Barak and Bibi 'plotting new coalition' to grab power

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Originally uploaded by Tzipi Livni

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Likud Party leader Binyamin Netanyahu are secretly teaming to deny the premiership to the discredited Kadima Party, according to press reports in Jerusalem. The Foreign Minister and ex-Mossad agent Tzipi Livni, pictured here, is heading exit polls tonight and tipped to win the party leadership. Will this dubious duo thwart her ascent and let Bibi grab power? Kadima, which means forward, is not taken aback by the rumors by the rightwing website. It may be wishful thinking on their part. But anything is possible.

Elections were underway Wednesday to determine the next leader of Kadima, replacing the resigning current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Under normal circumstances the winner of the Kadima election would automatically replace Olmert as prime minister and attempt to establish a new parliamentary majority.

But unnamed sources told the Israeli Web site DEBKAfile.com that Barak, a member of the Labor Party, and Netanyahu are having secret discussions to form a Labor-Likud majority coalition and deny the premiership to the next Kadima leader.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz are the favorites to succeed Olmert as Kadima Party leader.

DEBKAfile's sources say under a Barak-Netanyahu deal to be presented to Israel's president, the Likud leader would become prime minister and serve until a general election at the end of next year, and after that would hand off the premiership to Barak.

Israel as New Arcadia: the rich Russian rushin' to power

The Social Justice Party, a brand new right-wing political group launched this week, is the brainchild of the charismatic and flamboyant Russian billionaire, Arcadi Gaydamak. The Ukrainian, who is 54, settled in Israel 35 years ago, and has built up a huge following among Israel's one million Russian emigres. He also supports the interests of the country's Orthodox Jews and Israeli-Arabs, and appeals to the 20 per cent of Israelis who live below the poverty line.
Gaydamak, who owns one of Israel's leading football team, captivates pragmatists who are fed up with the blunders and excuses of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose approval rating is in the single digits. Unsurprisingly, Gaydamak is a close ally of the opposition Likud leader and ex-Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Likud would be one of the main beneficiaries if Mr Gaydamak's party performs well in the next elections, almost guaranteeing Netanyahu's return to the top spot.
Gaydamak does not envision a national role for himself just yet. He wants to be the next mayor of Jerusalem and promote business. "I am the most popular man in Israel," he has boasted, after headline-grabbing stunts like safeguarding the rocket-rattled evacuees of Sderot in tent cities for which he paid out of his own deep pockets. Or proposing to ban pork products from supermarket shelves because selling such meat is "a provocation" to devout Jews and Muslims. (He later wiggled out of the lucrative Tiv Taam supermarket deal when it threatened to erode his political support maong secular Jews and Russian immigrants)
His broad appeal is reflected among the founders of the new Social Justice Party. These include a Bedouin Israeli army officer, the president of an association that helps the handicapped, and a apparatchik from the former Soviet Union. There are some questions looming over his rise to prominence.
Intriguingly, the well-travelled Mr Gaydamak (who alternatively spells his name Arkady Gaidamak!)holds Angolan, Canadian, Israeli and French passports and he doesn't speak a word of Hebrew. Wanted in France in connection with allegations of illegal arms sales to Angola in the early 1990s, Gaydamak emphatically denies any wrongdoing.
His office insists Mr Gaydamak "has not broken any laws in France or elsewhere. In Israel, Arcadi Gaydamak is not the object of any judicial investigations and all rumours are spread by the representatives of the French administration and [Gaydamak's] rivals in business and politics".
He definitely is the dark horse in Israeli politics.

Pointedly hostile

Once the Erez and Rafah crossings reopen, expect thorough security at border checkpoints leading in and out of the locked cage of Gaza. This Reuters wire photo of a Hamas gunman at the ready shows a new use of baggage x-ray machines; presumably it's not a new way to inspect for pointedly obvious weapons.

Although the Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his ilk scolded Israeli pols for allowing the rise of "Hamastan" and now call for an Israeli siege that will cut off Gaza's electricity, fuel, and even water, most Israeli human rights advocates insist that for the 1.5m trapped inside, the misery inflicted would be unacceptable. Food stocks will last less than two weeks

Hardliners scorn Egypt for not halting weapon-smuggling through tunnels into the Strip. They predict that Israel will be blamed for any suffering regardless of its actions, and suggest that in order to eliminate Hamas terror strikes, IDF drones might as well take out anyone inside the enclave who has a weapon. Others sense that the Palestinians' internecine hostilities are not so clear cut by geography, and caution that clandestine Hamas-supporters inside the West Bank will soon resort to assassinations and bombs. It's tense out there.