Sharon government, Silvan Shalom won the battle against Bibi, and then triumphed in the national elections which followed shortly thereafter. Silvan Shalom, being a Sephardic Jew and a well-educated person, managed to woo the Israeli public with his good intentions of leading the country to new political heights and extensive economic reforms, including the declaration of a five-year plan which would lead to the economic independence of the State of Israel. However, Shalom, who won the elections following Sharon's retirement, was unable to overcome the problems and deep rifts of Israeli society. This was particularly exemplified by the rift between the Orthodox parties and Shalom's Likud party. All the attempts of the young Prime Minister to attain an agreed consensus regarding National Service or recruitment of Yeshiva youths (with the pressure of the High Court of Justice) were fruitless. Meir Shitrit, with a "good boy" image, began to contest Silvan Shalom with the purpose of becoming the party leader, thereby creating a new whirlpool of intrigues and barrages of harsh accusations within the Likud party. The Likud party's proud heritage of self-destruction was revived in a series of abrasive verbal incidents and a renewed call from within the Likud for a hawkish right-wing party. To Silvan Shalom's misfortune, at that time, the secular public grew militant due to the increase in the blatant inequality of the distribution of the wealth, on the one hand, and the liabilities, on the other hand. Massive tax strikes of Israeli citizens, whipped into a frenzy by the secular Shinui and Meretz parties, supported by the General Federation of Workers, wreaked great havoc on the Israeli economy. The Israeli leftist bloc helped build the flames by supporting civilian reforms "even if the religious parties disagree". The Israeli leftist bloc, which seemed to have died along with the Oslo peace process, suddenly reared its head, exhibiting new life, and dragged Israel into a virtual culture war between the Orthodox and secular Jews. Under this banner, Avraham Durk triumphed in the following elections, by promising Israel a different country, one striving for peace and reconciliation, a country striving to unify the ranks of the nation. As a religious person with an image of tolerance, Avraham Durk managed to reach the heart of the Orthodox parties, but what convinced them more than anything (as usual) was his overwhelming understanding of their needs. Opposing him was Silvan Shalom, who during his cadence as Prime Minister became extreme in his stance against the religious parties, and who fought over the party leadership with Meir Shitrit with endless defamations until the very day of the election itself. Avraham Durk, who scooped up the votes of the leftist bloc, together with the religious parties, succeeded in winning the elections for Prime Minister by a whisker, a mere fraction of a percentage point. The support offered Avraham Durk by the leader of the Shas party, a party identified with Orthodox Sephardic Jews, only two days before the elections, convinced the other religious parties to join Avraham Durk at the last moment in order to partake of the spoils of government rule. Behind closed doors it was divulged that the Orthodox Jews had Avraham Durk sign a document forbidding him to refer to the return of Jerusalem or its partition, despite the fact that the topic had become irrelevant. The clout of the Arab members of Parliament significantly increased. Ahmed Kivi became the undisputed leader of Israeli Arabs and thus succeeded in unifying the entire Arab sector behind them, which no Arab leader before him had ever succeeded in doing. In the last elections, Ahmed Kivi headed the United Arab Party and also submitted his candidacy for Prime Minister. The increase of the Arab population in Israel, a sweeping vote of the minority sectors together with the protest vote of many Israelis for Ahmed Kivi, led his party, to the astonishment of all, to win twenty-two mandates of the 120 mandates in the Israeli Parliament. That's all folks |
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